robinson crusoe in words of one syllable by mary godolphin preface. the production of a book which is adapted to the use of the youngest readers needs but few words of excuse or apology. the nature of the work seems to be sufficiently explained by the title itself, and the author's task has been chiefly to reduce the ordinary language into words of one syllable. but although, as far as the subject matter is concerned, the book can lay no claims to originality, it is believed that the idea and scope of its construction are entirely novel, for the one syllable literature of the present day furnishes little more than a few short, unconnected sentences, and those chiefly in spelling books. the deep interest which de foe's story has never failed to arouse in the minds of the young, induces the author to hope that it may be acceptable in its present form. it should be stated that exceptions to the rule of using words of one syllable exclusively have been made in the case of the proper names of the boy xury and of the man friday, and in the titles of the illustrations that accompany this work. robinson crusoe. in words of one syllable. i was born at york on the first of march in the sixth year of the reign of king charles the first. from the time when i was quite a young child, i had felt a great wish to spend my life at sea, and as i grew, so did this taste grow more and more strong; till at last i broke loose from my school and home, and found my way on foot to hull, where i soon got a place on board a ship. when we had set sail but a few days, a squall of wind came on, and on the fifth night we sprang a leak. all hands were sent to the pumps, but we felt the ship groan in all her planks, and her beams quake from stem to stern; so that it was soon quite clear there was no hope for her, and that all we could do was to save our lives. the first thing was to fire off guns, to show that we were in need of help, and at length a ship, which lay not far from us, sent a boat to our aid. but the sea was too rough for it to lie near our ship's side, so we threw out a rope, which the men in the boat caught, and made fast, and by this means we all got in. still in so wild a sea it was in vain to try to get on board the ship which had sent out the men, or to use our oars in the boat, and all we could do was to let it drive to shore. in the space of half an hour our own ship struck on a rock and went down, and we saw her no more. we made but slow way to the land, which we caught sight of now and then when the boat rose to the top of some high wave, and there we saw men who ran in crowds, to and fro, all bent on one thing, and that was to save us. at last to our great joy we got on shore, where we had the luck to meet with friends who gave us the means to get back to hull; and if i had now had the good sense to go home, it would have been well for me. the man whose ship had gone down said with a grave look, "young lad, you ought to go to sea no more, it is not the kind, of life for you." "why sir, will you go to sea no more then?" "that is not the same kind of thing; i was bred to the sea, but you were not, and came on board my ship just to find out what a life at sea was like, and you may guess what you will come to if you do not go back to your home. god will not bless you, and it may be that you have brought all this woe on us." i spoke not a word more to him; which way he went i knew not, nor did i care to know, for i was hurt at this rude speech. shall i go home thought i, or shall i go to sea? shame kept me from home, and i could not make up my mind what course of life to take. as it has been my fate through life to choose for the worst, so i did now. i had gold in my purse, and good clothes on my back, and to sea i went once more. but i had worse luck this time than the last, for when we were far out at sea, some turks in a small ship came on our track in full chase. we set as much sail as our yards would bear, so as to get clear from them. but in spite of this, we saw our foes gain on us, and we felt sure that they would come up with our ship in a few hours' time. at last they caught us, but we brought our guns to bear on them, which made them shear off for a time, yet they kept up a fire at us as long as they were in range. the next time the turks came up, some of their men got on board our ship, and set to work to cut the sails, and do us all kinds of harm. so, as ten of our men lay dead, and most of the rest had wounds, we gave in. the chief of the turks took me as his prize to a port which was held by the moors. he did not use me so ill as at first i thought he would have done, but he set me to work with the rest of his slaves. this was a change in my life which i did not think had been in store for me. how my heart sank with grief at the thought of those whom i had left at home, nay, to whom i had not had the grace so much as to say "good bye" when i went to sea, nor to give a hint of what i meant to do! yet all that i went through at this time was but a taste of the toils and cares which it has since been my lot to bear. i thought at first that the turk might take me with him when next he went to sea, and so i should find some way to get free; but the hope did not last long, for at such times he left me on shore to see to his crops. this kind of life i led for two years, and as the turk knew and saw more of me, he made me more and more free. he went out in his boat once or twice a week to catch a kind of flat fish, and now and then he took me and a boy with him, for we were quick at this kind of sport, and he grew quite fond of me. one day the turk sent me in the boat to catch some fish, with no one else but a man and a boy. while we were out so thick a fog came on that though we were out not half a mile from the shore, we quite lost sight of it for twelve hours; and when the sun rose the next day, our boat was at least ten miles out at sea. the wind blew fresh, and we were all much in want of food, but at last, with the help of our oars and sail, we got back safe to land. when the turk heard how we had lost our way, he said that the next time he went out, he would take a boat that would hold all we could want if we were kept out at sea. so he had quite a state room built in the long boat of his ship, as well as a room for us slaves. one day he sent me to trim the boat, as he had two friends who would go in it to fish with him. but when the time came they did not go, so he sent me with the man and the boy--whose name was xury--to catch some fish for the guests that were to sup with him. now the thought struck me all at once that this would be a good chance to set off with the boat, and get free. so in the first place, i took all the food that i could lay my hands on, and i told the man that it would be too bold of us to eat of the bread that had been put in the boat for the turk. he said he thought so too, and he brought down a small sack of rice and some rusks. while the man was on shore i put up some wine, a large lump of wax, a saw, an axe, a spade, some rope, and all sorts of things that might be of use to us. i knew where the turk's case of wine was, and i put that in the boat while the man was on shore. by one more trick i got all that i had need of. i said to the boy, "the turk's guns are in the boat, but there is no shot. do you think you could get some? you know where it is kept, and we may want to shoot a fowl or two." so he brought a case and a pouch which held all that we could want for the guns. these i put in the boat, and then set sail out of the port to fish. the wind blew, from the north, or north west, which was a bad wind for me; for had it been south i could have made for the coast of spain. but, blow which way it might, my mind was made up to get off, and to leave the rest to fate. i then let down my lines to fish, but i took care to have bad sport; and when the fish bit, i would not pull them up, for the moor was not to see them. i said to him, "this will not do, we shall catch no fish here, we ought to sail on a bit." well, the moor thought there was no harm in this. he set the sails, and, as the helm was in my hands, i ran the boat out a mile or more, and then brought her to, as if i meant to fish. now, thought i, the time has come for me to get free! i gave the helm to the boy, and then took the moor round the waist, and threw him out of the boat. down he went! but soon rose up, for he swam like a duck. he said he would go all round the world with me, if i would but take him in. i had some fear lest he should climb up the boat's side, and force his way back; so i brought my gun to point at him, and said, "you can swim to land with ease if you choose, make haste then to get there; but if you come near the boat you shall have a shot through the head, for i mean to be a free man from this hour." he then swam for the shore, and no doubt got safe there, as the sea was so calm. at first i thought i would take the moor with me, and let xury swim to land; but the moor was not a man that i could trust. when he was gone i said to xury, "if you will swear to be true to me, you shall be a great man in time; if not, i must throw you out of the boat too." the poor boy gave me such a sweet smile as he swore to be true to me, that i could not find it in my heart to doubt him. while the man was still in view (for he was on his way to the land), we stood out to sea with the boat, so that he and those that saw us from the shore might think we had gone to the straits' mouth, for no one went to the south coast, as a tribe of men dwelt there who were known to kill and eat their foes. we then bent our course to the east, so as to keep in with the shore; and as we had a fair wind and a smooth sea, by the next day at noon, we were not less than 150 miles out of the reach of the turk. i had still some fear lest i should be caught by the moors, so i would not go on shore in the day time. but when it grew dark we made our way to the coast, and came to the mouth of a stream, from which we thought we could swim to land, and then look round us. but as soon as it was quite dark we heard strange sounds--barks, roars, grunts, and howls. the poor lad said he could not go on shore till dawn. "well," said i, "then we must give it up, but it may be that in the day time we shall be seen by men, who for all we know would do us more harm than wild beasts." "then we give them the shoot gun," said xury with a laugh, "and make them run away." i was glad to see so much mirth in the boy, and gave him some bread and rice. we lay still at night, but did not sleep long, for in a few hours' time some huge beasts came down to the sea to bathe. the poor boy shook from head to foot at the sight. one of these beasts came near our boat, and though it was too dark to see him well, we heard him puff and blow, and knew that he must be a large one by the noise he made. at last the brute came as near to the boat as two oars' length, so i shot at him, and he swam to the shore. the roar and cries set up by beasts and birds at the noise of my gun would seem to show that we had made a bad choice of a place to land on; but be that as it would, to shore we had to go to find some fresh spring, so that we might fill our casks. xury said if i would let him go with one of the jars, he would find out if the springs were fit to drink; and, if they were sweet, he would bring the jar back full. "why should you go?" said i; "why should not i go, and you stay in the boat?" at this xury said, "if wild mans come they eat me, you go way." i could not but love the lad for this kind speech. "well," said i, "we will both go, and if the wild men come we must kill them, they shall not eat you or me." i gave xury some rum from the turk's case to cheer him up, and we went on shore. the boy went off with his gun, full a mile from the spot where we stood, and came back with a hare that he had shot, which we were glad to cook and eat; but the good news which he brought was that he had found a spring, and had seen no wild men. i made a guess that the cape de verd isles were not far off, for i saw the top of the great peak, which i knew was near them. my one hope was that if i kept near the coast, i should find some ship that would take us on board; and then, and not till then, should i feel a free man. in a word, i put the whole of my fate on this chance, that i must meet with some ship, or die. on the coast we saw some men who stood to look at us. they were black, and wore no clothes. i would have gone on shore to them, but xury--who knew best--said, "not you go! not you go!" so i brought the boat as near the land as i could, that i might talk to them, and they kept up with me a long way. i saw that one of them had a lance in his hand. i made signs that they should bring me some food, and they on their part made signs for me to stop my boat. so i let down the top of my sail, and lay by, while two of them ran off; and in less than half an hour they came back with some dry meat and a sort of corn which is grown in this part of the world. this we should have been glad to get, but knew not how to do so; for we durst not go on shore to them, nor did they dare to come to us. at last they took a safe way for us all, for they brought the food to the shore, where they set it, down, and then went a long way off while we took it in. we made signs to show our thanks, for we had not a thing that we could spare to give them. but as good luck would have it, we were at hand to take a great prize for them; for two wild beasts, of the same kind as the first i spoke of, came in, full chase from the hills down to the sea. they swam as if they had come for sport. the men flew from them in fear, all but the one who held the lance. one of these beasts came near our boat; so i lay in wait for him with my gun; and as soon as the brute was in range, i shot him through the head. twice he sank down in the sea, and twice he came up; and then just swam to the land, where he fell down dead. the men were in as much fear at the sound of my gun, as they had been at the sight of the beasts. but when i made signs for them to come to the shore, they took heart, and came. they at once made for their prize; and by the help of a rope, which they slung round him, they brought him safe on the beach. we now left our wild men, and went on and on, for twelve days more. the land in front of us ran out four or five miles, like a bill; and we had to keep some way from the coast, to make this point, so that we lost sight of the shore. i gave the helm to xury and sat down to think what would be my best course to take: when all at once i heard the lad cry out "a ship with a sail! a ship with a sail!" he did not show much joy at the sight, for he thought that this ship had been sent out to take him back: but i knew well, from the look of her, that she was not one of the turk's. i made all the sail i could to come in the ship's way, and told xury to fire a gun, in the hope that if those on deck could not hear the sound, they might see the smoke. this they did see, and then let down their sails so that we might come up to them, and in three hours time we were at the ship's side. the men spoke to us in french, but i could not make out what they meant. at last a scot on board said in my own tongue, "who are you? whence do you come?" i told him in a few words how i had got free from the moors. then the man who had charge of the ship bade me come on board, and took me in with xury and all my goods. i told him that he might take all i had, but he said "you shall have your goods back when we come to land, for i have but done for you what you would have done for me, had i been in the same plight." he gave me a good round sum for my boat, and said that i should have the same sum for xury, if i would part with him. but i told him that as it was by the boy's help that i had got free, i was loath to sell him. he said it was just and right in me to feel thus, but at the same time, if i could make up my mind to part with him, he should be set free in two years' time. so, as the poor slave had a wish to go with him, i did not say "no." i got to all saints' bay in three weeks, and was now a free man. i had made a good sum by all my store, and with this i went on land. but i did not at all know what to do next. at length i met with a man whose case was much the same as my own, and we both took some land to farm. my stock, like his, was low, but we made our farms serve to keep us in food, though not more than that. we both stood in need of help, and i saw now that i had done wrong to part with my boy. i did not at all like this kind of life. what! thought i, have i come all this way to do that which i could have done as well at home with my friends round me! and to add to my grief, the kind friend, who had brought me here in his ship, now meant to leave these shores. on my first start to sea when a boy, i had put a small sum in the hands of an aunt, and this my friend said i should do well to spend on my farm. so when he got home he sent some of it in cash, and laid out the rest in cloth, stuffs, baize, and such like goods. my aunt had put a few pounds in my friend's hands as a gift to him, to show her thanks for all that he had done for me, and with this sum he was so kind as to buy me a slave. in the mean time i had bought a slave, so now i had two, and all went on well for the next year. but soon my plans grew too large for my means. one day some men came to ask me to take charge of a slave ship to be sent out by them. they said they would give me a share in the slaves, and pay the cost of the stock. this would have been a good thing for me if i had not had farms and land; but it was wild and rash to think of it now, for i had made a large sum, and ought to have gone on in the same way for three or four years more. well, i told these men that i would go with all my heart, if they would look to my farm in the mean time, which they said they would do. so i made my will, and went on board this ship on the same day on which, eight years since, i had left hull. she had six guns, twelve men, and a boy. we took with us saws, chains, toys, beads, bits of glass, and such like ware, to suit the taste of those with whom we had to trade. we were not more than twelve days from the line, when a high wind took us off we knew not where. all at once there was a cry of "land!" and the ship struck on a bank of sand, in which she sank so deep that we could not get her off. at last we found that we must make up our minds to leave her, and get to shore as well as we could. there had been a boat at her stern, but we found it had been torn off by the force of the waves. one small boat was still left on the ship's side, so we got in it. there we were all of us on the wild sea. the heart of each now grew faint, our cheeks were pale, and our eyes were dim, for there was but one hope, and that was to find some bay, and so get in the lee of the land. we now gave up our whole souls to god. the sea grew more and more rough, and its white foam would curl and boil. at last the waves, in their wild sport, burst on the boat's side, and we were all thrown out. i could swim well, but the force of the waves made me lose my breath too much to do so. at length one large wave took me to the shore, and left me high and dry, though half dead with fear. i got on my feet and made the best of my way for the land; but just then the curve of a huge wave rose up as high as a hill, and this i had no strength to keep from, so it took me back to the sea. i did my best to float on the top, and held my breath to do so. the next wave was quite as high, and shut me up in its bulk. i held my hands down tight to my side, and then my head shot out at the top of the waves. this gave me heart and breath too, and soon my feet felt the ground. i stood quite still for a short time, to let the sea run back from me, and then i set off with all my might to the shore, but yet the waves caught me, and twice more did they take me back, and twice more land me on the shore. i thought the last wave would have been the death of me, for it drove me on a piece of rock, and with such force, as to leave me in a kind of swoon, which, thank god, did not last long. at length, to my great joy, i got up to the cliffs close to the shore, where i found some grass, out of the reach of the sea. there, i sat down, safe on land at last. i could but cry out in the words of the psalm, "they that go down to the sea in ships, these men see the works of the lord in the deep. for at his word the storms rise, the winds blow, and lift up the waves; then do they mount to the sky, and from thence go down to the deep. my soul faints, i reel to and fro, and am at my wit's end: then the lord brings me out of all my fears." i felt so wrapt in joy, that all i could do was to walk up and down the coast, now lift up my hands, now fold them on my breast, and thank god for all that he had done for me, when the rest of the men were lost. all lost but i, and i was safe! i now cast my eyes round me, to find out what kind of a place it was that i had been thus thrown in, like a bird in a storm. then all the glee i felt at first left me; for i was wet and cold, and had no dry clothes to put on, no food to eat and not a friend to help me. there were wild beasts here, but i had no gun to shoot them with, or to keep me from their jaws. i had but a knife and a pipe. it now grew dark; and where was i to go for the night? i thought the top of some high tree would be a good place to keep me out of harm's way; and that there i might sit and think of death, for, as yet, i had no hopes of life. well, i went to my tree, and made a kind of nest to sleep in. then i cut a stick to keep off the beasts of prey, in case they should come, and fell to sleep just as if the branch i lay on had been a bed of down. when i woke up it was broad day; the sky too was clear and the sea calm. but i saw from the top of the tree that in the night the ship had left the bank of sand, and lay but a mile from me; while the boat was on the beach, two miles on my right. i went some way down by the shore, to get to the boat; but an arm of the sea, half a mile broad, kept me from it. at noon, the tide went a long way out, so that i could get near the ship; and here i found that if we had but made up our minds to stay on board, we should all have been safe. i shed tears at the thought, for i could not help it; yet, as there was no use in that, it struck me that the best thing for me to do was to swim to the ship. i soon threw off my clothes, took to the sea, and swam up to the wreck. but how was i to get on deck? i had swam twice round the ship, when a piece of rope, caught my eye, which hung down from her side so low, that at first the waves hid it. by the help of this rope i got on board. i found that there was a bulge in the ship, and that she had sprung a leak. you may be sure that my first thought was to look round for some food, and i soon made my way to the bin, where the bread was kept, and ate some of it as i went to and fro, for there was no time to lose. there was, too, some rum, of which i took a good draught, and this gave me heart. what i stood most in need of, was a boat to take the goods to shore. but it was vain to wish for that which could not be had; and as there were some spare yards in the ship, two or three large planks of wood, and a spare mast or two, i fell to work with these, to make a raft. i put four spars side by side, and laid short bits of plank on them, cross ways, to make my raft strong. though these planks would bear my own weight, they were too slight to bear much of my freight. so i took a saw which was on board, and cut a mast in three lengths, and these gave great strength to the raft. i found some bread and rice, a dutch cheese, and some dry goat's flesh. there had been some wheat, but the rats had got at it, and it was all gone. my next task was to screen my goods from the spray of the sea; and it did not take me long to do this, for there were three large chests on board which held all, and these i put on the raft. when the high tide came up it took off my coat and shirt, which i had left on the shore; but there were some fresh clothes in the ship. "see here is a prize!" said i, out loud, (though there were none to hear me), "now i shall not starve." for i found four large guns. but how was my raft to be got to land? i had no sail, no oars; and a gust of wind would make all my store slide off. yet there were three things which i was glad of; a calm sea, a tide which set in to the shore, and a slight breeze to blow me there. i had the good luck to find some oars in a part of the ship, in which i had made no search till now. with these i put to sea, and for half a mile my raft went well; but soon i found it drove to one side. at length i saw a creek, to which, with some toil, i took my raft; and now the beach was so near, that i felt my oar touch the ground. here i had well nigh lost my freight, for the shore lay on a slope, so that there was no place to land on, save where one end of the raft would lie so high, and one end so low, that all my goods would fall off. to wait till the tide came up was all that could be done. so when the sea was a foot deep, i thrust the raft on a flat piece of ground, to moor her there, and stuck my two oars in the sand, one on each side of the raft. thus i let her lie till the ebb of the tide, and when it went down, she was left safe on land with all her freight. i saw that there were birds on the isle, and i shot one of them. mine must have been the first gun that had been heard there since the world was made; for at the sound of it, whole flocks of birds flew up, with loud cries, from all parts of the wood. the shape of the beak of the one i shot was like that of a hawk, but the claws were not so large. i now went back to my raft to land my stores, and this took up the rest of the day. what to do at night i knew not, nor where to find a safe place to land my stores on. i did not like to lie down on the ground, for fear of beasts of prey, as well as snakes, but there was no cause for these fears, as i have since found. i put the chests and boards round me as well as i could, and made a kind of hut for the night. as there was still a great store of things left in the ship, which would be of use to me, i thought that i ought to bring them to land at once; for i knew that the first storm would break up the ship. so i went on board, and took good care this time not to load my raft too much. the first thing, i sought for was the tool chest; and in it were some bags of nails, spikes, saws, knives, and such things: but best of all i found a stone to grind my tools on. there were two or three flasks, some large bags of shot, and a roll of lead; but this last i had not the strength to hoist up to the ship's side, so as to get it on my raft. there were some spare sails too which i brought to shore. i had some fear lest my stores might be run off with by beasts of prey, if not by men; but i found all safe and sound when i went back, and no one had come there but a wild cat, which sat on one of the chests. when i came up i held my gun at her, but as she did not know what a gun was, this did not rouse her. she ate a piece of dry goat's flesh, and then took her leave. now that i had two freights of goods at hand, i made a tent with the ship's sails, to stow them in, and cut the poles for it from the wood. i now took all the things out of the casks and chests, and put the casks in piles round the tent, to give it strength; and when this was done, i shut up the door with the boards, spread one of the beds (which i had brought from the ship) on the ground, laid two guns close to my head, and went to bed for the first time. i slept all night, for i was much in need of rest. the next day i was sad and sick at heart, for i felt how dull it was to be thus cut off from all the rest of the world. i had no great wish for work: but there was too much to be done for me to dwell long on my sad lot. each day as it came, i went off to the wreck to fetch more things; and i brought back as much as the raft would hold. one day i had put too great a load on the raft, which made it sink down on one side, so that the goods were lost in the sea; but at this i did not fret, as the chief part of the freight was some rope, which would not have been of much use to me. the twelve days that i had been in the isle were spent in this way, and i had brought to land all that one pair of hands could lift; though if the sea had been still calm, i might have brought the whole ship, piece by piece. the last time i swam to the wreck, the wind blew so hard, that i made up my mind to go on board next time at low tide. i found some tea and some gold coin; but as to the gold, it made me laugh to look at it. "o drug!" said i, "thou art of no use to me! i care not to save thee. stay where thou art, till the ship go down, then go thou with it!" still, i thought i might as well just take it; so i put it in a piece of the sail, and threw it on deck that i might place it on the raft. bye-and-bye, the wind blew from the shore, so i had to swim back with all speed; for i knew that at the turn of the tide, i should find it hard work to get to land at all. but in spite of the high wind, i came to my home all safe. at dawn of day i put my head out, and cast my eyes on the sea. when lo! no ship was there! this change in the face of things, and the loss of such a friend, quite struck me down. yet i was glad to think that i had brought to shore all that could be of use to me. i had now to look out for some spot where i could make my home. half way up a hill there was a small plain, four or five score feet long, and twice as broad; and as it had a full view of the sea, i thought that it would be a good place for my house. i first dug a trench round a space which took in twelve yards; and in this i drove two rows of stakes, till they stood firm like piles, five and a half feet from the ground. i made the stakes close and tight with bits of rope; and put small sticks on the top of them in the shape of spikes. this made so strong a fence that no man or beast could get in. the door of my house was on the top, and i had to climb up to it by steps, which i took in with me, so that no one else might come up by the same way. close to the back of the house stood a high rock, in which i made a cave, and laid all the earth that i had dug out of it round my house, to the height of a foot and a half. i had to go out once a day in search of food. the first time, i saw some goats, but they were too shy and swift of foot, to let me get near them. at last i lay in wait for them close to their own haunts. if they saw me in the vale, though they might be on high ground, they would run off, wild with fear; but if they were in the vale, and i on high ground, they took no heed of me. the first goat i shot had a kid by her side, and when the old one fell, the kid stood near her, till i took her off on my back, and then the young one ran by my side. i put down the goat, and brought the kid home to tame it; but as it was too young to feed, i had to kill it. at first i thought that, for the lack of pen and ink, i should lose all note of time; so i made a large post, in the shape of a cross, on which i cut these words, "i came on these shores on the 8th day of june, in the year 1659" on the side of this post i made a notch each day as it came, and this i kept up till the last. i have not yet said a word of my four pets, which were two cats, a dog, and a bird. you may guess how fond i was of them, for they were all the friends left to me. i brought the dog and two cats from the ship. the dog would fetch things for me at all times, and by his bark, his whine, his growl, and his tricks, he would all but talk to me; yet he could not give me thought for thought. if i could but have had some one near me to find fault with, or to find fault with me, what a treat it would have been! now that i had brought ink from the ship, i wrote down a sketch of each day as it came; not so much to leave to those who might read it, when i was dead and gone, as to get rid of my own thoughts, and draw me from the fears which all day long dwelt on my mind, till my head would ache with the weight of them. i was a long way out of the course of ships: and oh, how dull it was to be cast on this lone spot with no one to love, no one to make me laugh, no one to make me weep, no one to make me think. it was dull to roam, day by day, from the wood to the shore; and from the shore back to the wood, and feed on my own thoughts all the while. so much for the sad view of my case; but like most things it had a bright side as well as a dark one. for here was i safe on land, while all the rest of the ship's crew were lost. well, thought i, god who shapes our ways, and led me by the hand then, can save me from this state now, or send some one to be with me; true, i am cast on a rough and rude part of the globe, but there are no beasts of prey on it to kill or hurt me. god has sent the ship so near to me, that i have got from it all things to meet my wants for the rest of my days. let life be what it may, there is sure to be much to thank god for; and i soon gave up all dull thoughts, and did not so much as look out for a sail. my goods from the wreck had been in the cave for more than ten months; and it was time now to put them right, as they took up all the space, and left me no room to turn in: so i made my small cave a large one, and dug it out a long way back in the sand rock. then i brought the mouth of it up to the fence, and so made a back way to my house. this done, i put shelves on each side, to hold my goods, which made my cave look like a shop full of stores. to make these shelves i cut down a tree, and with the help of a saw, an axe, a plane, and some more tools, i made boards. a chair, and a desk to write on, came next. i rose in good time, and set to work till noon, then i ate my meal, then i went out with my gun, and to work once more till the sun had set; and then to bed. it took me more than a week to change the shape and size of my cave, but i had made it far too large; for in course of time the earth fell in from the roof; and had i been in it, when this took place, i should have lost my life. i had now to set up posts in my cave, with planks on the top of them, so as to make a roof of wood. one day, when out with my gun, i shot a wild cat, the skin of which made me a cap; and i found some birds of the dove tribe, which built their nests in the holes of rocks. i had to go to bed at dusk, till i made a lamp of goat's fat, which i put in a clay dish; and this, with a piece of hemp for a wick, made a good light. as i had found a use for the bag which had held the fowl's food on board ship, i shook out from it the husks of corn. this was just at the time when the great rains fell, and in the course of a month, blades of rice, corn, and rye, sprang up. as time went by, and the grain was ripe, i kept it, and took care to sow it each year; but i could not boast of a crop of wheat, as will be shown bye-and-bye, for three years. a thing now took place on the isle, which no one could have dreamt of, and which struck me down with fear. it was this--the ground shook with great force, which threw down earth from the rock with a loud crash--once more there was a shock--and now the earth fell from the roof of my cave. the sea did not look the same as it had done, for the shocks were just as strong there as on land. the sway of the earth made me feel sick; and there was a noise and a roar all around me. the same kind of shock came a third time; and when it had gone off, i sat quite still on the ground, for i knew not what to do. then the clouds grew dark, the wind rose, trees were torn up by the roots, the sea was a mass of foam and froth, and a great part of the isle was laid waste with the storm. i thought that the world had come to an end. in three hours' time all was calm; but rain fell all that night, and a great part of the next day. now, though quite worn out, i had to move my goods which were in the cave, to some safe place. i knew that tools would be my first want, and that i should have to grind mine on the stone, as they were blunt and worn with use. but as it took both hands to hold the tool, i could not turn the stone; so i made a wheel by which i could move it with my foot. this was no small task, but i took great pains with it, and at length it was done. the rain fell for some days and a cold chill came on me; in short i was ill. i had pains in my head, and could get no sleep at night, and my thoughts were wild and strange. at one time i shook with cold, and then a hot fit came on, with faint sweats, which would last six hours at a time. ill as i was, i had to go out with my gun to get food. i shot a goat, but it was a great toil to bring it home, and still more to cook it. i spent the next day in bed, and felt half dead from thirst, yet too weak to stand up to get some drink. i lay and wept like a child. "lord look on me! lord look on me!" would i cry for hours. at last the fit left me, and i slept, and did not wake till dawn. i dreamt that i lay on the ground, and saw a man come down from a great black cloud in a flame of light. when he stood on the earth, it shook as it had done a few days since; and all the world to me was full of fire. he came up and said "as i see that all these things have not brought thee to pray, now thou shalt die." then i woke, and found it was a dream. weak and faint, i was in dread all day lest my fit should come on. too ill to get out with my gun, i sat on the shore to think, and thus ran my thoughts: "what is this sea which is all round me? and whence is it? there can be no doubt that the hand that made it, made the air, the earth, the sky. and who is that? it is god who hath made all things. well then, if god hath made all things, it must be he who guides them; and if so, no one thing in the whole range of his works can take place, and he not know it. then god must know how sick and sad i am, and he wills me to be here. o, why hath god done this to me!" then some voice would seem to say, "dost thou ask why god hath done this to thee? ask why thou wert not shot by the moors, who came on board the ship, and took the lives of thy mates. ask why thou wert not torn by the beasts of prey on the coasts. ask why thou didst not go down in the deep sea with the rest of the crew, but didst come to this isle, and art safe." a sound sleep then fell on me, and when i woke it must have been three o'clock the next day, by the rays of the sun: nay, it may have been more than that; for i think that this must have been the day that i did not mark on my post, as i have since found that there was one notch too few. i now took from my store the book of god's word, which i had brought from the wreck, not one page, of which i had yet read. my eyes fell on five words, that would seem to have been put there for my good at this time; so well did they cheer my faint hopes, and touch the true source of my fears. they were these: "i will not leave thee." and they have dwelt in my heart to this day. i laid down the book, to pray. my cry was "o, lord, help me to love and learn thy ways." this was the first time in all my life that i had felt a sense that god was near, and heard me. as for my dull life here, it was not worth a thought; for now a new strength had come to me; and there was a change in my griefs, as well as in my joys. i had now been in the isle twelve months, and i thought it was time to go all round it, in search of its woods, springs, and creeks. so i set off, and brought back with me limes and grapes in their prime, large and ripe. i had hung the grapes in the sun to dry, and in a few days' time went to fetch them, that i might lay up a store. the vale, on the banks of which they grew, was fresh and green, and a clear, bright stream ran through it, which gave so great a charm to the spot, as to make me wish to live there. but there was no view of the sea from this vale, while from my house, no ships could come on my side of the isle, and not be seen by me; yet the cool, soft banks were so sweet and new to me that much of my time was spent there. in the first of the three years in which i had grown corn, i had sown it too late; in the next, it was spoilt by the drought; but the third years' crop had sprung up well. i found that the hares would lie in it night and day, for which there was no cure but to plant a thick hedge all round it; and this took me more than three weeks to do. i shot the hares in the day time; and when it grew dark, i made fast the dog's chain to the gate, and there he stood to bark all night. in a short time the corn grew strong, and at last ripe but, just as the hares had hurt it in the blade, so now the birds ate it in the ear. at the noise of my gun, whole flocks of them would fly up; and at this rate i saw that there would be no corn left; so i made up my mind to keep a look out night and day. i hid by the side of a hedge, and could see the birds sit on the trees and watch, and then come down, one by one, at first. now each grain of wheat was, as it were, a small loaf of bread to me. so the great thing was to get rid of these birds. my plan was this, i shot three, and hung them up, like thieves, to scare all that came to the corn; and from this time, as long as the dead ones hung there, not a bird came near. when the corn was ripe, i made a scythe out of the swords from the ship, and got in my crop. few of us think of the cost at which a loaf of bread is made. of course, there was no plough here to turn up the earth, and no spade to dig it with, so i made one with wood; but this was soon worn out, and for want of a rake, i made use of the bough of a tree. when i had got the corn home, i had to thrash it, part the grain from the chaff, and store it up. then came the want of a mill to grind it, of sieves to clean it, and of yeast to make bread of it. still, my bread was made, though i had no tools; and no one could say that i did not earn it, by the sweat of my brow. when the rain kept me in doors, it was good fun to teach my pet bird poll to talk; but so mute were all things round me, that the sound of my own voice made me start. my chief wants now were jars, pots, cups, and plates, but i knew not how i could make them. at last i went in search of some clay, and found some a mile from my house; but it was quite a joke to see the queer shapes and forms that i made out of it. for some of my pots and jars were too weak to bear their own weight; and they would fall out here, and in there, in all sorts of ways; while some, when they were put in the sun to bake, would crack with the heat of its rays. you may guess what my joy was when at last a pot was made which would stand the heat of the fire, so that i could boil the meat for broth. the next thing to be made was a sieve, to part the grain from the husks. goat's hair was of no use to me, as i could not weave or spin; so i made a shift for two years with a thin kind of stuff, which i had brought from the ship. but to grind the corn with the stones was the worst of all, such hard work did i find it. to bake the bread i burnt some wood down to an ash, which i threw on the hearth to heat it, and then set my loaves on the hearth, and in this way my bread was made. the next thing to turn my thoughts to was the ship's boat, which lay on the high ridge of sand, where it had been thrust by the storm which had cast me on these shores. but it lay with the keel to the sky, so i had to dig the sand from it, and turn it up with the help of a pole. when i had done this i found it was all in vain, for i had not the strength to launch it. so all i could do now, was to make a boat of less size out of a tree; and i found one that was just fit for it, which grew not far from the shore, but i could no more stir this than i could the ship's boat. what was to be done? i first dug the ground flat and smooth all the way from the boat to the sea, so as to let it slide down; but this plan did not turn out well, so i thought i would try a new way, which was to make a trench, so as to bring the sea up to the boat, as the boat could not be brought to the sea. but to do this, i must have dug down to a great depth, which would take one man some years to do. and when too late, i found it was not wise to work out a scheme, till i had first thought of the cost and toil. "well," thought i, "i must give up the boat, and with it all my hopes to leave the isle. but i have this to think of: i am lord of the whole isle; in fact, a king. i have wood with which i might build a fleet, and grapes, if not corn, to freight it with, though all my wealth is but a few gold coins." for these i had no sort of use, and could have found it in my heart to give them all for a peck of peas and some ink, which last i stood much in need of. but it was best to dwell more on what i had, than on what i had not. i now must needs try once more to build a boat, but this time it was to have a mast, for which the ship's sails would be of great use. i made a deck at each end, to keep out the spray of the sea, a bin for my food, and a rest for my gun, with a flap to screen it from the wet. more than all, the boat was one of such a size that i could launch it. my first cruise was up and down the creek, but soon i got bold, and made the whole round of my isle. i took with me bread, cakes, and a pot full of rice, some rum, half a goat, two great coats, one of which was to lie on, and one to put on at night. i set sail in the sixth year of my reign. on the east side of the isle, there was a large ridge of rocks, which lay two miles from the shore; and a shoal of sand lay for half a mile from the rocks to the beach. to get round to this point, i had to sail a great way out to sea; and here i all but lost my life. but i got back to my home at last. on my way there, quite worn out with the toils of the boat, i lay down in the shade to rest my limbs, and slept. but judge, if you can, what a start i gave, when a voice woke me out of my sleep, and spoke my name three times! a voice in this wild place! to call me by name, too! then the voice said, "where are you? where have you been? how came you here?" but now i saw it all; for at the top of the hedge sat poll, who did but say the words she had been taught by me. i now went in search of some goats, and laid snares for them, with rice for a bait i had set the traps in the night, and found they had all stood, though the bait was gone. so i thought of a new way to take them, which was to make a pit and lay sticks and grass on it, so as to hide it; and in this way i caught an old goat and some kids. but the old goat was much too fierce for me, so i let him go. i brought all the young ones home, and let them fast a long time, till at last they fed from my hand, and were quite tame. i kept them in a kind of park, in which there were trees to screen them from the sun. at first my park was three miles round; but it struck me that, in so great a space, the kids would soon get as wild as if they had the range of the whole vale, and that it would be as well to give them less room; so i had to make a hedge which took me three months to plant. my park held a flock of twelve goats, and in two years more there were more than two score. my dog sat at meals with me, and one cat on each side of me, on stools, and we had poll to talk to us. now for a word or two as to the dress in which i made a tour round the isle. i could but think how droll it would look in the streets of the town in which i was born. i wore a high cap of goat's skin, with a flap that hung, down, to keep the sun and rain from my neck, a coat made from the skin of a goat too, the skirts of which came down to my hips, and the same on my legs, with no shoes, but flaps of the fur round my shins. i had a broad belt of the same round my waist, which drew on with two thongs; and from it, on my right side, hung a saw and an axe; and on my left side a pouch for the shot. my beard had not been cut since i came here. but no more need be said of my looks, for there were few to see me. a strange sight was now in store for me, which was to change the whole course of my life in the isle. one day at noon, while on a stroll down to a part of the shore that was new to me, what should i see on the sand but the print of a man's foot! i felt as if i was bound by a spell, and could not stir from, the spot. bye-and-bye, i stole a look round me, but no one was in sight, what could this mean? i went three or four times to look at it. there it was--the print of a man's foot; toes, heel, and all the parts of a foot. how could it have come there? my head swam with fear; and as i left the spot, i made two or three steps, and then took a look round me; then two steps more, and did the same thing. i took fright at the stump of an old tree, and ran to my house, as if for my life. how could aught in the shape of a man come to that shore, and i not know it? where was the ship that brought him? then a vague dread took hold of my mind, that some man, or set of men, had found me out; and it might be, that they meant to kill me, or rob me of all i had. how strange a thing is the life of man! one day we love that which the next day we hate. one day we seek what the next day we shun. one day we long for the thing which the next day we fear; and so we go on. now, from the time that i was cast on this isle, my great source of grief was that i should be thus cut off from the rest of my race. why, then, should the thought that a man might be near give me all this pain? nay, why should the mere sight of the print of a man's foot, make me quake with fear? it seems most strange; yet not more strange than true. once it struck me that it might be the print of my own foot, when first the storm cast me on these shores. could i have come this way from the boat? should it in truth turn out to be the print of my own foot, i should be like a boy who tells of a ghost, and feels more fright at his own tale, than those do whom he meant to scare. fear kept me in-doors for three days, till the want of food drove me out. at last i was so bold as to go down to the coast to look once more at the print of the foot, to see if it was the same shape as my own. i found it was not so large by a great deal; so it was clear there were men in the isle. just at this time my good watch dog fell down dead at my feet. he was old and worn out, and in him i lost my best guard and friend. one day as i went from the hill to the coast, a scene lay in front of me which made me sick at heart. the spot was spread with the bones of men. there was a round place dug in the earth, where a fire had been made, and here some men had come to feast. now that i had seen this sight, i knew not how to act; i kept close to my home, and would scarce stir from it, save to milk my flock of goats. to feel safe was now more to me than to be well fed; and i did not care to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood, lest the sound of it should be heard, much less would i fire a gun. as to my bread and meat, i had to bake it at night when the smoke could not be seen. but i soon found the way to burn wood with turf at the top of it, which made it like chark, or dry coal; and this i could use by day, as it had no smoke. i found in the wood where i went to get the sticks for my fire, a cave so large that i could stand in it; but i made more haste to get out, than in; for two large eyes, as bright as stars, shone out from it with a fierce glare. i took a torch, and went to see what they could be, and found that there was no cause for fear; for the eyes were those of an old gray goat, which had gone there to die of old age. i gave him a push, to try to get him out of the cave, but he could not rise from the ground where he lay; so i left him there to die, as i could not save his life. i found the width of the cave was twelve feet; but part of it, near the end, was so low that i had to creep on my hands and feet to go in. what the length of it was i could not tell, for my light went out, and i had to give up my search. the next day, i went to the cave with large lights made of goat's fat; and when i got to the end, i found that the roof rose to two score feet or more. as my lights shone on the walls and roof of the cave, a sight burst on my view, the charms of which no tongue could tell; for the walls shone like stars. what was in the rock to cause this it was hard to say; they might be gems, or bright stones, or gold. but let them be what they may, this cave was a mine of wealth to me; for at such time as i felt dull or sad, the bright scene would flash on my mind's eye, and fill it with joy. a score of years had gone by, with no new sight to rest my eyes on, till this scene burst on them. i felt as if i should like to spend the rest of my life here; and at its close, lie down to die in this cave, like the old goat. as i went home i was struck by the sight of some smoke, which came from a fire no more than two miles off. from this time i lost all my peace of mind. day and night a dread would haunt me, that the men who had made this fire would find me out. i went home and drew up my steps, but first i made all things round me look wild and rude. to load my gun was the next thing to do, and i thought it would be best to stay at home and hide. but this was not to be borne long. i had no spy to send out and all i could do was to get to the top of the hill, and keep a good look out. at last, through my glass, i could see a group of wild men join in a dance round their fire. as soon a they had left, i took two guns, and slung a sword on my side; then with all speed, i set off to the top of the hill, once more to have a good view. this time i made up my mind to go up to the men, but not with a view to kill them, for i felt that it would be wrong to do so. with such a load of arms, it took me two hours to reach the spot where the fire was; and by the time i got there, the men had all gone; but i saw them in four boats out at sea. down on the shore, there was a proof of what the work of these men had been. the signs of their feast made me sick at heart, and i shut my eyes. i durst not fire my gun when i went out for food on that side the isle, lest there should be some of the men left, who might hear it, and so find me out. this state of things went on for a year and three months, and for all that time i saw no more men. on the twelfth of may, a great storm of wind blew all day and night. as it was dark, i sat in my house; and in the midst of the gale, i heard a gun fire! my guess was that it must have been from some ship cast on shore by the storm. so i set a light to some wood on top of the hill, that those in the ship, if ship it should be, might know that some one was there to aid them. i then heard two more guns fire. when it was light, i went to the south side of the isle, and there lay the wreck of a ship, cast on the rocks in the night by the storm. she was too far off for me to see if there were men on board. words could not tell how much i did long to bring but one of the ship's crew to the shore! so strong was my wish to save the life of those on board, that i could have laid down my own life to do so. there are some springs in the heart which, when hope stirs them, drive the soul on with such a force, that to lose all chance of the thing one hopes for, would seem to make one mad; and thus was it with me. now, i thought, was the time to use my boat; so i set to work at once to fit it out. i took on board some rum (of which i still had a good deal left), some dry grapes, a bag of rice, some goat's milk, and cheese, and then put out to sea. a dread came on me at the thought of the risk i had run on the same rocks; but my heart did not quite fail me, though i knew that, as my boat was small, if a gale of wind should spring up, all would be lost. then i found that i must go back to the shore till the tide should turn, and the ebb come on. i made up my mind to go out the next day with the high tide, so i slept that night in my boat. at dawn i set out to sea, and in less than two hours i came up to the wreck. what a scene was there! the ship had struck on two rocks. the stern was torn by the force of the waves, the masts were swept off, ropes and chains lay strewn on the deck, and all was wrapt in gloom. as i came up to the wreck, a dog swam to me with a yelp and a whine. i took him on board my boat, and when i gave him some bread he ate it like a wolf, and as to drink, he would have burst, if i had let him take his fill of it. i went to the cook's room, where i found two men, but they were both dead. the tongue was mute, the ear was deaf, the eye was shut, and the lip was stiff; still the sad tale was told, for each had his arm round his friend's neck, and so they must have sat to wait for death. what a change had come on the scene, once so wild with the lash of the waves and the roar of the wind! all was calm now--death had done its work, and all had felt its stroke, save the dog, and he was the one thing that still had life. i thought the ship must have come from spain, and there was much gold on board. i took some of the chests and put them in my boat, but did not wait to see what they held, and with this spoil, and three casks of rum, i came back. i found all things at home just as i had left them, my goats, my cats, and my bird. the scene in the cook's room was in my mind day and night, and to cheer me up i drank some of the rum. i then set to work to bring my freight from the shore, where i had left it. in the chests were two great bags of gold, and some bars of the same, and near these lay three small flasks and three bags of shot which were a great prize. from this time, all went well with me for two years; but it was not to last. one day, as i stood on the hill, i saw six boats on the shore! what could this mean? where were the men who had brought them? and what had they come for? i saw through my glass that there were a score and a half, at least, on the east side of the isle. they had meat on the fire, round which i could see them dance. they then took a man from one of the boats, who was bound hand and foot; but when they came to loose his bonds, he set off as fast as his feet would take him, and in a straight line to my house. to tell the truth, when i saw all the rest of the men run to catch him, my hair stood on end with fright. in the creek, he swam like a fish, and the plunge which he took brought him through it in a few strokes. all the men now gave up the chase but two, and they swam through the creek, but by no means so fast as the slave had done. now, i thought, was the time for me to help the poor man, and my heart told me it would be right to do so. i ran down my steps with my two guns, and went with all speed up the hill, and then down by a short cut to meet them. i gave a sign to the poor slave to come to me, and at the same time went up to meet the two men, who were in chase of him. i made a rush at the first of these, to knock him down with the stock of my gun, and he fell. i saw the one who was left, aim at me with his bow, so, to save my life, i shot him dead. the smoke and noise from my gun, gave the poor slave who had been bound, such a shock, that he stood still on the spot, as if he had been in a trance. i gave a loud shout for him to come to me, and i took care to show him that i was a friend, and made all the signs i could think of to coax him up to me. at length he came, knelt down to kiss the ground, and then took hold of my foot, and set it on his head. all this meant that he was my slave; and i bade him rise, and made much of him. but there was more work to be done yet; for the man who had had the blow from my gun was not dead. i made a sign for my slave (as i shall now call him) to look at him. at this he spoke to me, and though i could not make out what he said, yet it gave me a shock of joy; for it was the first sound of a man's voice that i had heard, for all the years i had been on the isle. the man whom i had struck with the stock of my gun, sat up; and my slave, who was in great fear of him, made signs for me to lend him my sword, which hung in a belt at my side. with this he ran up to the man, and with one stroke cut off his head. when he had done this, he brought me back my sword with a laugh, and put it down in front of me. i did not like to see the glee with which he did it, and i did not feel that my own life was quite safe with such a man. he, in his turn, could but lift up his large brown hands with awe, to think that i had put his foe to death, while i stood so far from him. but as to the sword, he and the rest of his tribe made use of swords of wood, and this was why he knew so well how to wield mine. he made signs to me to let him go and see the man who had been shot; and he gave him a turn round, first on this side, then on that; and when he saw the wound made in his breast by the shot, he stood quite, still once more, as if he had lost his wits. i made signs for him to come back, for my fears told me that the rest of the men might come in search of their friends. i did not like to take my slave to my house, nor to my cave; so i threw down some straw from the rice plant for him to sleep on, and gave him some bread and a bunch of dry grapes to eat. he was a fine man, with straight strong limbs, tall, and young. his hair was thick, like wool, and black. his head was large and high; and he had bright black eyes. he was of a dark brown hue; his face was round, and his nose small, but not flat; he had a good mouth with thin lips, with which he could give a soft smile; and his teeth were as white as snow. i had been to milk my goats in the field close by, and when he saw me, he ran to me, and lay down on the ground to show me his thanks. he then put his head on the ground, and set my foot on his head, as he had done at first. he took all the means he could think of, to let me know that he would serve me all his life; and i gave a sign to show that i thought well of him. the next thing was to think of some name to call him by. i chose that of the sixth day of the week (friday), as he came to me on that day. i took care not to lose sight of him all that night, and when the sun rose, i made signs for him to come to me, that i might give him some clothes, for he wore none. we then went up to the top of the hill, to look out for the men; but as we could not see them, or their boats, it was clear that they had left the isle. my slave has since told me that they had had a great fight with the tribe that dwelt next to them; and that all those men whom each side took in war were their own by right. my slave's foes had four who fell to their share, of whom he was one. i now set to work to make my man a cap of hare's skin, and gave him a goat's skin to wear round his waist. it was a great source of pride to him, to find that his clothes were as good as my own. at night, i kept my guns, sword, and bow close to my side; but there was no need for this, as my slave was, in sooth, most true to me. he did all that he was set to do, with his whole heart in the work; and i knew that he would lay down his life to save mine. what could a man do more than that? and oh, the joy to have him here to cheer me in this lone isle! i did my best to teach him, so like a child as he was, to do and feel all that was right, i found him apt, and full of fun; and he took great pains to learn all that i could tell him. our lives ran on in a calm, smooth way; and, but for the vile feasts which were held on the shores, i felt no wish to leave the isle. as my slave had by no means lost his zest for these meals, it struck me that the best way to cure him, was to let him taste the flesh of beasts; so i took him with me one day to the wood for some sport. i saw a she-goat, in the shade, with her two kids. i caught friday by the arm, and made signs to him not to stir, and then shot one of the kids; but the noise of the gun gave the poor man a great shock. he did not see the kid, nor did he know that it was dead. he tore his dress off his breast to feel if there was a wound there; then he knelt down to me, and took hold of my knees to pray of me not to kill him. to show poor friday that his life was quite safe, i led him by the hand, and told him to fetch the kid. by and by, i saw a hawk in a tree, so i bade him look at the gun, the hawk, and the ground; and then i shot the bird. but my poor slave gave still more signs of fear this time, than he did at first: for he shook from head to foot. he must have thought that some fiend of death dwelt in the gun, and i think that he would have knelt down to it, as well as to me; but he would not so much as touch the gun for some time, though he would speak to it when he thought i was not near. once he told me that what he said to it was to ask it not to kill him. i brought home the bird, and made broth of it. friday was much struck to see me eat salt with it, and made a wry face; but i, in my turn, took some that had no salt with it, and i made a wry face at that. the next day i gave him a piece of kid's flesh, which i had hung by a string in front of the fire to roast. my plan was to put two poles, one on each side of the fire, and a stick, on the top of them to hold the string. when my slave came to taste the flesh, he took the best means to let me know how good he thought it. the next day i set him to beat out and sift some corn. i let him see me make the bread, and he soon did all the work. i felt quite a love for his true, warm heart, and he soon learnt to talk to me. one day i said, "do the men of your tribe win in fight?" he told me, with a smile, that they did. "well, then," said i, "how came they to let their foes take you?" "they run one, two, three, and make go in the boat that time." "well, and what do the men do with those they take?" "eat them all up." this was not good news for me, but i went on, and said, "where do they take them?" "go to next place where they think." "do they come here?" "yes, yes, they come here, come else place too." "have you been here with them twice?" "yes, come there." he meant the north west side of the isle, so to this spot i took him the next day. he knew the place, and told me he was there once with a score of men. to let me know this, he put a score of stones all of a row, and made me count them. "are not the boats lost on your shore now and then?" he said that there was no fear, and that no boats were lost. he told me that up a great way by the moon--that is where the moon then came up--there dwelt a tribe of white men like me, with beards. i felt sure that they must have come from spain, to work the gold mines. i put this to him: "could i go from this isle and join those men?" "yes, yes, you may go in two boats." it was hard to see how one man could go in two boats, but what he meant was, a boat twice as large as my own. one day i said to my slave, "do you know who made you?" but he could not tell at all what these words meant. so i said, "do you know who made the sea, the ground we tread on, the hills, and woods?" he said it was beek, whose home was a great way off, and that he was so old that the sea and the land were not so old as he. "if this old man has made all things, why do not all things bow down to him?" my slave gave a grave look, and said, "all things say 'o' to him." "where do the men in your land go when they die?" "all go to beek." i then held my hand up to the sky to point to it, and said, "god dwells there. he made the world, and all things in it. the moon and the stars are the work of his hand. god sends the wind and the rain on the earth, and the streams that flow: he hides the face of the sky with clouds, makes the grass to grow for the beasts of the field, and herbs for the use of man. god's love knows no end. when we pray, he draws near to us and hears us." it was a real joy to my poor slave to hear me talk of these things. he sat still for a long time, then gave a sigh, and told me that he would say "o" to beek no more, for he was but a short way off, and yet could not hear, till men went up the hill to speak to him. "did you go up the hill to speak to him?" said i. "no, okes go up to beek, not young mans." "what do okes say to him?" "they say 'o.'" now that i brought my man friday to know that beek was not the true god, such was the sense he had of my worth, that i had fears lest i should stand in the place of beek. i did my best to call forth his faith in christ, and make it strong and clear, till at last--thanks be to the lord--i brought him to the love of him, with the whole grasp of his soul. to please my poor slave, i gave him a sketch of my whole life; i told him where i was born, and where i spent my days when a child. he was glad to hear tales of the land of my birth, and of the trade which we keep up, in ships, with all parts of the known world. i gave him a knife and a belt, which made him dance with joy. one day as we stood on the top of the hill at the east side of the isle, i saw him fix his eyes on the main land, and stand for a long time to, gaze at it; then jump and sing, and call out to me. "what do you see?" said i. "oh joy!" said he, with a fierce glee in his eyes, "oh glad! there see my land!" why did he strain his eyes to stare at this land, as if he had a wish to be there? it put fears in my mind which made me feel far, less at my ease with him. thought i, if he should go back to his home, he will think no more of what i have taught him, and done for him. he will be sure to tell the rest of his tribe all my ways, and come back with, it may be, scores of them, and kill me, and then dance round me, as they did round the men, the last time they came on my isle. but these were all false fears, though they found a place in my mind a long while; and i was not so kind to him now as i had been. from this time i made it a rule, day by day, to find out if there were grounds for my fears or not. i said, "do you not wish to be once more in your own land?" "yes! i be much o glad to be at my own land." "what would you do there? would you turn wild, and be as you were?" "no, no, i would tell them to be good, tell them eat bread, corn, milk, no eat man more!" "why, they would kill you!" "no, no, they no kill; they love learn." he then told me that some white men, who had come on their shores in a boat, had taught them a great deal. "then will you go back to your land with me?" he said he could not swim so far, so i told him he should help me to build a boat to go in. then he said, "if you go, i go." "i go? why they would eat me!" "no, me make them much love you." then he told me as well as he could, how kind they had been to some white men. i brought out the large boat to hear what he thought of it, but he said it was too small. we then went to look at the old ship's boat, which, as it had been in the sun for years, was not at all in a sound state. the poor man made sure that it would do. but how were we to know this? i told him we should build a boat as large as that, and that he should go home in it. he spoke not a word, but was grave and sad. "what ails you?" said i. "why, you grieve mad with your man?" "what do you mean? i am not cross with you." "no cross? no cross with me? why send your man home to his own land, then?" "did you not tell me you would like to go back?" "yes, yes, we both there; no wish self there, if you not there!" "and what should i do there?" "you do great deal much good! you teach wild men be good men; you tell them know god, pray god, and lead new life." we soon set to work to make a boat that would take us both. the first thing was to look out for some large trees that grew near the shore, so that we could launch our boat when it was made. my slave's plan was to burn the wood to make it the right shape; but as mine was to hew it, i set him to work with my tools; and in two months' time we had made a good strong boat; but it took a long while to get her down to the shore. friday had the whole charge of her; and, large as she was, he made her move with ease, and said, "he thought she go there well, though great blow wind!" he did not know that i meant to make a mast and sail. i cut down a young fir tree for the mast, and then i set to work at the sail. it made me laugh to see my man stand and stare, when he came to watch me sail the boat. but he soon gave a jump, a laugh, and a clap of the hands when he saw the sail jibe and fall, first on this side, then on that. the next thing to do was to stow our boat up in the creek, where we dug a small dock; and when the tide was low, we made a dam, to keep out the sea. the time of year had now come for us to set sail, so we got out all our stores, to put them in the boat. one day i sent friday to the shore, to get a sort of herb that grew there. i soon heard him cry out to me, "o grief! o bad! o bad! o out there boats, one, two, three!" "keep a stout heart," said i, to cheer him. the poor man shook with fear; for he thought that the men who brought him here, had now come back to kill him. "can you fight?" said i. "me shoot; but me saw three boats; one, two, three!" "have no fear; those that we do not kill, will be sure to take fright at the sound of our guns. now will you stand by me, and do just as you are bid?" "me die when you bid die." i gave him a good draught of rum; and when he had drunk this, he took up an axe and two guns, each of which had a charge of swan shot. i took two guns as well, and put large shot in them, and then hung my great sword by my side. from the top of the bill, i saw with the help of my glass, that the boats had each brought eight men, and one slave. they had come on shore near the creek, where a grove of young trees grew close down to the sea. they had with them three slaves, bound hand and foot, and you who read this, may guess what they were brought here for. i felt that i must try and save them from so hard a fate, and that to do this, i should have to put some of their foes to death. so we set forth on our way. i gave friday strict charge to keep close to me, and not to fire till i told him to do so. we went full a mile out of our way, that we might get round to the wood to bide there. but we had not gone far, when my old qualms came back to me, and i thought, "is it for me to dip my hands in man's blood? why should i kill those who have done me no harm, and mean not to hurt me? nay, who do not so much as know that they are in the wrong, when they hold these feasts. are not their ways a sign that god has left them (with the rest of their tribe) to their own dull hearts? god did not call me to be a judge for him. he who said, 'thou shalt not kill,' said it for me, as well as the rest of the world." a throng of thoughts like these would rush on my mind, as if to warn me to pause, till i felt sure that there was more to call me to the work than i then knew of. i took my stand in the wood, to watch the men at their feast, and then crept on, with friday close at my heels. thus we went till we came to the skirts of the wood. then i said to. friday, "go up to the top of that tree, and bring me word if you can see the men." he went, and quick as thought, came back to say that they were all round the fire, and that the man who was bound on the sand would be the next they would kill. but when he told me that it was a white man, one of my own race, i felt the blood boil in my veins. two of the gang had gone to loose the white man from his bonds; so now was the time to fire. at the sound of our guns, we saw all the men jump up from the ground where they sat. it must have been the first gun the i had heard in their lives. they knew not which way to look. i now threw down my piece, and took up a small gun; friday did the same; and i gave him the word to fire! the men ran right and left, with yells and screams. i now made a rush out of the wood, that they might see me, with my man friday at my heels, of course. we gave a loud shout, and ran up to the white man as fast as we could. there he lay on the hot sand. i cut the flag, or rush, by which he was bound, but he was too weak to stand or speak, so i gave him some rum. he let me know by all the signs that he could think of, how much he stood in my debt for all that i had done for him. i said, "we will talk of that bye and bye; but now we must do what we can to save our lives." friday, who was free to go where he chose, flew here and there, and put all the men to the rout. they fled in full haste to their boats, and were soon out at sea; and so we got rid of our foes at last. the man whom we had found on the sand told us that his name was carl, and that he came from spain. but there was one more man to claim our care; for the black men had left a small boat on the sands, and in this i saw a poor wretch who lay half dead. he could not so much as look up, so tight was he bound, neck and heels. when i cut the bonds from him he gave a deep groan, for he thought that all this was but to lead him out to die. friday then came up, and i bade him speak to the old man in his own tongue, and tell him that he was free. this good news gave him strength, and he sat up in the boat. but when friday came to hear him talk, and to look him in the face, it brought the tears to my eyes to see him kiss and hug the poor old man, and dance round him with joy, then weep, wring his hands, and beat his own face and head, and then laugh once more, sing, and leap. for a long time he could not speak to me, so as to, let me know what all this meant. but at length he told me that he was the son of this poor old man, and that his name was jaf. it would be a hard task for me to tell of all the quaint, signs friday made to show his joy. he went in and out of the boat five or six times, sat down by old jaf, and held the poor old man's head close to his breast to warm it; then he set to work to rub his arms and feet, which were cold and stiff from the bonds. i told friday to give him some rum and bread; but he said, "none! bad dog eat all up self." he then ran off straight to the house, and took no heed of my calls, but went as swift as a deer. in an hour's time, he came back with a jug in his hand. the good soul had gone all the way to the house, that jaf might have a fresh draught from my well; and with it he brought two cakes, one of which i bade him take to carl, who lay in the shade of a tree. his limbs were stiff and cold, and he was too weak to say a word. i set my man to rub his feet with rum, and while he did so, i saw friday turn his head round from time to time, to steal a look at the old man. then we brought carl and jaf home from the boat on our backs, as they could not walk. the door of my house was at the top, and the poor sick men could not climb the steps by which i got in, so we made for them a tent of old sails. i was now a king of these three men, as well as lord of the isle; and i felt proud to say, "they all owe their lives to their king, and would lay them down for him if he bade them do so." but i did not think that my reign was so soon to come to an end. the next thing for us to do was to give carl and jaf some food, and to kill and roast a kid, to which we all four sat down, and i did my best to cheer them. carl in a few days grew quite strong, and i set him to work to dig some land for seed; for it was clear we should want more corn now that we had two more mouths to fill. so we put in the ground all the stock of grain i had, and thus we all four had as much work as we could do for some time. when the crop grew, and was ripe, we found we had a good store of grain. we made a plan that carl and jaf should go back to the main land, to try if they could get some of the white men who had been cast on shore there, to come and live with us; so they got out the boat, and took with them two guns and food for eight days. they were to come back in a week's time, and i bade them hang out a sign when they came in sight, so that we might know who they were. one day, friday ran up to me in great glee, and said, "they are back! they are back!" a mile from shore, there was a boat with a sail, which stood in for the land; but i knew it could not be the one which our two friends had gone out in, for it was on the wrong side of the isle for that. i saw too, through my glass, a ship out at sea. there were twelve men in the boat, three of whom were bound in chains, and four had fire arms. bye and bye, i saw one of the men raise his sword to those who were in chains, and i felt sure that all was not right. then i saw that the three men who had been bound were set free; and when they had come on shore they lay on the ground, in the shade of a tree. i was soon at their side, for their looks, so sad and worn, brought to my mind the first few hours i had spent in this wild spot, where all to me was wrapt in gloom. i went up to these men, and said: "who are you, sirs?" they gave a start at my voice and at my strange dress, and made a move as if they would fly from me. i said, "do not fear me, for it may be that you have a friend at hand, though you do not think it." "he must be sent from the sky then," said one of them with a grave look; and he took off his hat to me at the same time. "all help is from thence, sir," i said; "but what can i do to aid you? you look as if you had some load of grief on your breast. i saw one of the men lift his sword as if to kill you." the tears ran down the poor man's face, as he said, "is this a god, or is it but a man?" "have no doubt on that score, sir," said i, "for a god would not have come with a dress like this. no, do not fear--nor raise your hopes too high; for you see but a man, yet one who will do all he can to help you. your speech shows me that you come from the same land as i do. i will do all i can to serve you. tell me your case." "our case, sir, is too long to you while they who would kill us are so near. my name is paul. to be short, sir, my crew have thrust me out of my ship, which you see out there, and have left me here to die. it was as much as i could do to make them sheath their swords, which you saw were drawn to slay me. they have set me down in this isle with these two men, my friend here, and the ship's mate." "where have they gone?" said i. "there, in the wood, close by. i fear they may have seen and heard us. if they have, they will be sure to kill us all." "have they fire-arms?" "they have four guns, one of which is in the boat." "well then, leave all to me!" "there are two of the men," said he, "who are worse than the rest. all but these i feel sure would go back to work the ship." i thought it was best to speak out to paul at once, and i said, "now if i save your life, there are two things which you must do." but he read my thoughts, and said, "if you save my life, you shall do as you like with me and my ship, and take her where you please." i saw that the two men, in whose charge the boat had been left, had come on shore; so the first thing i did was to send friday to fetch from it the oars, the sail, and the gun. and now the ship might be said to be in our hands. when the time came for the men to go back to the ship, they were in a great rage; for, as the boat had now no sail nor oars, they knew not how to get out to their ship. we heard them say that it was a strange sort of isle, for that sprites had come to the boat, to take off the sails and oars. we could see them run to and fro, with great rage; then go and sit in the boat to rest, and then come on shore once more. when they drew near to us, paul and friday would fain have had me fall on them at once. but my wish was to spare them, and kill as few as i could. i told two of my men to creep on their hands and feet close to the ground, so that they might not be seen, and when they got up to the men, not to fire till i gave the word. they had not stood thus long, when three of the crew came up to us. till now, we had but heard their voice, but when they came so near as to be seen, paul and friday stood up and shot at them. two of the men fell dead, and they were the worst of the crew, and the third ran off. at the sound of the guns i came up, but it was so dark that the men could not tell if there were three of us or three score. it fell out just as i could wish, for i heard the men ask, "to whom must we yield, and where are they?" friday told them that paul was there with the king of the isle, who had brought with him a crowd of men! at this one of the crew said, "if paul will spare our lives, we will yield." "then," said friday, "you shall know the king's will." then paul said to them, "you know my voice; if you lay down your arms the king will spare your lives!" they fell on their knees to beg the same of me. i took good care that they did not see me, but i gave them my word that they should all live, that i should take four of them to work the ship, and that the rest would be bound hand and foot, for the good faith of the four. this was to show them what a stern king i was. of course i soon set them free, and i put them in a way to take my place on the isle. i told them of all my ways, taught them how to mind the goats, how to work the farm, and make the bread. i gave them a house to live in, fire arms, tools, and my two tame cats, in fact, all but poll and my gold. as i sat on the top of the hill, paul came up to me. he held out his hand to point to the ship, and with much warmth took me to his arms, and said, "my dear friend, there is your ship! for she is all yours, and so are we, and all that is in her." i cast my eyes to the ship, which rode half a mile off the shore, at the mouth of the creek, and near the place where i had brought my rafts to the land. yes, there she stood, the ship that was to set me free, and to take me where i might choose to go. she set her sails to the wind, and her flags threw out their gay stripes in the breeze. such a sight was too much for me, and i fell down faint with joy. paul then took out a flask which he had brought for me, and gave me a dram, which i drank, but for a good while i could not speak to him. friday and paul then went on board the ship, and paul took charge of her once more. we did not start that night, but at noon the next day i left the isle! that lone isle, where i had spent so great a part of my life--not much less than thrice ten long years. when i came back to the dear land of my birth, all was strange and new to me. i went to my old home at york, but none of my friends were there, and to my great grief i saw, on the stone at their grave, the sad tale of their death. as they had thought, of course, that i was dead, they had not left me their wealth and lands, so that i stood much in want of means, for it was but a small sum that i had brought with me from the isle. but in this time of need, i had the luck to find my good friend who once took me up at sea. he was now grown too old for work, and had put his son in the ship in his place. he did not know me at first, but i was soon brought to his mind when i told him who i was. i found from him that the land which i had bought on my way to the isle was now worth much. as it was a long way off, i felt no wish to go and live there so i made up my mind to sell it, and in the course of a few months, i got for it a sum so large as to make me a rich man all at once. weeks, months, and years went by; i had a farm, a wife, and two sons, and was by no means young; but still i could not get rid of a strong wish which dwelt in my thoughts by day and my dreams by night, and that was to set foot once more in my old isle. i had now no need to work for food, or for means of life; all i had to do was to teach my boys to be wise and good, to live at my ease, and see my wealth grow day by day. yet the wish to go back to my wild haunts clung round me like a cloud, and i could in no way drive it from me, so true is it that "what is bred in the bone will not come out of the flesh." at length i lost my wife, which was a great blow to me, and my home was now so sad, that i made up my mind to launch out once more on the broad sea, and go with my man friday to that lone isle where dwelt all my hopes. i took with me as large a store of tools, clothes, and such like goods as i had room for, and men of skill in all kinds of trades, to live in the isle. when we set sail, we had a fair wind for some time, but one night the mate, who was at the watch, told me he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun go off. at this we all ran on deck, from whence we saw a great light, and as there was no land that way, we knew that it must be some ship on fire at sea, which could not be far off, for we heard the sound of the gun. the wind was still fair, so we made our way for the point where we saw the light, and in half an hour, it was but too plain that a large ship was on fire in the midst of the broad sea. i gave the word to fire off five guns, and we then lay by, to wait till break of day. but in the dead of the night, the ship blew up in the air, the flames shot forth, and what there was left of the ship sank. we hung out lights, and our guns kept up a fire all night long, to let the crew know that there was help at hand. at eight o'clock the next day we found, by the aid of the glass, that two of the ship's boats were out at sea, quite full of men. they had seen us, and had done their best to make us see them, and in half an hour we came up with them. it would be a hard task for me to set forth in words the scene which took place in my ship, when the poor french folk (for such they were) came on board. as to grief and fear, these are soon told--sighs, tears, and groans make up the sum of them--but such a cause of joy as this was, in sooth, too much for them to bear, weak and all but dead as they were. some would send up shouts of joy that rent the sky; some would cry and wring their hands as if in the depths of grief; some would dance, laugh, and sing; not a few were dumb, sick, faint, in a swoon, or half mad; and two or three were seen to give thanks to god. in this strange group, there was a young french priest who did his best to soothe those round him, and i saw him go up to some of the crew, and say to them, "why do you scream, and tear your hair, and wring your hands, my men? let your joy be free and full, give it full range and scope, but leave off this trick of the hands, and lift them up in praise; let your voice swell out, not in screams, but in hymns of thanks to god, who has brought you out of so great a strait, for this will add peace to your joy." the next day, they were all in a right frame of mind, so i gave them what stores i could spare, and put them on board a ship that we met with on her way to france, all save five who, with the priest, had a wish to join me. but we had not set sail long, when we fell in with a ship that had been blown out to sea by a storm, and had lost her masts; and, worse than all, her crew had not had an ounce of meat or bread for ten days. i gave them all some food, which they ate like wolves in the snow, but i thought it best to check them, as i had fears that so much all at once would cause the death of some of them. there were a youth and a young girl in the ship who the mate said he thought must be dead, but he had not had the heart to go near them, for the food was all gone. i found that they were faint for the want of it, and as it were in the jaws of death; but in a short time they both got well, and as they had no wish to go back to their ship, i took them with me. so now i had eight more on board my ship, than i had when i first set out. in three months from the time when i left home, i came in sight of my isle, and i brought the ship safe up, by the side of the creek, which was near my old house. i went up to friday, to ask if he knew where he was. he took a look round him, and soon, with a clap of the hands, said "o yes! o there! o yes! o there!" bye and bye, he set up a dance with such wild glee, that it was as much as i could do to keep him on deck. "well, what think you, friday?" said i; "shall we find those whom we left still here?--shall we see poor old jaf?" he stood quite mute for a while, but when i spoke of old jaf (whose son friday was), the tears ran down his face, and the poor soul was as sad as could be. "no, no," said he, "no more, no, no more." as we caught sight of some men at the top of the hill, i gave word to fire three guns, to show that we were friends, and soon we saw smoke rise from the side of the creek. i then went on shore in a boat, with the priest and friday, and hung out a white flag of peace. the first man i cast my eyes on at the creek, was my old friend carl, who, when i was last on the isle, had been brought here in bonds. i gave strict charge to the men in the boat not to go on shore, but friday could not be kept back, for with his quick eye he had caught sight of old jaf. it brought the tears to our eyes to see his joy when he met the old man. he gave him a kiss, took him up in his arms, set him down in the shade, then stood a short way off to look at him, as one would look at a work of art, then felt him with his hand, and all this time he was in full talk, and told him, one by one, all the strange tales of what he had seen since they had last met. as to my friend carl, he came up to me, and with much warmth shook my hands, and then took me to my old house, which he now gave up to me. i could no more have found the place, than if i had not been there at all. the rows of trees stood so thick and close, that the house could not be got at, save by such blind ways as none but those who made them could find out. "why have you built all these forts?" said i. carl told me that he felt sure i should say there was much need of them, when i heard how they had spent their time since they had come to the isle. he brought twelve men to the spot where i stood, and said, "sir, all these men owe their lives to you." then, one by one, they came up to me, not as if they had been the mere crew of a ship, but like men of rank who had come to kiss the hand of their king. the first thing was to bear all that had been done in the isle since i had left it. but i must first state that, when we were on the point to set sail from the isle, a feud sprang up on board our ship, which we could not put down, till we had laid two of the men in chains. the next day, these two men stole each of them a gun and some small arms, and took the ship's boat, and ran off with it to join the three bad men on shore. as soon as i found this out, i sent the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and the mate, and off they went to seek the two who had left the ship. but their search was in vain, nor could they find one of the rest, for they had all fled to the woods when they saw the boat. we had now lost five of the crew, but the three first were so much worse than the last two, that in a few days they sent them out of doors, and would have no more to do with them, nor would they for a long while give them food to eat. so the two poor men had to live as well as they could by hard work, and they set up their tents on the north shore of the isle, to be out of the way of the wild men, who were wont to land on the east side. here they built them two huts, one to lodge in, and one to lay up their stores in; and the men from spain gave them some corn for seed, as well as some peas which i had left them. they soon learned to dig, and plant, and hedge in their land, in the mode which i had set for them, and in short, to lead good lives, so that i shall now call them the "two good men." but when the three bad men saw, this, they were full of spite, and came one day to tease and vex them. they told them that the isle was their own, and that no one else had a right to build on it, if they did not pay rent. the two good men thought at first that they were in jest, and told them to come and sit down, and see what fine homes they had built, and say what rent they would ask. but one of the three said they should soon see that they were not in jest, and took a torch in his hand, and put it to the roof of the but, and would have set it on fire, had not one of the two good men trod the fire out with his feet. the bad man was in such a rage at this, that he ran at him with a pole he had in his hand, and this brought on a fight, the end of which was that the three men had to stand off. but in a short time they came back, and trod down the corn, and shot the goats and young kids, which the poor men had got to bring up tame for their store. one day when the two men were out, they came to their home, and said, "ha! there's the nest, but the birds are flown." they then set to work to pull down both the huts, and left not a stick, nor scarce a sign on the ground to show where the tents had stood. they tore up, too, all the goods and stock that they could find, and when they had done this, they told it all to the men of spain, and said, "you, sirs, shall have the same sauce, if you do not mend your ways." they then fell to blows and hard words, but carl had them bound in cords, and took their arms from them. the men of spain then said they would do them no harm, and if they would live at peace they would help them, and that they should live with them as they had done till that time, but they could not give them back their arms for three or four months. one night carl--whom i shall call "the chief," as he took the lead of all the rest--felt a great weight on his mind, and could get no sleep, though he was quite well in health. he lay still for some time, but as he, did not feel at case, he got up, and took a look out. but as it was too dark to see far, and he heard no noise, he went back to his bed. still it was all one, he could not sleep; and though he knew not why, his thoughts would give him no rest. he then woke up one of his friends, and told him how it had been with him. "say you so?" said he "what if there should be some bad plot at work near us!" they then set off to the top of the hill, where i was wont to go, and from thence they saw the light of a fire, quite a short way from them, and heard the sounds of men, not of one or two, but of a great crowd. we need not doubt that the chief and the man with him now ran back at once, to tell all the rest what they had seen; and when they heard the news, they could not be kept close where they were, but must all run out to see how things stood. at last they thought that the best thing to do would be, while it was dark, to send old jaf out as a spy, to learn who they were, and what they meant to do. when the old man had been gone an hour or two, he brought word back that he had been in the midst of the foes, though they had not seen him, and that they were in two sets or tribes who were at war, and had come there to fight. and so it was, for in a short time they heard the noise of the fight, which went on for two hours, and at the end, with three loud shouts or screams, they left the isle in their boats. thus my friends were set free from all their fears, and saw no more of their wild foes for some time. one day a whim took the three bad men that they would go to the main land, from whence the wild men came, and try if they could not seize some of them, and bring them home as slaves, so as to make them do the hard part of their work for them. the chief gave them all the arms and stores that they could want, and a large boat to go in, but when they bade them "god speed," no one thought that they would find their way back to the isle. but lo! in three weeks and a day, they did in truth come back. one of the two good men was the first to catch sight of them, and tell the news to his friends. the men said that they had found the land in two days, and that the wild men gave them roots and fish to eat, and were so kind as to bring down eight slaves to take back with them, three of whom were men and five were girls. so they gave their good hosts an axe, an old key, and a knife, and brought off the slaves in their boat to the isle. as the chief and his friends did not care to wed the young girls, the five men who had been the crew of paul's ship drew lots for choice, so that each had a wife, and the three men slaves were set to work for the two good men, though there was not much for them to do. but one of them ran off to the woods, and they could not hear of him more. they had good cause to think that he found his way home, as in three or four weeks some wild men came to the isle, and when they had had their feast and dance, they went off in two days' time. so my friends might well fear that if this slave got safe home, he would be sure to tell the wild men that they were in the isle, and in what part of it they might be found. and so it came to pass, for in less than two months, six boats of wild men, with eight or ten men in each boat, came to the north side of the isle, where they had not been known to come up to that time. the foe had brought their boats to land, not more than a mile from the tent of the two good men, and it was there that the slave who had run off had been kept. these men had the good luck to see the boats when they were a long way off, so that it took them quite an hour from that time to reach the shore. my friends now had to think how that hour was to be spent. the first thing they did was to bind the two slaves that were left, and to take their wives, and as much of their stores as they could, to some dark place in the woods. they then sent a third slave to the chief and his men, to tell them the news, and to ask for help. they had not gone far in the woods, when they saw, to their great grief and rage, that their huts were in flames, and that the wild men ran to and fro, like beasts in search of prey. but still our men went on, and did not halt, till they came to a thick part of the wood, where the large trunk of an old tree stood, and in this tree they both took their post. but they had not been there long, when two of the wild men ran that way, and they saw three more, and then five more, who all ran the same way, as if they knew where they were. our two poor men made up their minds to let the first two pass, and then take the three and the five in line, as they came up, but to fire at one at a time, as the first shot might chance to hit all three. so the man who was to fire put three or four balls in his gun, and from a hole in the tree, took a sure aim, and stood still till the three wild men came so near that he could not miss them. they soon saw that one of these three was the slave that had fled from them, as they both knew him well, and they made up their minds that they would kill him, though they should both fire. at the first shot two of the wild men fell dead, and the third had a graze on his arm, and though not much hurt, sat down on the ground with loud screams and yells. when the five men who came next, heard the sound of the gun and the slave's cries, they stood still at first, as if they were struck dumb with fright. so our two men both shot off their guns in the midst of them, and then ran up and bound them safe with cords. they then went to the thick part of the wood, where they had put their wives and slaves, to see if all were safe there, and to their joy they found that though the wild men had been quite near them, they had not found them out. while they were here, the chief and his men came up, and told them that the rest had gone to take care of my old house and grove, in case the troop of wild men should spread so far that way. they then went back to the burnt huts, and when they came in sight of the shore, they found that their foes had all gone out to sea. so they set to work to build up their huts, and as all the men in the isle lent them their aid, they were soon in a way to thrive once more. for five or six months they saw no more of the wild men. but one day a large fleet of more than a score of boats came in sight, full of men who had bows, darts, clubs, swords, and such like arms of war, and our friends were all in great fear. as they came at dusk, and at the east side of the isle, our men had the whole night to think of what they should do. and as they knew that the most safe way was to hide and lie in wait, they first of all took down the huts which were built for the two good men, and drove their goats to the cave, for they thought the wild men would go straight there as soon as it was day, and play the old game. the next day they took up their post with all their force at the wood, near the home of the two men, to wait for the foe. they gave no guns to the slaves, but each of them had a long staff with a spike at the end of it, and by his side an axe. there were two of the wives who could not be kept back, but would go out and fight with bows and darts. the wild men came on with a bold and fierce mien, not in a line, but all in crowds here and there, to the point were our men lay in wait for them. when they were so near as to be in range of the guns, our men shot at them right and left with five or six balls in each charge. as the foe came up in close crowds, they fell dead on all sides, and most of those that they did not kill were much hurt, so that great fear and dread came on them all. our men then fell on them from three points with the butt end of their guns, swords, and staves, and did their work so well that the wild men set up a loud shriek, and flew for their lives to the woods and hills, with all the speed that fear and swift feet could help them to do. as our men did not care to chase them, they got to the shore where they had come to land and where the boats lay. but their rout was not yet at an end, for it blew a great storm that day from the sea, so that they could not put off. and as the storm went on all that night, when the tide came up, the surge of the sea drove most of their boats so high on the shore, that they could not be got off save with great toil, and the force of the waves on the beach broke some of them to bits. at break of day, our men went forth to find them, and when they saw the state of things, they got some dry wood from a dead tree, and set their boats on fire. when the foe saw this, they ran all through the isle with loud cries, as if they were mad, so that our men did not know at first what to do with them, for they trod all the corn down with their feet, and tore up the vines just as the grapes were ripe, and did a great deal of harm. at last they brought old jaf to them, to tell them how kind they would be to them, that they would save their lives, and give them part of the isle to live in, if they would keep in their own bounds, and that they should have corn to plant, and should make it grow for their bread. they were but too glad to have such good terms of peace, and they soon learnt to make all kinds of work with canes, wood, and sticks, such as chairs, stools, and beds, and this they did with great skill when they were once taught. from this time till i came back to the isle my friends saw no more wild men. i now told the chief that i had not come to take off his men, but to bring more, and to give them all such things as they would want to guard their homes from foes, and cheer up their hearts. the next day i made a grand feast for them all, and the ship's cook and mate came on shore to dress it. we brought out our rounds of salt beef and pork, a bowl of punch, some beer, and french wines; and carl gave the cooks five whole kids to roast, three of which were sent to the crew on board ship, that they, on their part, might feast on fresh meat from shore. i gave each of the men a shirt, a coat, a hat, and a pair of shoes, and i need not say how glad they were to meet with gifts so new to them. then i brought out the tools, of which each man had a spade, a rake, an axe, a crow, a saw, a knife and such like things as well as arms, and all that they could want for the use of them. as i saw there was a kind will on all sides, i now took on shore the youth and the maid whom we had brought from the ship that we met on her way to france. the girl had been well brought up, and all the crew had a good word for her. as they both had a wish to be left on the isle, i gave them each a plot of ground, on which they had tents and barns built. i had brought out with me five men to live here, one of whom could turn his hand to all sorts of things, so i gave him the name of "jack of all trades." one day the french priest came to ask if i would leave my man friday here, for through him, he said, he could talk to the black men in their own tongue, and teach them the things of god. "need i add," said he, "that it was for this cause that i came here?" i felt that i could not part with my man friday for the whole world, so i told the priest that if i could have made up my mind to leave him here, i was quite sure that friday would not part from me. when i had seen that all things were in a good state on the isle, i set to work to put my ship to rights, to go home once more. one day, as i was on my way to it, the youth whom i had brought from the ship that was burnt, came up to me, and said, "sir, you have brought a priest with you, and while you are here, we want him to wed two of us." i made a guess that one of these must be the maid that i had brought to the isle, and that it was the wish of the young man to make her his wife. i spoke to him with some warmth in my tone, and bade him turn it well in his mind first, as the girl was not in the same rank of life as he had been brought up in. but he said, with a smile, that i had made a wrong guess, for it was "jack of all trades" that he had come to plead for. it gave me great joy to hear this, as the maid was as good a girl as could be, and i thought well of jack; so on that day i gave her to him. they were to have a large piece of ground to grow their crops on, with a house to live in, and sheds for their goats. the isle was now set out in this way: all the west end was left waste, so that if the wild men should land on it, they might come and go, and hurt no one. my old house i gave to the chief, with all its woods, which now spread out as far as the creek, and the south end was for the white men and their wives. it struck me that there was one gift which i had not thought of, and that was the book of god's word, which i knew would give to those who could feel the words in it, fresh strength for their work, and grace to bear the ills of life. now that i had been in the isle quite a month, i once more set sail on the fifth day of may; and all my friends told me that they should stay there till i came to fetch them. when we had been out three days, though the sea was smooth and calm, we saw that it was quite black on the land side; and as we knew not what to make of it, i sent the chief mate up the main mast to find out with his glass what it could be. he said it was a fleet of scores and scores of small boats, full of wild men who came fast at us with fierce looks. as soon as we got near them, i gave word to furl all sails and stop the ship, and as there was nought to fear from them but fire, to get the boats out and man them both well, and so wait for them to come up. in this way we lay by for them, and in a short time they came up with us; but as i thought they would try to row round and so close us in, i told the men in the boats not to let them come too near. this, though we did not mean it, brought us to a fight with them, and they shot a cloud of darts at our boats. we did not fire at them, yet in half an hour they went back out to sea, and then came straight to us, till we were so near that they could hear us speak. i bade my men keep close, so as to be safe from their darts if they should shoot, and get out the guns. i then sent friday on deck, to call out to them in their own tongue and ask what they meant. it may be that they did not know what he said, but as soon as he spoke to them i heard him cry out that they would shoot. this was too true, for they let fly a thick cloud of darts, and to my great grief poor friday fell dead, for there was no one else in their sight. he was shot with three darts, and three more fell quite near him, so good was their aim. i was so mad with rage at the loss of my dear friday, that i bade the men load five guns with small shot, and four with large, and we gave them such a fierce fire that in all their lives they could not have seen one like it. then a rare scene met our eyes: dread and fear came on them all, for their boats, which were small, were split and sunk--three or four by one shot. the men who were not dead had to swim, and those who had wounds were left to sink, for all the rest got off as fast as they could. our boat took up one poor man who had to swim for his life, when the rest had fled for the space of half an hour. in three hours' time, we could not see more than three or four of their boats, and as a breeze sprang up we set sail. at first the man whom we took on board would not eat or speak, and we all had fears lest he should pine to death. but when we had taught him to say a few words, he told us that his friends--the wild men-had come out with their kin to have a great fight, and that all they meant was to make us look at the grand sight. so it was for this that poor friday fell! he who had been as good and true to me as man could be! and now in deep grief i must take my leave of him. we went on with a fair wind to all saints' bay, and here i found a sloop that i had brought with me from home, that i might send men and stores for the use of my friends in the isle. i taught the mate how to find the place, and when he came back, i found that he had done so with ease. one of our crew had a great wish to go with the sloop, and live on the isle, if the chief would give him land to plant. so i told him he should go by all means, and gave him the wild man for his slave. i found, too, that a man who had come with his wife and child and three slaves, to hide from the king of spain, would like to go, if he could have some land there, though he had but a small stock to take with him; so i put them all on board the sloop, and saw them safe out of the bay, on their way to the isle. with them i sent three milch cows, five calves, a horse and a colt, all of which, as i heard, went safe and sound. i have now no more to say of my isle, as i had left it for the last time, but my life in lands no less far from home was not yet at an end. from the bay of all saints we went straight to the cape of good hope. here i made up my mind to part from the ship in which i had come from the isle, and with two of the crew to stay on land, and leave the rest to go on their way. i soon made friends with some men from france, as well as from my own land, and two jews, who had come out to the cape to trade. as i found that some goods which i had brought with me from home were worth a great deal, i made a large sum by the sale of them. when we had been at the cape of good hope for nine months, we thought that the best thing we could do would be to hire a ship, and sail to the spice isles, to buy cloves, so we got a ship, and men to work her, and set out. when we had bought and sold our goods in the course of trade, we came back, and then set out once more; so that, in short, as we went from port to port, to and fro, i spent, from first to last, six years in this part of the world. at length we thought we would go and seek new scenes where we could get fresh gains. and a strange set of men we at last fell in with, as you who read this tale will say when you look at the print in front of this page. when we had put on shore, we made friends with a man who got us a large house, built with canes, and a small kind of hut of the same near it. it had a high fence of canes round it to keep out thieves, of whom, it seems, there are not a few in that land. the name of the town was ching, and we found that the fair or mart which was kept there would not be held for three or four months. so we sent our ship back to the cape, as we meant to stay in this part of the world for some time, and go from place to place to see what sort of a land it was, and then come back to the fair at ching. we first went to a town which it was well worth our while to see, and which must have been, as near as i can guess, quite in the heart of this land. it was built with straight streets which ran in cross lines. but i must own, when i came home to the place of my birth, i was much struck to hear my friends say such fine things of the wealth and trade of these parts of the world, for i saw and knew that the men were a mere herd or crowd of mean slaves. what is their trade to ours, or to that of france and spain? what are their ports, with a few junks and barks, to our grand fleets? one of our large ships of war would sink all their ships, one line of french troops would beat all their horse, and the same may be said of their ports, which would not stand for one month such a siege as we could bring to bear on them. in three weeks more we came to their chief town. when we had laid in a large stock of tea, shawls, fans, raw silks, and such like goods, we set out for the north. as we knew we should run all kinds of risks on our way, we took with us a strong force to act as a guard, and to keep us from the wild hordes who rove from place to place all through the land. some of our men were scots, who had come out to trade here, and had great wealth, and i was glad to join them, as it was by no means the first time that they had been here. we took five guides with us, and we all put our coin in one purse, to buy food on the way, and to pay the men who took charge of us. one of us we chose out for our chief, to take the lead in case we should have to fight for our lives; and when the time came, we had no small need of him. on the sides of all the roads, we saw men who made pots, cups, pans, and such like ware, out of a kind of earth, which is, in fact, the chief trade in this part of the world. one thing, the guide said he would show me, that was not to be seen in all the world else (and this, in good sooth, i could not sneer at, as i had done at most of the things i had seen here), and this was a house that was built of a kind of ware, such as most plates and cups are made of. "how big is it?" said i, "can we take it on the back of a horse?" "on a horse!" said the guide, "why, two score of men live in it." he then took us to it, and i found that it was in truth a large house, built with lath and the best ware that can be made out of earth. the sun shone hot on the walls, which were quite white, hard, and smooth as glass, with forms on them in blue paint. on the walls of the rooms were small square tiles of the best ware, with red, blue, and green paint of all shades and hues, in rare forms, done in good taste; and as they use the same kind of earth to join the tiles with, you could not see where the tiles met. the floors of the rooms were made of the same ware, and as strong as those we have at home; and the same may be said of the roofs, but they were of a dark shade. if we had had more time to spare, i should have been glad to have seen more of this house, for there were the ponds for the fish, the walks, the yards, and courts, which were all made in the same way. this odd sight kept me from my friends for two hours, and when i had come up to them, i had to pay a fine to our chief, as they had to wait so long. in two days more we came to the great wall, which was made as a fort to keep the whole land safe,--and a great work it is. it goes in a long track for miles and miles, where the rocks are so high and steep that no foe could climb them; or, if they did, no wall could stop them. the great wall is as thick as it is high, and it turns and winds in all sorts of ways. we now saw, for the first time, some troops of the hordes i spoke of, who rove from place to place, to rob and kill all whom they meet with. they know no real mode of war, or skill in fight. each has a poor lean horse, which is not fit to do good work. our chief gave some of us leave to go out and hunt as they call it, and what was it but to hunt sheep! these sheep are wild and swift of foot, but they will not run far, and you are sure of sport when you start in the chase. they go in flocks of a score, or two, and like true sheep, keep close when they fly. in this sort of chase it was our hap to meet with some two score of the wild hordes, but what sort of prey they had come to hunt i know not. as soon as they saw us, one of them blew some loud notes on a kind of horn, with a sound that was quite new to me. we all thought this was to call their friends round them, and so it was, for in a short time a fresh troop of the same size came to join them; and they were all, as far as we could judge, a mile off. one of the scots was with us, and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us that we must lose no time, but draw up in line, and charge them at once. we told him we would, if he would take the lead. they stood still, and cast a wild gaze at us, like a mere crowd, drawn up in no line; but as soon as they saw us come at them, they let fly their darts, which did not hit us, for though their aim was true, they fell short of us. we now came to a halt to fire at them, and then went at full speed to fall on them sword in hand, for so the bold scot that led us, told us to do. as soon as we came up to them, they fled right and left. the sole stand made was by three of them, who had a kind of short sword in their hands, and bows on their backs, and who did all they could to call all the rest back to them. the brave scot rode close up to them, and with his gun threw one off his horse, shot the next, and the third ran off, and this was the end of our fight. all the bad luck we met with, was that the sheep that we had in chase got off. we had not a man hurt, but as for the foe, five of them were dead, and not a few had wounds, while the rest fled at the mere noise of our guns. thus we went on our way from town to town, and now and then met some of these wild hordes, whom we had to fight and i need not add that each time we had the best of the fray. at last we made our way to the chief town of the north seas at the end of a year, five months and three days, from the time when we left ching. when i had been there six weeks, and had bought some more goods; i took ship and set sail for the land of my birth, which i had left, this time, for ten years, nine months and three days. and now i must bring this tale of my life to a close, while at the age of three score years and twelve, i feel that the day is at hand, when i shall go forth on that sea of peace and love, which has no waves or shores but those of bliss that knows no end. an american robinson crusoe for american boys and girls the adaptation, with additional incidents by samuel b. allison, ph.d. contents i robinson with his parents ii robinson as an apprentice iii robinson's departure iv robinson far from home v the shipwreck vi robinson saved vii the first night on land viii robinson on an island ix robinson's shelter x robinson makes a hat xi robinson's calendar xii robinson makes a hunting bag xiii robinson explores the island xiv robinson as a hunter xv robinson's shoes and parasol xvi getting fire xvii robinson makes some furniture xviii robinson becomes a shepherd xix robinson builds a home for his goats xx robinson gets ready for winter xxi how robinson lays up a store of food xxii robinson's diary xxiii robinson is sick xxiv robinson's bower xxv robinson again explores his island xxvi robinson and his birds xxvii robinson gets fire xxviii robinson makes baskets xxix robinson becomes a farmer xxx robinson as potter xxxi robinson as baker xxxii robinson as fisherman xxxiii robinson builds a boat xxxiv robinson as a sailor xxxv a discovery xxxvi the landing of the savages xxxvii robinson as teacher xxxviii another shipwreck xxxix saving things from the ship xl the return of the savages xli deliverance at last xlii robinson at home prefatory note "an american robinson crusoe" is the outcome of many years of experience with the story in the early grades of elementary schools. it was written to be used as a content in giving a knowledge of the beginning and development of human progress. the aim is not just to furnish an interesting narrative, but one that is true to the course of human development and the scientific and geographical facts of the island on which robinson is supposed to have lived. the excuse for departing so widely from the original story is to be found in the use which was desired to be made of it. the story here presented is simply the free adaptation of the original narrative to the demand for a specific kind of content in a form which would be interesting to the children. the teacher is and should be justified in using with entire freedom any material accessible for the ends of instruction. the text as here given has been published with an introduction and suggestive treatments as a teacher's manual for primary grades--"the teacher's robinson crusoe." explicit directions and ample suggestions are made for the use of the story as material for instruction in all the language arts, drawing, social history, and the manual arts. published by the educational publishing company. an american robinson crusoe i robinson with his parents there once lived in the city of new york, a boy by the name of robinson crusoe. he had a pleasant home. his father and mother were kind to him and sent him to school. they hoped that he would study hard and grow up to be a wise and useful man, but he loved rather to run idle about the street than to go to school. he was fond of playing along the river hudson, for he there saw the great ships come and go. they were as big as houses. he watched them load and unload their cargoes and hundreds of people get off and on. his father had told him that the ships came from far distant lands, where lived many large animals and black men. his father told him too, that in these faraway countries the nuts on the trees grew to be as large as one's head and that the trees were as high as church steeples. when robinson saw the ships put out to sea, he would watch them till they would disappear below the horizon far out in the ocean, and think, "oh, if i could only go with them far away to see those strange countries!" thus he would linger along the great river and wish he might find an opportunity of making a voyage. often it would be dark before he would get home. when he came into the house his mother would meet him and say in a gentle voice, "why, robinson, how late you are in getting home! you have been to the river again." [illustration: robinson watching the ships] then robinson would hang his head and feel deeply ashamed, and when his father, who was a merchant, came home from the store, his mother would tell him that robinson had again been truant. this would grieve his father deeply and he would go to the boy's bedside and talk earnestly with him. "why do you do so?" he would say. "how often have i told you to go to school every day?" this would for a time win robinson back to school, but by the next week it had been forgotten and he would again be loitering along the river in spite of his father's remonstrances. ii robinson as an apprentice in this way one year after another slipped by. robinson was not more diligent. he was now almost sixteen years old and had not learned anything. then came his birthday. in the afternoon his father called him into his room. robinson opened the door softly. there sat his father with a sad face. he looked up and said, "well, robinson, all your schoolmates have long been busy trying to learn something, so that they may be able to earn their own living. paul will be a baker, robert a butcher, martin is learning to be a carpenter, herman a tailor, otto a blacksmith, fritz is going to high school, because he is going to be a teacher. now, you are still doing nothing. this will not do. from this time on i wish you to think of becoming a merchant. in the morning you will go with me to the store and begin work. if you are attentive and skillful, when the time comes you can take up my business and carry it on. but if you remain careless and continue to idle about, no one will ever want you and you must starve because you will never be able to earn a living." so the next morning robinson went to the store and began work. he wrapped up sugar and coffee, he weighed out rice and beans. he sold meal and salt, and when the dray wagon pulled up at the store, loaded with new goods, he sprang out quickly and helped to unload it. he carried in sacks of flour and chests of tea, and rolled in barrels of coffee and molasses. he also worked some at the desk. he looked into the account books and saw in neat writing, "goods received" and "goods sold." he noticed how his father wrote letters and reckoned up his accounts. he even took his pen in hand and put the addresses on the letters and packages as well as he could. but soon he was back in his careless habits. he was no longer attentive to business. he wrapped up salt instead of sugar. he put false weights on the scales. he gave some too much and others too little. his hands, only, were in the business, his mind was far away on the ocean with the ships. when he helped unload the wagons, he would often let the chests and casks drop, so that they were broken and their contents would run out on the ground. for he was always thinking, "where have these casks come from and how beautiful it must be there!" and many times packages came back because robinson had written the name of the place or the country wrong. for when he was writing the address, he was always thinking, "you will be laid upon a wagon and will then go into the ship." one day he had to write a letter to a man far over the sea. he could stand it no longer. his father had gone out. he threw down the pen, picked up his hat and ran out to the hudson to see the ships, and from that time on he spent more time loitering along the river than he did in the store. iii robinson's departure robinson's father soon noticed that his son was no longer attending to his work, and one morning sent for him to come to his office. when robinson came in his father arose from his chair and looked him long and earnestly in the face. then he said, "i am very sorry, robinson, that you seem determined to continue your evil ways. if you do not do better you will grow up to be a beggar or worse." robinson cast his eyes down and said, "i do not want to be a merchant, i would rather sail in a ship around the world." his father answered, "if you do not know anything you cannot be of use on a ship, and no one will want you. in a strange land you cannot live without working. if you run away from your parents you will come to be sorry for it." robinson wept, for he saw that his father was right, and he promised to obey. after two or three weeks, robinson went to his mother and said, "mother, won't you go to father and tell him that if he will only let me take one voyage and it proves to be unpleasant, i will come back to the store and work hard?" but the mother cried. with tears in her eyes, she said: "robinson, your brothers are both dead. you are the only child left to us and if you go away, we shall be entirely alone. how easy it would be to be drowned in the sea, or torn to pieces by wild animals away there in a foreign country. both your father and myself are getting along in years and who will take care of us when we are sick? do not cause us the grief we must suffer if you go away so far amid so many dangers. i cannot bear to have you speak of it again." robinson did not speak of it again, but he did not forget it. he was nineteen years old. it was one day in august that robinson stood at the wharf looking longingly after the departing ships. as he stood there, someone touched him on the shoulder. it was a ship captain's son. he pointed to a long ship and said, "my father sails to-day in that ship for africa and takes me with him." "oh, if i could only go with you!" cried robinson. "do come along," cried his comrade. "but i have no money," said robinson. "that doesn't make any difference," returned the captain's son. "we will take you anyway." robinson, without thinking for a moment, gave his friend his hand and promised to go with him. so without saying "good-bye" to his parents, robinson went immediately on board the ship with his friend. this happened on the 10th of august. [illustration: robinson and the captain's son] [illustration] iv robinson far from home robinson's voyage once on board, robinson watched the preparations for departure. at command the sailors clambered up into the rigging and loosened the sails. then the captain from his bridge called out, "hoist the anchor!" then the great iron hooks that held the ship fast were lifted up, a cannon sounded a final farewell. robinson stood on the deck. he saw the great city shimmer in the sunshine before him. very fast now the land was being left behind. it was not long until all that could be seen of his native city was the tops of the highest towers. then all faded from sight. behind, in front, right and left, he saw nothing but waters. he became a little afraid. at noon there arose a strong wind and the ship rocked to and fro. he became dizzy and had to hold fast to something. the masts and rigging began to dance. it seemed to him as if all was turning around. suddenly he fell full length on the deck and it was impossible for him to get up. he was seasick. he wailed and cried, but no one heard him, no one helped him. then he thought of his home, his parents whom he had so ungratefully left. he had been on the water about two weeks when one day as he lay in his room, robinson heard people over his head running about and crying, "a storm is coming!" the ship's sides trembled and creaked. the ship was tossed like a nutshell. now it rolled to the right, now to the left. and robinson was thrown from one side to the other. every moment he expected the ship to sink. he turned pale and trembled with fear. "ah, if i were only at home with my parents, safe on the land," he said. "if i ever get safe out of this, i will go home as quickly as i can and stay with my dear parents!" the storm raged the whole day and the whole night. but on the next morning the wind went down and the sea was calm. by evening the sky was clear and robinson was again cheerful. he ran about the ship. he looked at the glittering stars and was contented and happy. v the shipwreck several weeks went by. robinson had long ago forgotten his resolutions to return home. it was very hot. the glowing sun beat down upon the ship. the wide surface of the sea glistened. no breeze stirred. the sails hung loose on the top of the mast. but far away on the shore could be seen a black bank of clouds. all at once the ship was thrown violently to one side by a fierce gust of wind. robinson threw himself on the deck. the sea began to rise and fall. the waves were as high as mountains. now the ship was borne aloft to the skies, and now it would seem that it must be overwhelmed in the sea. when it sank down between the great waves of water, robinson thought it would never again rise. the waves beat violently on the ship's side. robinson went down the steps into his little room, but he came back full of anxiety. he believed every minute he would meet death in the waves. the night at last came on. the lightning flashed. the storm howled. the ship trembled. the water roared. so the night wore on. the storm raged for six days. then on the seventh day it was somewhat abated. but the hope was soon dashed. the storm had abated but to get new strength. suddenly it bore down with frightful power on the doomed vessel, struck it, and shot it like an arrow through the water. then robinson felt a fearful crash. the ship groaned as if it would fall into a thousand pieces. it had struck a rock and there held fast. at the same moment the sailors raised the cry, "the ship has sprung a leak!" the water surged into the ship. all called for help. each one thought only of himself. there was only one boat. the others had all been torn away. it was soon let down into the sea. all sprang in. for a moment the sailors forgot the waves, but all at once a wave, mountains high, struck the boat and swallowed it up. robinson shut his eyes. the water roared in his ears. he sank into the sea. vi robinson saved robinson was borne down far, far into the ocean. he attempted to work himself up, so that he could see light and breathe the air. but again and again the waves carried him down. finally a wave threw him up and he saw, for a moment, the light of day and got a breath of air, but the next instant he was deep under the water. then another wave bore him on its crest. he breathed a deep breath and at the same time saw land not far away. he bent all his strength toward reaching the land. he got almost to it, when a wave caught him and hurled him on a jutting rock. with all his strength he seized the rock with both hands and held on. presently he worked himself up a little and at last got a foothold. but, scarcely had he done so, when his strength left him and he fell on the ground as one dead. but he soon revived. he opened his eyes and looked around. he saw above him the blue sky, and under him the solid brown earth, and before him the gray angry sea. he felt to see if he still breathed. the storm had destroyed the ship. the waves had overwhelmed the boat. the water wished to draw him into the deep. the rocks seemed to want to hurl him back, but storm and wave and rock had accomplished nothing. there was one who was stronger than they. then robinson sank on his knees and folded his hands. tears came to his eyes. he breathed hard. at last he said, "dear father in heaven, i live. thou hast saved me. i thank thee." vii the first night on land "where are my companions?" that was his first thought. he began to call and halloo: "where are you?" "come here!" but no one answered. then he wished to see if anyone lived on the land, and he cried, "is there no one here? hello!" but all remained still. all at once he drew himself together and shrank back. he heard a bush rustle and the thought came like a flash, "that is a wild animal that will pounce upon me and tear my flesh with his teeth and claws. how shall i save myself? where shall i fly for safety? where shall i turn? i have nothing but my clothes and my life saved from the water. all that i had the waves have swallowed up." and then hunger and thirst began to trouble him. he had eaten nothing the whole day and the salt water had made him sick. in the meantime the night had come on. robinson was very tired. everything was new and strange. he did not know which way to move. he was in the greatest terror. he expected to hear the roar of wild beasts from every secluded spot. lions and tigers and dreadful serpents filled his thoughts. he must find shelter from them. but where should he pass the night? not a house, a hut or a cave was to be seen. he stood a long time hesitating and did not know what to do. finally he thought, "i will do as the birds do and get into a tree." he very soon found a tree which had such thick branches that it would hold him up. robinson climbed up into the tree, made himself as comfortable as possible, said his prayers, and as he was thoroughly exhausted, he soon fell asleep. when he awoke the sun was high in the sky. at first he could not remember where he was. then the truth burst upon him. he tried to move. he was stiff and sore. his flesh was bruised from being thrown against the rocks and beaten by the waves. he was dreadfully thirsty. his mouth and throat were dry and parched from the salt water. his tongue was thick and swollen. he said, "i must find some water to drink or i shall die!" it was hard work to get down from the tree. his limbs and back ached from sitting in the tree all night at last he slipped down and fell on the ground. he clasped his hands in prayer and thanked god for keeping him through the night. [illustration] then he got up and tried to walk. he was so weak he could not stand. he threw himself down on the ground and began to sob and cry, "o lord, do not let me die! do not let me die!" as he lay there he heard a queer sound. he listened. it sounded like water running over rocks. he tried to get to the place from which the sound came. he tried to walk. when he fell he crawled on his hands and knees. at last the sound was close by. he dragged himself up on the rocks. yes, there was a spring of clear, cool, sparkling water bubbling up and trickling over the stones. robinson was so thirsty he put his face into the water and drank and drank. then he sat down, and after a while he drank again and again. after robinson had satisfied his thirst and rested awhile, he felt much better. he said, "i must try to walk and see whether i can find something to eat." he found many kinds of fruits and berries all around him, but he was afraid to eat them, as they were strange to him and he feared they might be poisonous. as he was walking along, all at once he spied a tall plant in the distance which had a familiar look. it looked like corn. he said to himself, "i wonder if it can be corn." at last he came near enough to recognize it. yes, it was corn. it did not look exactly like the corn that he saw at home, but still he knew it would be safe to eat it. he broke off an ear and eagerly ate the kernels raw. oh, how good it was! robinson could not remember anything that tasted half so good. he ate as much as he wanted and then filled his pockets with ears of corn for his supper. then he went back to the spring to get another drink. [illustration] viii robinson on an island after his hunger and thirst were satisfied, robinson thought he would try to find another dwelling place. "my legs are stiff and sore from sitting so uncomfortably last night, and there is so much danger of falling," he said. "i will climb yonder hill and look around and see on which side the houses are. i will find me a stick to help me on my way." he broke a stick from a dry bush and climbed up the steep sides of the hill. after a half hour's climb he was on top. what a sight met his eyes! there were no houses, no huts to be seen, no smoke arose from the forest, no field could be seen. nothing but trees and bush, sand and rock. "i am then upon an island alone, without food, without shelter, without weapons! what will become of me?" he cried. "i am a prisoner. the island is my prison, the waves are the guards which will not allow me to get away. will no ship ever come to set me free?" he stretched his gaze out to the sea till his eyes ached, but he saw no ship. robinson came down and seated himself on a stone and considered what he should do. it was not yet noon, yet he feared greatly the next night. "i must find me a better bed," was his first clear thought. [illustration] ix robinson's shelter robinson saw at a little distance what seemed to be a cleft or an opening in a huge rock. "if i could only get inside and find room to stay over night. the rock would protect me from rain, from the wind and wild animals better than a tree." he long sought in vain for a place wide enough to allow him to get into the opening in the rock. he was about to give up, when he seized hold of a branch of a thorn tree growing on the side of the rock. he looked closer and saw that it grew out of the cleft in the rock. he saw, too, that at this point the opening was wider and that he had only to remove the tree in order to get in. "the hole shall be my dwelling," he said. "i must get the thorn tree out so that i can have room." that was easily said. he had neither axe nor saw, nor knife nor spade. how could he do it? he had nothing but his hands. he tried to pull it out by the roots, but in vain. he wasn't strong enough. "i must dig it out," said robinson. he scratched with his nails, but the earth was too hard. what should he do? he sought a stick with a fork in it and dug in the earth, but it was slow work. then he found a clamshell. he did better with it, but it was hard work, and robinson was not used to hard work. the sweat ran down his face and he had often to stop and rest in the shade. the sun burned so hot and the rock so reflected the heat that he was all but overcome. but he worked on. when evening came, he would sleep in the tree and next morning he would go at it again. on the third day the roots were all laid bare. but the roots were fast in the clefts of the rock and he could not loosen it, try ever so hard. what would he not have given for an axe, or at least a knife. and yet he had never thought of their value when at home. he attempted to cut one root through with his clam-shell, but the shell crumbled and would not cut the hard wood. he stood for a long time thinking, not knowing what next to do. he made up his mind that he must have something harder than the shell to cut with. then he tried a stone with a sharp edge, but soon found he needed another one, however. he found one. then he set the sharp one on the wood and struck it with the heavy one. in this way he slowly cut the roots in two. on the fifth day there was yet left one big root, bigger than any of the others. robinson got up early in the morning. he worked the whole day. finally it gave a crack and it, too, was broken. robinson had only now to remove the loose earth inside the cleft. he found the opening could be made large and roomy. it was choked up with dirt. he dug out enough to allow him room enough to make a place to lie down. "in the future," he thought, "i will take out all the dirt and then i shall be comfortable." it was then dark and the moon shone bright in the heavens. robinson gathered a heap of dry grass and made himself a safe bed. but as he lay there he saw the moonbeams shining into his cave. he sprang up. "how easy," he thought, "for wild animals to creep in here upon me." he crawled out and looked around. not far from the cave he saw a large flat stone. with great trouble he rolled it to the opening of his cave, but before this the morning began to dawn. he went inside the shelter, seized the stone with both hands and rolled it into the opening till it almost closed it. "i have now a closed home. i can again stretch my legs. wind and rain cannot get at me, nor wild animals." x robinson makes a hat refreshed and with renewed strength, robinson awoke late the next morning, but he had a bad headache. the day before the hot tropic sun had beat down on his bare head, as he worked at his cave. he was so busy that he forgot to go into the shade from time to time in order to shield himself from the scorching sunshine. he felt a new need. "i must make me a hat," said robinson to himself. "but how?" he had no straw, no thread and no needle. he looked around for a long time, but found nothing. the sun mounted even higher in the heavens, and shone hotter and hotter. he went to seek shelter at last in the deep shade of a nearby tall plant. as he stood there he examined the plant more carefully. "out of these leaves," he said, "i might make a hat." he climbed up the short stem of the plant and saw that it had not only leaves as long as himself, but between the leaves were big bunches of long, thin fruit, as thick as three fingers and similar in shape to a cucumber. he plucked the leaves and fruit and was about to eat some of the fruit when he heard near him a light stir as of some animal. he rolled the leaves and fruit together and hastened back to the cave. [illustration: the banana tree] the bananas, for that is what the fruit proved to be, were sweet and refreshing. after he had eaten enough he set immediately about making his hat. he broke off a couple of reeds. he bent one into a hoop. but the hoop would not hold without thread. sometimes it was too large and sometimes too small. but it must fit his head. he pulled up grass and bound its ends together, but the grass stalks were not strong enough. he hunted until he found a tree whose inner bark was soft and came out in long fibres. he bound his reed with this. this, too, made the hoop soft so that it did not hurt his head. when the hoop was ready and fitted to his head he found the banana leaves could not be used. their veins ran straight out from the midrib. this made them easily torn, and besides, they were too large. they were not the best shape. he saw that leaves about a foot long with broad and tapering points would be best. he saw too, that if the leaves had their veins running parallel with the midrib they would be stronger. he made search and at length found leaves that seemed made for his purpose. they were thick and leathery and tapered from base to apex like a triangle. he now proceeded with his hat-making. he would take a leaf and lay it on the ground with the base toward him. then he laid the hoop on the base of the leaf, wrapped it around the hoop and fastened it with thorns. he did the same with the other leaves. the thorns were his pins. at last he pinned the tips of the leaves together at the top and the hat was ready. it looked just like a big cone, but it kept out the heat of the sun. robinson now had corn and bananas and when he was thirsty he drank a handful of water from the spring. he had been now nine days on the island. every day he looked out on the sea until his eyes ached to see if he might discover a ship. he could not understand why no ship came his way. "who knows how long i must wait here?" said he sorrowfully. then the thought came to him: "you will not be able to keep track of the days unless you write it down." xi robinson's calendar the matter of keeping track of time puzzled robinson very much. it was getting more difficult every day to keep it in his memory. he must write down the days as they slip by, but where and how? he had neither pen, ink, nor paper. should he mark every day with a colored stone on the smooth side of the huge rock wall within whose clefts he had dug out his cave? but the rain would wash off the record and then he would lose all his bearings. then he thought of the beach, but there the wind and waves would soon also erase it. he thought a long time. "i must find something," he said to himself on which to keep a record. "i must also know when sunday is. i must rest one day in the week. yes, i must find something," he said, "on which to write." and finally he found it. he chose two trees standing near each other and then sought for a small sharp stone, which he could make still sharper by striking it on another. when he had got this pen ready he cut into the bark of one tree: _shipwreck, sunday, 10th of september, 1875._ he made seven cuts in a row for the seven days in the week. the first cut was longer than the others. this was to represent the sunday. at sundown every day he made a new cut in the bark. the other tree he called the month tree. on its stem he was to cut a mark every time his week tree told him a month had passed. but he must be careful, for the months were not of equal length. but he remembered that his teacher had once said in school that the months could be counted on the knuckles and hollows of the hand, in such a way that the long and short months could be found easily and he could tell in this way the number of days in each. robinson worked at enlarging his shelter a little every day. he was sorely at loss to find something in which to carry the dirt away from the entrance, or enough so that it would not choke up the opening. a large clam shell was all he could think of at present. he would carry the dirt to the entrance and some distance away, and then throw it. fortunately the ground sloped away rapidly, so that he needed a kind of platform before his door. he was careful to open the cleft at some distance above the large opening. for the air was damp and impure in the shelter. but with the opening made high above, fresh air was constantly passing into, and impure air out of, his cave. light, too, was admitted in this way. xii robinson makes a hunting bag several days passed with robinson's hat-making and his calendar-making and his watching the sea. every day his corn and bananas became more distasteful to him. and he planned a longer journey about the island to see if something new to eat could be found. but he considered that if he went a distance from his cave and found something it would really be of little use to him. "i could eat my fill," he said, "but that is all. and by the time i get back to my cave i will again be hungry. i must find something in which i can gather and carry food." he found nothing. "the people in new york," he said, "have baskets, or pockets, or bags made of coarse cloth. of them all, i could most easily make the net, perhaps, of vines. but the little things would fall out of the net. i will see whether i can make a net of small meshes." but he soon saw that the vines did not give a smooth surface. he thought for a long while. in his garden at home his father had sometimes bound up the young trees with the soft inner bark of others. he wondered if he could use this. he stripped away the outer bark from the tree, which before had yielded him a fibre for his hat, and pulled off the long, smooth pieces of the inner bark. he twisted them together. then he thought how he could weave the strands together. he looked at his shirt. a piece was torn off and unravelled. he could see the threads go up and down. he saw that some threads go from left to right (woof), others lengthwise (the warp). from his study of the woven cloth, robinson saw he must have a firmer thread than the strips of bark gave alone. he separated his bark into long, thin strips. these he twisted into strands or yarn by rolling between his hands, or on a smooth surface. as he twisted it he wound it on a stick. it was slow, hard work. of all his work, the making of yarn or thread gave him the most trouble. he learned to twist it by knotting the thread around the spindle or bobbin on which he wound it and twirling this in the air. he remembered sadly the old spinning wheel we had seen at his grandmother's house. his next care was something to hold the threads while he wove them in and out. he had never seen a loom. after long study robinson set two posts in the ground and these he bound with seventy-two strands horizontally under each other. then he tied in the top at the left another thread and wove it in and out through the seventy-two threads. so he tied seventy-two vertical strands and wove them in and out. thus he had a net three times as long as his foot and as wide as long. he tied the four corners together. he made a woven handle for it and put it on his shoulder like a sack, saying gleefully, "this shall be my hunting bag." [illustration: robinson's loom] xiii robinson explores the island after robinson made his hunting bag he was anxious to set off on his journey of exploring the island. so he arose very early next morning. "before it is hot," thought he, "i will be quite a distance on my journey." he ate a couple of bananas, scooped up a few handfuls of water from the spring, stuck a few ears of corn in his hunting bag, took his stick in his hand and went forth. as he left his cave the thought struck him: "what if i could not find my cave again? how can i manage so that i can come back to it? i will go away in one direction and return the same way; but suppose i were to lose the way?" then he noticed his shadow pointing like a great finger from the sea toward the land. he could direct himself by that. he kept his shadow in front of him. he had noticed, too, that the wind always blew north of the point where the sun rose. this helped him. but sometimes the wind died down. he had to climb over many rocks and pierce many thickets. at each step he saw a rich growth of plants, stems, leaves, flowers, but nothing to eat, no fruits, or nuts. at length he came to a tree as high as a small church steeple. [illustration: cocoanut palm tree] then he thought of what his father had once said about the trees in strange countries. "many are as tall as a church steeple and the nuts are as big as one's head." he looked again. yes, there they hung among the leaves, concealed high above in the crown! but _so_ high, it was well that robinson had learned to climb while on board the ship. he quickly laid down his hunting bag and clambered up the smooth stem of the high tree, a palm. he picked off a nut and threw it down and then several more, and climbed down again. but the nuts were very hard. how should he open them? he had brought along his sharp stone with which he had stripped off the inner bark. with this he forced off the thick outer shell. but now came the hard nut within, and how hard it was! striking it was of no use. then he threw a great stone on the nut. the shell was crushed and a snow-white kernel lay before him. it tasted like almond. with astonishment robinson saw in the middle of the nut a large empty space which must have been filled with fluid as the inside was wet. he wished that he had the juice to drink, for he was very thirsty. with this in view, he examined another and riper nut, and the outside came off more easily. but how could he break it and at the same time save the juice? he studied the hull of the cocoanut on all sides. at the ends were three little hollows. he attempted first to bore in with his fingers, but he could not. "hold!" he cried. "maybe i can cut them there with the point of my stone knife." this was done without trouble and out of the hole flowed the sweet, white juice. robinson put a couple of nuts in his hunting bag, and also the shells from the broken nuts. "now," he thought, "i shall no longer have to drink from my hand." with this thought he went on his way. as robinson came to a rock in his path, out jumped what robinson took to be a rabbit. he ran after him to catch him, but the rabbit was much the swifter. so robinson hastened home, but before he reached it the stars were shining with their lustrous light. tired robinson stretched his limbs on his bed of grass and leaves and slept soundly. xiv robinson as a hunter all the time robinson was confined to the cave he kept thinking about the rabbit he had seen and how he might catch one. finally, he determined to make a spear. he broke down a thin, young sapling, stripped off its branches and in one end fastened a sharp stone. he then went to bed, for he wanted to be up early for his first hunting trip on the morrow. with his hunting sack and spear, robinson began to creep very, very cautiously through the underbrush. but he did not go far before he saw a lot of rabbits feeding peacefully on the soft leaves and grass. he drew back and threw his spear with all his might. but the spear did not reach the rabbits. it fell far short and the rabbits sprang up and ran quickly away. he tried it several times with the same result. then robinson, discouraged, turned back home and ate his corn, bananas, and cocoanuts without meat. in the meantime he found a new kind of food. he discovered a nest of eggs. how good they tasted to him! but his longing for meat was still very great. "i will try to make a bow and arrow," he said. no sooner said than done. he bent a long piece of tough, young wood and stretched between the ends a cord twisted out of the fiber taken from the cocoanut shell. he then sought for a piece of wood for arrows. he split the ends with his flint knife and fastened in splinters of stone. at the other end he fastened on some feathers found on the ground. the arrows flew through the air with great swiftness. "they will go far enough," thought robinson, "if i could only hit anything." he practised shooting. he stuck his stone knife in a tree and shot at it the whole day long. at first he could not hit it at all. the arrows flew far from the mark. after a while he could hit the tree, but not the knife. then as he practised, his arm grew ever surer, until at last he could hit the knife at almost every attempt. after a few days he again went rabbit hunting. he thought that the rabbit did not offer a mark so high as his knife, so he stuck a stone in the ground and practised shooting at that. he gradually increased the distance until he could hit the mark at twenty or thirty yards. the next morning robinson took his bow and arrows and went out to hunt. he aimed at a rabbit, shot, and it fell, pierced by the arrow. his very first shot was successful. he hastened up and took the dead rabbit on his shoulder, carried it to his cave and skinned it. then he cut off a nice, large piece of meat and was going to roast it, but alas, he had no fire! xv robinson's shoes and parasol the next morning robinson could not get up. his feet were swollen and sore in consequence of walking without shoes over thorns and stones. he must remain the whole day in his cave. before him, in the sun, his walking stick stuck in the ground. he thought how he had been troubled yesterday to find his way and about the shadow. he had now time to study it. he watched it the whole day through. in the morning it pointed toward the land. in the evening toward the sea. this comes from the daily movement of the sun. he determined to study the matter more carefully. robinson got up and with great effort walked to the spring. there he cooled his burning feet, and gathered some large leaves, which he bound on them. he decided to remain in his cave a few days, for he had enough food stored up to last him some length of time. he planned how he might make himself a pair of shoes. as soon as his feet were well, he sought out some thick bark and put fastenings of tough, strong fiber on it. these served very well to protect his feet. but he must have some further protection from the sun. it beamed so hot that his hat was not enough. he made a parasol out of leaves like his hat. he took a straight stick for a handle. he tied some reeds together and bent them into a hoop. he then fastened the upper end of the stick in the center of the hoop by means of six reeds which formed the ribs of the parasol. to keep out the sun he covered this framework with large, broad leaves. with a cord he tied the stem ends of the leaves to the stick just above where the reeds were tied. spread out, these broad leaves completely covered the ribs. their tips reached over the hoop. they were fastened together by means of small, needle-like fish-bones robinson had found on the beach. xvi getting fire now robinson had heard that savages take two dry pieces of wood and rub them so long on each other that they at length begin to burn. he tried it. the sweat ran down his cheeks, but every time the wood was about to catch fire his strength would give out, and he was obliged to rest, and when he began again the wood was cold. "how will it be in winter," he cried, "when it is cold, and i have no fire?" he must try other ways of preparing meat for his table. he must think of some other way of getting fire. he remembered that once, when a boy at home, he had in playing with a stick made it hot by twirling it on end on a piece of wood. "i will try this," he thought. he searched for a good hard stick and a piece of wood upon which to turn or twirl it with his hands. having found the best materials at hand, he began to twirl the stick. he made a little hollow in the block of wood in which to turn his upright stick. there was heat but no fire. he twirled and twirled, but he could not get the wood hot enough to blaze up or ignite. he had not skill. besides his hands were not used to such rough treatment. soon they blistered and this method had to be given up. "i must have fire," he still thought, and recalled the sparks that flew from the stone pavements of the streets when the iron shoes of the horses struck them as they slipped and strained at their cruel loads. why may i not get fire by striking together two stones? he sought out two hard stones and with great diligence kept striking them together until his strength gave out, and he was obliged again to acknowledge failure. he remembered that sometimes travelers put the meat underneath the saddle and ride on it until it is soft. he tried it with pounding. he laid some of the meat on a flat stone and pounded it. it became quite soft and tasted very well. he then tried hanging it in the sun and finally wrapped it in leaves and buried it for a few hours in the hot sand. xvii robinson makes some furniture one thing troubled robinson very much. he could not sit comfortably while eating. he had neither chair nor table. he wished to make them, but that was a big job. he had no saw, no hammer, no auger and no nails. robinson could not, therefore, make a table of wood. not far from his cave he had seen a smooth, flat stone. "ay," thought he, "perhaps i can make me a table out of stone." he picked out the best stone and built up four columns as high as a table and on these he laid his large, flat stone. it looked like a table, sure enough, but there were rough places and hollows in it. he wanted it smooth. he took clay and filled up the holes and smoothed it off. when the clay dried, the surface was smooth and hard. robinson covered it with leaves and decked it with flowers till it was quite beautiful. when the table was done, robinson began on a chair, he made it also of stone. it had no back. it looked like a bench. it was uncomfortable to sit on. robinson covered it with moss. then it was an easy seat. table and chair were now ready. robinson could not move them from one corner to another, nor when he sat on the chair could he put his feet under the table, and yet he thought them excellent pieces of furniture. every day robinson went hunting and shot a rabbit, but the meat would not keep. at home they would have put it in the cellar. if only he had a cellar! he saw near his cave a hole in the rock. he dug it out a little with his mussel shell and found that it led back under a rock. from much bending over in digging, robinson's back, unused to severe toil, ached wretchedly. he decided to make a spade. with his flint he bored four holes in a great, round mussel shell. they formed a rectangle as long as a little finger and as wide. through these holes he drew cocoanut fibre and bound the shell to a handle fast and strong. with his spade he dug a hole so deep that he could stand in it upright. then he put in a couple of shelves made of flat stones. in this cellar he put his rabbit meat and his eggs. then he laid branches over it and finally covered the whole with leaves. xviii robinson becomes a shepherd with his bow and arrow, robinson went hunting every day. the rabbits soon learned to know him and let themselves be seldom seen. as soon as they saw him, they took alarm. they became timid and shy. one day robinson went out as usual to shoot rabbits. he found none. but as he came to a great rock he heard from behind a new sound, one he had not heard before in the island. ba-a-a, it sounded. "a kid," thought robinson, "like that with which i have so often played at home." he slipped noiselessly around the rock and behold, really there stood a kid. he tried to call it, but the kid sought safety in flight. he hastened after it. then he noticed that it was lame in one fore foot. it ran into some brush, where robinson seized it by the horns and held it fast. how robinson rejoiced! he stroked it and fondled it. then he thought, how could it come into this wilderness on this lonesome island? "has your ship been cast upon the rocks too, and been broken to pieces? you dear thing, you shall be my comrade." he seized the goat by the legs, and no matter how it kicked, carried it to his cave. then he fetched quickly a cocoanut shell full of water and washed and bathed the goat's wounded leg. a stone had rolled down from the hill and had inflicted a severe wound on its left fore leg, or perhaps it had stepped into a crack in the rocks. robinson tore off a piece of linen from his shirt, dipped it in water and bound it with shreds of the cocoanut upon the wound. then he pulled some grass and moss and made a soft bed near the door of the cave. after he had given it water, it looked at him with thankful eyes and licked his hand. robinson could not sleep that night. he thought continually of his goat and got up time and again to see if it was safe. the moon shone clear in the heavens. as robinson sat before the goat's bed he looked down on his new possession as lovingly as a mother on her child. the next morning robinson's first thought was, "i am no longer alone. i have a companion, my goat." he sprang up and looked for it. there she lay on her side, still sleeping. as he stood and considered, the thought came to him that perhaps the goat had escaped from its keeper. there must then be some one living on the land. he quickly put on his shoes and his hat, took his parasol, and ran to the rock where he had found the goat. he called, he sought, he peered about to see if some shepherd were there somewhere. he found nothing. he found no trace of man. there was no road, no bridge, no field, no logs, not even a chip or shaving to show that the hand of man had been there. but what was that? in the distance ran a herd of goats over the rocks. but no dog followed them and no shepherd. they ran wild on the island. they had perhaps been left there by some ship. as he came home he noticed the goat sorrowfully. the bandage had become dry. the goat might be suffering pain. robinson loosened the bandage, washed the wound again and bound it up anew. it was so trustful. it ran after him and he decided always to protect it. "i will always be your shepherd and take care of you," he said. xix robinson builds a home for his goat but the goat was a new care. wild animals could come and kill and carry robinson's goat away while he slept, and if the goat got frightened while he was hunting it would run away. "i will have to make me a little yard in front of my cave," he said, "for my goat to live in." but from whence must come the tools? he had neither hatchet nor saw. where then were the stakes to come from? he went in search of something. after hunting for a long time he came upon a kind of thistle about two feet higher than himself, having at its top a red torch-like blossom. there were a great many of them. "good!" thought robinson. "if i could only dig up enough of them and plant them thick around the door of my cave, i would have just the thing. no one could get at me, nor at the goat, either, the thorns would keep anything from creeping through, peeping in or getting over." so he took his mussel-shell spade and went to work. it was pretty hard, but at length he succeeded in laying bare the roots of quite a number. but he could not drag them to his cave on account of the thorns sticking in him. he thought a long time. finally, he sought out two strong poles or branches which were turned up a little at one end and like a sled runner. to these he tied twelve cross-pieces with bark. to the foremost he tied a strong rope made from cocoa fiber. he then had something that looked much like a sled on which to draw his thistle-like brush to his cave. but for one day he had done enough. the transplanting of the thistles was hard work. his spade broke and he had to make a new one. in the afternoon he broke his spade again. and as he made his third one, he made up his mind that it was no use trying to dig with such a weak tool in the hard ground. it would only break again. "if i only had a pick." but he had none. he found a thick, hard, sharp stone. with it he picked up the hard earth, but had to bend almost double in using it. "at home," he thought, "they have handles to picks." the handle was put through a hole in the iron. he turned the matter over and over in his mind, how he might put a hole through the stone. but he found no means. he searched out a branch with a crotch at one end. he tied the stone to this with strong cocoa fiber and bark. [illustration: robinson's tools] how his eye glistened as he looked at the new tool! now he began to work. he first loosened up the earth with his pick, then he dug it out with his spade and planted in a high thistle. many days he had to work, but finally one evening the hedge was ready. he had a row in a semicircle in front of his cave. he counted the marks on his calendar tree. the day on which he had begun to make his hedge he had especially marked out. he had worked fourteen days. he had completed his hedge with the exception of a small hole that must serve for a door. but the door must not be seen from without. as robinson thought, it came to him that there was still place for two thistles on the outside. he could easily get in, but the entrance was difficult to find from the outside. robinson looked on his hedge from without. it was not yet thick enough. for this reason he planted small thistles between the larger ones. with the digging them out and transplanting them he was a whole week longer. finally, the hedge and the yard were ready. now robinson could rest without fear and sleep in his cave, and could have his goat near him all the time. it delighted him greatly. it ran after him continually like a dog. when he came back from an absence, it bleated for joy and ran to meet him as soon as he got inside the hedge. robinson felt that he was not entirely alone. he had now a living being near him. xx robinson gets ready for winter there was one thing that troubled robinson greatly. "what will become of me when the winter comes? i will have no fire to warm me. i have no clothing to protect me from the cold, and where shall i find food when snow and ice cover all the ground and when the trees are bare and the spring is frozen? it will be cold then in my cave; what shall i do? it is cold and rainy already. i believe this is harvest time and winter will soon be here. winter and no stove, no winter clothing, no winter store of food and no winter dwelling. what shall i do?" he considered again the project of making fire. he again sought out two pieces of wood and sat down and rubbed them together. the sweat rolled down his face. when the wood began to get warm, his hand would become tired, and he would have to stop. when he began again the wood was cold. he worked for an hour or two, then he laid the wood aside and said, "i don't believe i can do it i must do the next best thing. i can at least get warm clothing to protect me from the rain and snow." he looked down at his worn, thin clothing, his trousers, his shirt, his jacket; they had become so thin and worn that they were threadbare. "i will take the skins of the hares which i have shot and will make me something," he thought. he washed and cleaned them, but he needed a knife and he set about making one. he split one end of a tough piece of wood, thrust his stone blade in it and wound it with cocoa fibre. his stone knife now had a handle. he could now cut the skins quite well. but what should he do for needle and thread? maybe the vines would do. "but they are hardly strong enough," he thought. he pulled the sinews from the bones of the rabbit and found them hard. maybe he could use them. he found fish skeletons on the seashore and bored a hole in the end of the small, sharp rib bones. then he threaded his bone needle with the rabbit sinews and attempted to sew, but it would not go. his needle broke. the skin was too hard. he bored holes in the edge of the pieces of skin and sewed through the holes. this went very well. he sewed the skins together with the hair side inward, made himself a jacket, a pair of trousers, a hat, and finally covered his parasol with rabbit skin, for the rain had already dripped through the leaves of it. all went well, only the trousers did not fit. he loosened them and puckered them to no purpose. "anyway," he thought, "i am now well protected from the cold, when it does come." [illustration: robinson in his new suit] xxi how robinson lays up a store of food now for the food. could robinson preserve the meat? he had often heard his mother tell about preserving meat in salt. he had even eaten salt meat, pickled meat. but where could he get salt? one day when the wind blew hard the water was driven upon the shore and filled a little hollow. after a few days the ground glistened white as snow where the water had been. was it snow? robinson took it in his hands and put it in his mouth. it was salt. the sun had evaporated the water in the hollow--had vaporized it--and the air had drunk it up. what was left behind? salt. now he could get salt as long as he needed it. he took cocoanut shells and strewed salt in them. then he cut the rabbit meat in thin strips, rubbed them with salt, and laid them one on the other in the salt in the shells. he covered it over with a layer of salt. he put over each shell the half of a larger one and weighted it down with stones. after a period of fourteen days he found the meat quite red. it had pickled. but he did not stop here. he gathered and stored in his cellar cocoanuts and corn in such quantities that he would be supplied for a whole winter. it seemed best to catch a number of rabbits, build a house for them and keep them. then he could kill one occasionally and have fresh meat. then it came to him that goats would be much better, for they would give milk. he determined immediately to have a herd of goats. he made a string or lasso out of cocoa fibre. then he went out, slipped up quietly to a herd of goats and threw the lasso over one. but the lasso slipped from the horns and the goat ran away. the next day he had better luck. he threw the lasso, drew it tight and the goat was captured. he brought it home. he rejoiced when he saw that it gave milk. he was happy when he got his first cocoanut shell full of sweet rich milk. his goat herd grew. he soon had five goats. he had no more room in his yard. he could not provide food enough. he must let them out. he must make another hedge around his yard so that the goats could get food and yet be kept from going away. he got stakes from the woods and gathered them before his cave. he sharpened them and began to drive them in the earth. but it rained more and more each day. he was wet through as he worked. he had finally to stop work, for the rain was too heavy. xxii robinson's diary robinson was much disturbed because he had no means of keeping a record of things as they happened from day to day. he had his calendar, it is true. he would not lose track of the time. but he wished for some way to write down his thoughts and what happened. so he kept up keen search for anything that would serve him for this purpose. every time he journeyed about the island he kept careful watch for something that he might write upon. he thought of the leaves of the palm tree, the white under surface of the shelf fungus. but these he found would not do. he tried many kinds of bark and leaves. there was a kind of tall reed or grass growing in the marshes whose rind seemed good when dried. he examined the inner bark of many trees. he at last found that the inner bark of a tree which resembled our elm tree worked best. he would cut through the bark with his stone knife around the tree. at about one foot from this he would cut another ring. he then would cut through the bark lengthwise from one circular cut to the other. he could then peel off the section easily. while it was yet full of sap he would separate the soft, tough, thin inner layer of the bark. this usually came off in sheets without a break. when these sheets of bark were stretched and dried they could be used very nicely instead of paper. robinson next searched for something that would serve him as ink, and this was much easier to find than paper. he had noticed many kinds of galls of many different colors growing on trees. he did not know what they were, or how they grew, but he had learned in his father's store that ink was often made from galls gathered from trees. "anyway," he thought, "i can get ink from the cuttle-fish." he had watched this animal get away from its enemies by sending out a cloud of purplish fluid, in which to hide as it darted away. he had learned also that indigo is made from the leaves of a plant. he had noticed a plant growing in the open places in the forest whose leaves turned black when dried. robinson gathered a quantity of gall-nuts and soaked them in water. to the black fluid thus obtained he added a little rice water to make it flow well, and this served very well as an ink. he kept his ink in a cup made from a cocoanut shell. he was not long in getting a pen, though the lack of a good sharp knife made it hard to make a good one. in going about he had gathered a quantity of large feathers. he saved these for the time when he should have his paper and ink ready. now, he cut away a quill to a point and split it up a little way. he was now supplied with writing materials. "is it not wonderful," he thought, "how all our wants are filled? we have only to want a thing badly enough and it comes." robinson began at once to write down the date for each day and the main thing he did or that happened on it. he called this his diary. he had now a better way of keeping time than on his tree calendar. he did not need it any more. you have no doubt wondered how robinson could work in his cave, especially at night without a light. the truth is, it was a great source of discomfort to him. at sunset he was in total darkness in his cave. during the day light enough streamed in from the open doorway. to be alone in total darkness is not pleasant. "if i only had fire!" he said again and again. he watched the many large beetles and fireflies flash their light in the dark of the evening as he sat in front of his shelter. the thought came to him that if he only had some way of keeping together a number of them, they would serve very well for a candle in his cave at night. how he longed for a glass bottle such as he had so often wantonly broken when at home! back of his shelter there was a hill where the rock layers jutted out. he had noticed here several times the thin transparent rock that he had seen in his father's store. it is called isinglass. "i will make a living lantern," he said aloud in his eagerness. he soon had a suitable piece pried loose. he cut a part of a cocoanut shell away and in its place he put a sheet of isinglass. that evening at dark he gathered several handfuls of the great fire beetles and put them in his lantern. what joy their glow gave him in his cave at night. it was almost as much comfort as a companion. but while it lighted up the deep dark of the cave and enabled him to move about, he was unable after all to write in his diary at night. every morning he set his captives free. in the evening he would go out and capture his light. xxiii robinson is sick one evening robinson went to bed sound and well. the next morning he was sick. before he had only the heat of the day to complain of. to-day he was freezing. he wanted to go to work to get warm, but even this did not break his chill. it increased till his teeth chattered with the cold. "perhaps," thought he, "if i can sleep a little i will get better." but he could not sleep. he was burning with fever and then shaking with cold by turns. he felt a strong thirst, but he was so weak that he could scarcely get the goat's milk. he had no sooner drunk the milk than his tongue was as dry as before. he felt better after a night of sleep, but the next day his fever and chills were worse than before. then he bethought him of his parents. how kindly his mother had taken care of him! now no one was near that could assist him. "ah," he sighed, "must i die here? who would bury me? there is no one to miss me." at this the tears came to his eyes. his sickness increased with each day. occasionally the fever would go down sufficiently to allow him to get something to eat. then it would be worse than before. in his dire need he wanted to pray, but he was so weak that he could only stammer, "dear god, help me, or i shall die!" one night he had a strange dream. he thought he saw his good old father standing before him calling to him. he spread out his arms and cried aloud, "here i am, here i am!" he tried to get up, but he was so weak that he fell back fainting. he lay there a long time, but finally came to. he felt a burning thirst, but no one reached him a drop of water. he prepared to die. he folded his hands and prayed to god that he would be merciful to him. he prayed forgiveness from his parents. once more he raised his head and gazed wildly around, then he sank back and knew no more. when he again awoke he felt better. his hot fever had gone. he attempted to walk. he had just enough strength to crawl to the table and fetch a shell of water. when he tried to walk he had to sit down at every two or three steps. from this he recovered gradually, growing better and better, and he thanked god inwardly for his recovery. his sickness had continued from june 18 to july 3. xxiv robinson's bower robinson's sickness set him thinking about his home. he had been so afraid of animals when he came to the island that he thought of nothing but protection from them. he had been now a year on the island and had seen nothing more dangerous than a goat. the fear of animals had practically faded away. in thinking over his sickness he made up his mind that it was caused by sleeping in his cave where the sun never shone. the ventilation seemed good, but the walls were damp, especially in the rainy season. then the water would trickle down through the cleft in spite of all he could do. he resolved to build, if possible, a little cottage, or, as he called it, a bower, in the yard in front of his shelter. the hedge of thistles was growing and formed a fence that an animal could not get through. his screen of willows on the outside of this would soon hide him from view from the sea. he had the wall of rock and the hill behind him. he planned out his way of building it very carefully. "it must be done," he said (robinson formed the habit of talking to himself, so that he would not forget how to talk), "without hammer, nails, or saw." he first sought out four posts, as large as he could well handle. there were always broken trees and branches in the forest. if he searched long enough he could find posts just suited to his need. he wanted four of the same thickness and height and with a fork at the end. after long searching he found what he wanted. he was careful to get those that he could drag to his shelter. he placed these in the ground, forming the corners of a square about ten feet long. in the forks he placed poles running around about eight feet from the ground. at about every three feet he fastened others, running in the same way, with heavy cords made of fibre. he found his greatest trouble with the roof. it must be sloped to shed rain. he had to find two more forked posts, three or four feet longer than the others. these he placed opposite each other in the centers of two sides. upon these he placed a ridge pole. he then laid other poles lengthwise from ridge pole to the edge of the frames. his frame was now done. his plan was now to cover this frame with straw or grasses tied in bundles. he had seen the barns in the country thatched in this way by the dutch farmers in new york state. he gathered the straw of the wild rice. it was long, straight and tough. [illustration: robinson's bower] it was easily tied into flat bundles. these he bound securely on to the frame work with cords. he began at the bottom so that the ends of the row would lap over the tops of the last one put on. in this way he built a very comfortable and rainproof bower. it was easy to make a bed of poles covered with straw. a table and bench were added and shelves of poles. robinson felt great joy over this new home. "i will not now be sick any more," he said. "in case of danger i can get into my cave. but at all other times i will live in my bower." he had use still for his cave. he could use it to store some things in. but he had to be careful about the dampness in wet weather. robinson was getting to feel at home. he was no longer so sad. he did not grieve so much for home. he looked upon his home with great delight it was secure. he had his herd of goats always in his sight. at evening he would do his milking. he found he could keep the milk for some time in the cave. he was tempted to try making some butter from the good, rich cream. "but," said robinson, "i have neither vessels to make it in nor bread to eat it on." he planned many things to do. "i will make a hammock some day for my bower and some vessels to use in my work," he thought. xxv robinson again explores his island when robinson recovered his strength he had a strong desire to see more of the island. at first he had been in constant fear of wild animals, but now he thought he would like to see all there was to see in the island. on the 15th of july he started out. first he went to a brook which ran into the sea near his cave. its water was clear and pure; along its shore lay beautiful meadows. as he came to the upper course of the brook the meadow gave way to forest. on the border of the forest he found melons and grapes. the night came on and he slept again in a tree. the next morning he went farther and came to a clear rivulet. here the region was wonderfully beautiful. the flowers bloomed as in a garden, and near the flowers stood splendid apple and orange trees. he took as much of the fruit as he could carry and went on his way. this journey continued three days. the grapes which he had carried he dried in the sun and made raisins. the 10th of september came, one year had passed on the island. he was many hundred miles from home, alone on an island. with tears he cried out, "ah! what are my dear parents saying? they have no doubt long given me up as dead. if i could only send them a message to comfort them and let them know how much i love them!" the day was celebrated as a holiday. he thanked god that he had given him so many good things. often he had lived the whole day in care and anxiety. now he tried to be more cheerful and to meet the troubles of each day with courage. but robinson was not yet satisfied. he longed to know more of the island and prepared himself for a greater journey. he slung his hunting pouch over his shoulder, filled it full of food, took his bow and arrows, stuck his stone hatchet in his belt and started on his way. he traveled over meadows, through beautiful forests in which were hundreds of birds. he was delighted as they sang and fluttered about. the journey was beautiful and pleasant to robinson. in the forests he often saw small wild creatures, but he shot nothing. after the first night he slept under a tree in the soft grass, for he had now no fear of wild animals. along the shore he saw great groves of palms with their large nuts. he saw, too, many goats in all parts of the island. now he was ready to take the shortest way home. he had not gone far before he came into a dark forest. he became confused and wandered about for several days. on the fourth day he came to a little pile of stones, which he had made to mark the way as he was going out. from this place the way was easy to find. on this trip he was gone already two weeks. xxvi robinson and his birds of all the things he saw on his journey robinson was most delighted with the birds. they were of the most beautiful colors. the forest was full of them. they gleamed like jewels in the deep masses of foliage. in the morning their singing filled the air with sound. robinson had never taken much notice of the birds at home. but now every living thing attracted him. he loved to see them happy. he would watch often by the hour and learn the habits of nesting and getting food of nearly every bird on the island. robinson did not know the names of many of the birds he saw on the island. he had to make names for them. the strangest thing he saw on his journey was the nest of what he called the yellow-tail. this bird lives in colonies and makes its nest at the ends of the long leaves of the mountain palm. when he first saw these queer looking sacks hanging from the leaves he was amazed. he had never seen so strange a sight. from the end of each great leaf hung a long, closely woven nest. robinson could not make out at first what they were. soon, however, he saw the birds come out of the mouths of the nests. here, one hundred feet from the ground, they hung their nests. but they were perfectly safe. he had not gone far from the tree in which the yellow tails had their nests when he was suddenly startled by a voice crying, "who, who are you?" robinson was greatly frightened and hid beneath the drooping branches of a cedar tree. he feared every moment that the owner of the voice would make his appearance. but it kept at a distance. every few minutes from the depths of the forest would come the doleful cry, "who, who are you?" robinson did not dare to stir from his hiding place. he remained there over night. after the night came on he heard the strange voice no more. the next day he renewed his journey. he saw many birds that were wholly strange to him. there was a kind of wild pigeon that built its home in a hole in the rock. it was a most beautiful bird with long, slender, graceful feathers in its tail. he saw the frigate bird soaring high above the island. the number and beauty of the humming-birds amazed robinson. they were of all colors. one had a bill in the shape of a sickle. the most brilliant of them all was the ruby-crested hummingbird. near noon, while robinson was shielding himself from the scorching heat of the sun in a deep, shaded glen, he was startled again by the strange voice crying, "who, who, who are you?" he lay quite still, determined if possible to allow the voice to come, if it would, within sight. he heard it slowly coming up the glen. each time it repeated the cry it sounded nearer. at last he saw spying at him through the boughs of the tree under which he was lying a large bird with soft, silky feathers of green and chestnut. "who, who, who are you?" said the bird. robinson could not help but laugh. he had been frightened at the cry of a bird. but the bird that interested robinson most was the parrot. there were several kinds of them. they flew among the trees with great noise and clatter and shrieking. robinson determined if possible to secure one for a pet. "i can teach it to talk," he said, "and i will have something to talk to."' as soon as he returned home he set about catching one. he noticed that a number were in the habit of visiting an old tree near the shelter every morning. he planned to snare one and tried several mornings, but he could not get one into the snare. he tried to hit one with his bow and arrow. he at last succeeded in hitting one and stunning it so that it fell to the ground. he ran rapidly to pick it up, but before he could get to where it lay in the bushes it had disappeared. after thinking the matter over he concluded that it would be much better to get a pair of young birds and raise them. the old ones would be hard to tame and difficult to teach. it was easy enough to find a nest in a hollow tree. he secured from the nest two birds just ready to fly. he made a cage for them out of willow rods. he placed the cage at the entrance of his cave and studied how he would feed them. much to his surprise the parent birds discovered their young ones and brought them food and fed them through the open work of the cage. when the birds were grown they rapidly learned to talk. robinson took great delight in teaching them. he taught them to call his name and when he came near they would call out, "poor old robinson crusoe!" these birds remained for many years with robinson. in fact, he was never afterward without a parrot. they helped him to pass away very pleasantly many hours that without them would have been sad. another bird that robinson loved was the little house wren. this bird was exceedingly tame and friendly. it was a very sweet and strong singer. it loved to make its nest in or near his shelter. there it would build and rear its young, within reach of his hands, while its throat was always bursting with melody. the mocking bird, too, always nested near and awakened him in the morning with its wonderful song. robinson became a great friend and favorite of the bird inhabitants of the island. they seemed to know him and showed no fear when near him. this pleased him very much. xxvii robinson gets fire robinson was now pretty comfortable. he had his bower with its chair and table. he had his cave in case of danger. he had his cellar in which to keep his meat. he would sit in the shade near the door of his bower and think of the many things he should be thankful for. but there was one hardship that robinson could not get used to and that was the eating of raw food. "how fine it would be if only i could parch a few grains of corn in the fire! i could like live a prince," thought he, "if i had fire. i would grind some of my corn into flour and make some corn bread or cakes and cook rice." he did so long for roasted meat and determined again to make the attempt to get fire. robinson was fast losing his idle, thoughtless ways of doing things. he had become a thoughtful and diligent man in the short time that he had been on the island. trouble and hardship had made a man of him. "i must carefully think over the whole matter of getting fire," he said. he had failed twice and was now resolved to succeed. "if the lightning would only strike a tree," he thought, "and set it on fire." but he could not wait for such a thing to happen, and how could he keep it when once thus obtained? it was clear he must have some way of producing fire when he wanted it, just as they did at home? he thought over the ways he had tried and the one most likely to be successful. he resolved to make a further trial of the method by twirling a stick in his hands. he selected new wood that was hard and dry. he carefully sharpened a stick about eighteen inches long and, standing it upright in a hollow in the block of wood, began to roll it between his hands. by the time robinson's hands were well hardened, it seemed that he was going to succeed at last. but he lacked the skill to be obtained only by long practice. "if i could only make it go faster," he said. "there must be some way of doing this. i believe i can do it. i used to make my top spin round with a cord; i wonder if i can use the cord here." the only cord he had was attached to his bow. he was going to take it off when a thought struck him. he loosened the string a bit and twisted it once about his spindle. then he drew the bow back and forth. the spindle was turned at a great rate. he saw he must hold one end with his left hand while the other rested in the hollow in the block. with his right, he drew the bow back and forth. how eagerly he worked! he had twirled but a few minutes when the dust in the hollow burst into fire from the heat produced by the rapidly twirling spindle. [illustration: robinson's tools for making fire] robinson was too overjoyed to make any use of it. he danced and capered about like one gone mad until the fire had gone out. but that was of no matter now, since he could get fire when he wanted it. he hastened to make him a rude fireplace and oven of stones. he hollowed out a place in the ground and lined and covered it with large flat stones. on one side he built up a chimney to draw up the smoke and make the fire burn brightly. he brought wood and some dry fungus or mushroom. this he powdered and soon had fire caught in it. he kindled in this way the wood in his stove and soon had a hot fire. the first thing he did in the way of cooking was to roast some rabbit meat on a spit or forked stick held in his hand over the fire. nothing robinson had ever eaten was to be compared to this. "i can do many things now," thought robinson. "my work will not be nearly so hard. my fire will be my servant and help me make my tools as well as cook my food. i can now cook my corn and rice." xxviii robinson makes baskets robinson still continued anxious about his food supply when he could no longer gather it fresh from the fields and forest. corn had again become ripe. he had found in a wet, marshy place some wild rice-plants loaded with ripened grain. as he now had fire he only had to have some way of storing up grains and he would not lack for food. he knew that grain stored away must be kept dry and that he must especially provide against dampness in his cave or in his bower. if he only had some baskets. these would be just the thing. but how was he to get them? robinson had never given a thought to either material or the method of making them. he, however, was gradually acquiring skill and confidence in himself. so far he had managed to meet all his wants. he had invented tools and made his own clothes and shelter, and, "now," said he to himself, "i will solve the new problem. i must first study the materials that i have at hand." he remembered the splint market baskets in which his father took vegetables home from the store. he recalled how the thin splints were woven. "they went over and under," he said. "that is simple enough if i had the splints." he set himself diligently to work to find a plant whose bark or split branches could be used for splints. he tried to peel off the rough outer bark of several trees in order to examine the inner layers of soft fibrous material. he found several trees that gave promise of furnishing abundance of long, thin strips, but the labor of removing the bark with his rude imperfect tools was so great that he resolved that he would have to find some other kind of material. "why need the strips be flat?" he thought. "i believe i could weave them in the same way if i used the long, thin, tough willow rods i saw growing by the brookside, when i was returning from my journey." he found on trial that the weaving went very well, but that he must have strong, thick rods or ribs running up and down to give strength and form to his basket. he worked hard, but it was slow work. it was three days before his first basket was done. he made many mistakes and was obliged many times to undo what he had accomplished in order to correct some error. and at last when he had woven the basket as large as he thought was suitable for his purpose, he did not know how to stop or finish the top so as to keep the basket from unraveling. at last he hit upon the plan of fastening two stout rods, one outside, the other inside, the basket. these he sewed firmly, over and over, to the basket with a kind of fibre from a plant he had discovered that looked almost to be what he had heard called the century plant in the parks at home. on attempting his next basket, he thought long how he might improve and save time. he must hasten, or the now almost daily rains would destroy his ripened wild corn and rice. "if i could use coils of that long grass i saw growing in the marsh beside the rice," he thought, "i could make twice the progress." he gathered an armful, twisted it into cables about an inch thick and wove it into his frame of upright rods instead of the horizontal layer of willow canes. this answered his purpose just as well and rendered the making of large baskets the work of a few hours. he found, however, that the willow rods or osiers were not pliant enough to work well in fastening his coils of grass cables together. he tried several things and at last succeeded best when he used the long thread-like fibre of the century-like plant. he had, however, to make a stout framework of rods. he would first coil his grass rope into this frame and then sew it together with twine or thread made from this fibre. [illustration: robinson's baskets] he afterwards tried making smaller and finer baskets out of the fibre that he had discovered, which could be easily had from the thick-leaved plant he thought he had seen at home. he first used long, tough, fine roots he had seen when digging up the tree at the mouth of his cave. afterwards he discovered some tall, tough reeds growing near by. he laid in a supply of these. he found that when he wanted to use them, a good soaking in water made them as pliable and tough as when first cut. the making of the baskets and storing up grains made it possible for robinson to become a farmer and thus make himself independent. this thought was a great relief to him. xxix robinson becomes a farmer robinson had now been on the island long enough to know how the seasons changed. he found that there were two kinds of weather there, wet weather and dry weather. there were two wet seasons in each year and two dry ones. during the wet seasons, which lasted nearly three months, robinson had to remain pretty closely at home, and could not gather grain, for the plants were then starting from the seeds. it ripened in the dry seasons. robinson soon found that he must have a store of corn and wild rice for food during the rainy seasons. he, however, knew nothing about planting and harvesting, nor preparing the ground for seed. he had it all to learn with no teacher or books to instruct him. he found a little space near his dwelling free from trees and thought he would plant some corn seed here. he did not know the proper time for planting. he thought because it was warm, seed would grow at any time. it happened his first seed was put in at the beginning of the dry season. he watched and waited to rejoice his eyes with the bright green of sprouting corn, but the seed did not grow. there was no rain and the sun's heat parched the land till it was dry and hard on the upland where his corn was planted. "very well," thought robinson, "i will plant it at the beginning of the wet season, either in march or september." he did so; the seed quickly sprouted up. but the weeds, shrubs, and vines sprouted as quickly, and before robinson was aware, his corn was overgrown and choked out by a rank growth of weeds and vines. "i see," said robinson, "that i must thoroughly prepare the soil before planting my seed." but he had no spade and no other tool that would stand the strain of digging among tough matted roots. but he must succeed. he put a new handle in the stone hoe or pick he had already made. his mussel shell spade was worn out. he must set himself to fashion out another. he decided to make one from the tough heavy wood of a tree that grew plentifully in the forest. he was lucky enough to find a tree of this kind whose bole had been split lengthwise by the falling of an old rotten tree near it. with his stone tools and the help of fire he managed after several days' work to make a wide sharpened tool out of one of the large pieces split off. it was a little over three feet long. he had trimmed one end small and cut notches in the sides about one foot from the flat end. he could place his foot in the notch and thrust his wooden spade into the earth. with his rude tool he dug up and turned the soil of a small space of ground several times to kill the vines and weeds. his corn quickly sprouted after this attempt and outstripped the weeds and vines which robinson constantly had to hold in check by pulling and hoeing. he was rejoiced at his growing crop and went each morning to feast his eyes on the rapidly expanding leaves and ears. one morning as he came in sight of the little clearing he thought he saw something disappearing in the low brush on the other side as he approached. alas, his labor had been in vain! a herd of wild goats had found out the place and had utterly destroyed his crop. robinson sat down nearby and surveyed the ruin of his little field. "it is plain," thought he, "i will have to fence in the field or i will never be able to harvest my crop. i cannot watch it all the time." he had already learned from his experience in making the fence around the goat pasture that the branches of many kinds of shrubs and trees, when broken off and thrust into the ground, will send out roots and leaves and at length if planted close together in a line, will form a thick hedge which no kind of beast can get through or over. he found out some willow trees whose branches broke easily, and soon had enough to thrust into the ground about six inches apart around the entire edge of his little field, which contained about one eighth of an acre. after this hedge had grown so as to be a fair protection to his crop he tried planting again at the proper season. he spaded up the ground and pulled out the matted roots as best he could and with great pains and care planted his corn in straight even rows. to make them straight and each hill of corn the same distance from its neighbors, he first marked off the ground in squares whose sides were about three and one half feet long. "now," thought he, "i will reap the reward of my labor." the corn grew rapidly, and toward the end of the first dry season was filling out and ripening its ears. but to robinson's dismay a new danger threatened his crop against which he could not fence. he was in despair. the birds were fast eating and destroying his partially ripened corn. he could not husk it yet. it was not ripe enough. he thought how easy it would be to protect his field if he had a gun. but he had learned that it is useless to give time to idle dreaming. he must do something and that quick. "if i could catch some of these rascals," he thought, "i would hang them up on poles, dead, as a warning to the rest." it seemed almost a hopeless task, but he went about it. it was in vain he tried to kill some of them by throwing rocks and sticks. he could not get near enough to them. at length he laid snares and succeeded in snaring three birds. he had learned to weave a pliable, strong thong out of cocoa and other fibre that he was now acquainted with. the birds thus caught he fastened on broken branches of trees which he stuck into the earth in different parts of his field. the birds heeded the warning and visited his corn field no more that season. at the end of the season he gathered or husked his corn and after it was thoroughly dry he shelled it from the cob with his hands. he used his baskets in which to carry his husked ears from the field to his cave and in which to store it when shelled. he found that the ears were larger and better filled and plumper than when the plants grew wild. he selected the largest and best filled ears for his seed the next time. in this way his new crop of corn was always better in kind and yielded more than the old one. at first he grew two crops a year, but by experimenting he found out about how much he needed for his own use and planted once a year enough to give him a liberal supply. he observed that the wild rice grew in swampy lands, so that he did not make the mistake of trying to raise it upon the upland where the corn grew best. he saw at once that the planting of rice on low, marshy or wet land was beyond his present strength and tools. "some time in the future," he thought, "i may try it." robinson also found wild grapes in abundance. these he dried by hanging them on the branches of trees. he thus had a store of raisins for each rainy season. xxx robinson as potter robinson was now anxious to cook his food, to boil his rice and vegetables and bake bread, but he could do nothing without cooking vessels. he had tried to use cocoanut shells, but these were too small and there was no way to keep them from falling over and spilling the contents. he determined to try to make some clay vessels. he knew where he could get a kind of clay that had the appearance of making good ware. it was fine grained and without lumps or pebbles. he was much perplexed to mould the clay into right shapes. he tried taking a lump and shaping it into a vessel with his hands. he tried many times, but each time the clay broke and he was forced to try some other way. he recalled how he had made his basket out of strands of twisted grass and wondered whether he could not make his pots in the same way. he spun the clay out into a long rope and began to coil it around a small basket forming the layers together with his hands. this was easy, but he did not see clearly how he was going to get the basket out from the inside of the pot. he found he could copy in this way any form he wished, but he finally hit upon the plan of making a form of wicker work and coiling the clay rope inside it, for he saw that whether he succeeded or not in getting the clay free from the basket he could use the pot, and besides if the pot would stand the fire the basket would burn off. to dry the pots robinson stood them in the sun a few days. when they were dry he tried to cook some soup in one of them. he filled it with water and put it on his stove or oven, but how sadly had he deceived himself. in a short time the water soaked into the clay and soon the pot had fallen to pieces. "how foolish i am!" said robinson to himself; "the pots have to be fired before they can be used." he set about this at once. he found two stones of equal size, placed them near each other and laid a third across these. he then placed three large pots upon them and made a hot fire under them. no sooner had the flame shot up than one of the pots cracked in two. "i probably made the fire too hot at first," thought robinson. he drew out some of the coals and wood, but afterwards gradually increased the fire again. he could not, however, get the pots hot enough to turn red he brought the dryest and hardest wood, but could not succeed in getting them hot enough to turn red. at length he was tired out and was compelled to give it up. when the pots were cool he tried to boil water in one. it was no better than the sun dried one. he saw that he must provide some way to get the pots much hotter than he could in the open air he resolved to make an oven of stones large enough to take in the wood as well as the pots. it must be above ground so that there might be plenty of draught for the fire. with great labor, he pried up and carried together flat stones enough to make an oven about four feet high with a chimney at one side. he had put in the center a stone table on which he could place three quite large pots. he left an opening in one side that could be partially closed by a large, flat stone. he worked eagerly and at the end of the second day he was ready to fire his oven. he first carried together a good quantity of dry wood, then he put in his pots and laid the wood around them. in a short time he had a very hot fire. he kept this up all day and until late at night. the next morning he went to his oven and found his pots were a beautiful red. he drew out the fire and allowed them to cool slowly. then he filled one with water and set it over the fire to heat it. before many minutes the water was boiling and robinson had another reason to be thankful. he wept for joy. his patient labors had brought their rewards. no prince could feel as happy as robinson now. he had overcome all difficulties. starting with nothing but his hands, he was now able to supply all his wants. "if i only had a companion now," he thought, "i would have nothing further to wish as long as i stay on the island." [illustration: some of robinson's dishes] xxxi robinson as baker now that robinson had fire, he determined to try to make bread. he had seen the servants at home make bread many times, but he had not observed closely and knew next to nothing about the way bread is made. he knew he must in some way grind the corn into flour, but how could he do this? he had no mill nor any tools with which to crush the corn. he first tried to find a stone large and hard enough out of which he might hollow a vessel or kind of mortar. he thought he could put the corn into this mortar and grind it by means of another stone or pestle. it was with great difficulty that he could get a stone of suitable size and form. after several days' trial he at last got one cut out from some layers of rock near the shore. he made a hollow place in it. then he took a smaller oblong shaped rock for his pestle. he took great pride in these new tools. "i shall soon be a stone-cutter," he said to himself, "as well as a farmer and potter." but his stone mortar was a failure. the rock was too soft. every time he thrust the pestle down, it loosened small pieces of the stone vessel. these mixed with the ground corn or flour and made it unfit to eat. there was no way to separate the sand from the crushed grain. he resolved then to try to make a mortar and pestle of hard wood. now that he had fire, he could do this, though it cost him many a hard day's work. he found not far away a log of very hard wood. by building a fire at the right distance from one end he was able to separate a piece of the log. he rolled this to his cave and made a good-sized hollow in it by burning. this pestle was not so difficult to make. he took a limb or branch of an ironwood tree, burned it in two at the place to make it the right length. by burning also he rounded one end and then he was ready for the grinding. after cleaning his mortar and pestle carefully he placed some corn in the hollow and soon had some fine yellow meal or flour without any grit or sand in it. his next care was to separate the coarse outer husk or covering of the kernel from the finer parts that make the meal. he had no sieve. his net was too coarse. it let both bran and meal go through. "i must make a net or cloth fine enough to sift or bolt my flour," said he. such was now his skill in spinning and weaving that this was not hard to do. he had soon woven in his loom a piece of fine netting which allowed the meal to shake through, but held back the coarse bran or outer husk of the kernel. out of the dry corn that he had stored up he now made quite a quantity of flour. this he kept tightly covered in a large earthen pot or jar that he had made for this purpose. "i must keep all my food clean and protect it from the ants and other insects as well as dust and damp," he thought. his preparations were now nearly made. he had already his stove of flat stones. on this he could set his pots to boil water, cook rice, and meat, but it would not do for baking a loaf of bread of any thickness. he must have an oven or enclosed place into which he could put the loaf to bake it. by the use of flat stones he soon rebuilt his stove so as to have an oven that did fine service. now it was mixing the dough that claimed his attention. he had of course no yeast to make raised or light bread. he poured goats' milk on the flour and kneaded it into a thick dough. he did not forget to add salt. he placed his loaf in a shallow earthen pan he had made for this purpose. after the fire had heated the stones of his oven through, he put in his loaf and soon was enjoying a meal of corn bread and meat stew. robinson soon tried to make cocoa from the beans of the cocoa palm that grew in the island. this with good rich goats' milk in it he thought the best drink in the world. he often thought of making sugar from the sugar cane plant he had discovered in the island. but the labor of squeezing out the juice was too great. he could think of no way to do this without the help of horses or oxen. xxxii robinson as fisherman robinson was now eager to use his fire and cooking vessels. he had noticed with hungry eyes fine large fish in the creek near his cave. but he had never taken the trouble to catch any. "what is the use?" he thought. "i cannot eat them raw." it was different now and he began to devise ways of making a catch. how he longed for a fish-hook, such as he had so often used when loitering along the hudson river! "but a fish-hook is not to be thought of," he said to himself, "unless i can make one of bone." he went down to the brook and searched long for a fish-bone that he might make use of for this purpose. he found nothing. "i must try something else," he thought. he remembered the nets he used to see along the hudson and wondered if he could not make a small one to pull through the water and thus catch the fish. he had now a better source of fibre for weaving and for spinning into lines and ropes. he had discovered this when he was trying to find a good strong thread or yarn with which to bind the coils of his grass-made baskets together. he obtained fibre in great abundance from the century-like plant. he found if he broke off the long leaves of this plant and allowed them to decay there remained a long, tough fibrous substance out of which strong cords could be twisted or yarn made for weaving a coarse cloth or netting. out of this he spun yarn thread to make a net about three or four feet by two feet. he fastened cords to four corners of this, tied them to a long pole, and was now prepared to test his plan for catching fish. the brook he found was too shallow for him to catch fish in this way. at the sight of him and his net, they scurried away to deep water. neither could he succeed in the shallow water along the shore. "i must wade out as far as i can," he said to himself, "and draw the net through the water." as he did this he was surprised at the many forms of sea life, new to him, that he saw. he, however, was careful and watchful. he walked along near the shore to a point where some, rocks showed above the surface. as he looked ahead he saw the single eye of a giant cuttle-fish glaring at him from among the rocks. it was thrusting out its long arms towards him. he drew back quickly, but as he did so he was terrified to hear the snap of some huge creature's jaws near him. a great shark had seen him and had thrown himself on his back to seize him in his rows of sharp teeth, but was prevented reaching him by the shallowness of the water. robinson was too much terrified to continue longer his attempt at fishing. he went back to his cave with only a few small ones, not worth the trouble of dressing for his dinner. the next day undismayed he tried again. he succeeded in drawing in some very beautiful large fish. their sides shone as burnished gold and silver. "now," he thought, "i will have a feast." he carried them home, carefully cleaned and dressed them, seasoned them with his salt, and broiled them over his fire. imagine his disappointment when they proved unfit to eat. their flesh was coarse and tough and ill-tasting. he saw that the catching of fish for his table was a more difficult thing than he thought it. he must not only catch fish, but catch ones that could be eaten. he could only tell the good from the bad by trying them. he was more fortunate in his next venture. he was going along the shore at the mouth of the creek which ran near his cave when he noticed a group of fishes, dark bluish above with silvery sides. the largest of them were about two feet long. they were feeding on the bottom in the brackish water at the mouth of the creek, which at its mouth opened out into quite a little bay or inlet. they would take up a mouthful of earth from the bottom and let it wash through their mouths, keeping all the bits of food that happened to be in it. when one fish got a good place to feed the others swam around it and tried to get some of the food. robinson watched his chance and slipped his net under a group, while each one was busy trying to get the best mouthful of mud. he drew up three quite large fish, but just as he was about to lift them from the water, one of the cords which bound the net to the poles broke and he saw his catch fall back into the creek and dart away in the deepest water. but robinson was not to be discouraged. he soon mended his net and at last was successful. in a short time he drew out another catch of two fish. these proved excellent food and were so abundant as to furnish robinson with all the fish he wanted as long as he stayed on the island. xxxiii robinson builds a boat robinson had wished for a boat many times. he wished to explore the shore of his island. he wanted to go clear around it so that he might see it on every side. but he knew the work of making a boat would be great, if not wholly impossible. the shaping of boards to build a boat with his rude tools was not to be thought of. he knew how the indians made boats out of bark of trees. but he saw that for his purpose so light a boat would not do. he finally remembered a second indian way of making a boat by hollowing out a large log. the forest was full of the boles of trees that had been blown down. but they were far away from the shore. at first he did not think of this very much. he had overcome so many difficulties that he thought, "never mind, i will get my boat to water, no matter where i make it, in some way." so he selected a tree trunk some distance from the bank of the little creek near his cave and began work. he had first to burn out his log the proper length and hack it into boat shape with his stone tools. this was very slow and tedious work. he had to handle the fire with great care for there was always the danger of spoiling the shape of the slowly forming boat. both ends must be sharpened, but one more than the other to form the prow or forward going end. after he had shaped his boat, he began hollowing it out. this he did also by burning for the most part. he used the branches of pitch bearing trees for this purpose. but it was so slow. he worked at his boat all the time he could spare from his regular duties in attending to his goats, his garden and his cave. he was always making his cave larger. every time he made a piece of furniture or stored away grain he must make more room in his cave by digging away the earth and carrying it out. he had made a large strong wicker basket for this purpose. he had had a vague idea that when he got his boat done he would dig a trench back from the bank of the creek and thus float his boat. but he had not thought it out clearly. "or anyway," he thought, "i can in some way manage to roll it to the water." he must now actually plan to put some of these ideas into effect. he first went over the ground and found that to dig a trench from the water to the boat, so that the water would come to the boat, he would have to dig it twenty feet deep. "i can never do this," he said, "with my poor tools." he next tried his rolling plan. but he had been so anxious to have a large boat that he had overlooked everything else. try as hard as he might he could not stir his boat from the spot. after many trials with the longest levers he could handle, the boat still stuck fast. it would not budge an inch. he at last gave it up. "it will lie here," he thought, "to remind me how foolish it is to attempt to do anything without first having thought it out carefully." there was nothing to do but to choose another tree trunk. this time he selected a much smaller one, and one that lay at the top of the little slope or incline from the bank of the creek. after another weary six months of work he had his second boat ready for launching. with a good stout lever he gave it a start, when it rolled quickly down into the water. robinson again wept for joy. of all his projects this had cost him the most work and pains and at last to see his plans successful filled him with delight. the next problem was how to make it go. he had no certain knowledge how far it was around the island, but he knew it was farther than he wanted to row or paddle his boat. yet he knew from the way the wind blew that he could not always depend upon a sail to help him. he must become skillful in paddling his boat. a sail too would be very helpful at times. he imagined how pleasant it would be sitting in the boat sailing along with a gentle wind. "when the wind is favorable," he thought, "i will only have to steer with my paddle." so he set about weaving a sail of his sisal fibre. to do this he had to make a much larger loom than he had yet used. his sail must be at least four feet square. he was now so skilled in weaving that this was soon finished. he then made plenty of string, cord, and rope, put in a mast and was ready to sail. but he did not venture far away until he had spent weeks and weeks in learning to steer, sail, and paddle his boat. xxxiv robinson as a sailor ever since robinson had finished his boat he had been eager to make a tour of his island. he had indeed made a journey by land. but the deep forests and tangled vines made it very difficult to travel. his journeys had shown him but a small part of the land. he wished to know all about the land of which he, so far as he knew, was the sole master. his first care was to fit up his boat with provisions. he made some large baskets in which to carry food and a large covered jar for water. these he stored in the bow and the stern of his boat. he fastened his parasol on the stern for a shelter from the sun. he baked up a quantity of cakes or loaves of bread and packed them in his baskets. he had woven these so carefully that they would almost hold water. at last all was ready. it was on the sixth day of november in the sixth year of his life on the island that robinson hoisted his sail and set out upon this voyage of discovery. he had waited until the wind was gentle and blowing as far easterly as it does at that place. he scudded along bravely, running with the land toward the east and north. all went well until he came to a low reef or ledge of rocks running far out to sea in a north-easterly direction. [illustration] when robinson observed this he went on shore and climbed to a high point to see if it was safe to venture. he was afraid of hidden currents, or streams of water. these might carry him away from the shore and prevent him from getting around the point. he did indeed observe that there was a current running out to sea past the ledge, but he thought he could by careful paddling keep his boat from striking the rock. if he could once get beyond the ledge, the wind would help him double or get around the point. indeed the danger was that the wind would blow him on to the rocks. he waited for two days for a gentle wind. at last without sail he pushed his boat into the current and was born swiftly seaward. he found the current much stronger than he thought it would be. it rushed his frail boat on past the point of the rocks and out into the sea. try as best he might he could not change its course. he was steadily going out to sea. he gave himself up for lost. he reproached himself for being so rash and foolhardy as to trust his fortunes in so frail a craft. how dear at this time seemed the island to him! the wind which he had depended on to help him at this point had died down so that it was at the mercy of the current. he kept urging his boat to the westward as much as possible, with all his strength, hoping that a breeze would finally spring up. he struggled on bravely until about noon. he had been carried out a great distance into the sea, but not so far as to lose sight of the land. all at once he felt the breeze freshening up. it caught his sail and soon his boat was cutting across the current. he did not have to go far before he was free from it and making headway for the island, which he reached about four o'clock in the afternoon. he found himself on the northern shore of the island, but before long the shore ran away to the southward again. he ran briskly along the west side until he found a little bay or cove. he determined to enter this, draw up his boat on shore and make his way back home across the island on foot. he was almost exhausted with his great labor and was worn out with anxiety. in the centre of the arms of the cove he found a little creek entering the sea. he paddled into this and found a good place to hide his boat. as soon as robinson was again on land he fell on his knees and with tears in his eyes thanked god for his deliverance. the island which had seemed to him a prison now seemed the fairest and dearest place in the world. having made his boat safe he started back toward his shelter. but he was too tired to go far. he soon came to a little grove of trees beneath which he laid himself down and soon was fast asleep. you can imagine with what surprise robinson was awakened out of his sleep by a voice calling his name. "robinson, robinson crusoe," it said, "poor robinson crusoe! where are you robinson, where have you been?" [illustration] he was so fast asleep that he did not at first rouse up entirely and thought he was dreaming. but the voice kept calling, "robinson, robinson, poor robinson crusoe!" he was greatly frightened and started up. but no sooner were his eyes opened than he saw his parrot sitting on a branch of a tree. he knew at once the source of the voice. polly had missed her master and was also exploring the island. it was a pleasant surprise. she immediately flew to him and lit on his shoulder. she showed in many ways how glad she was to see him and kept saying, "poor robinson, poor robinson crusoe!" robinson remained here over night and the next morning made his way back to the shelter. up to this time robinson had never seen any dangerous animals on the island. he had grown used to life there and went about without fear of animals. but as he was returning across a little opening, he saw a clump of palms in the centre of the opening, swaying about. he did not at first see what caused this, but soon there was thrust out the head of a great serpent. its jaws were open and its eyes were fixed on a poor terrified little rabbit. the rabbit seemed rooted to the spot. it could not stir a muscle and was soon caught in the folds of the great snake. this sight made robinson greatly afraid. he wanted to rush to the rescue of the rabbit, but what could he do against such a foe? he resolved in the future to keep a more careful watch and always to sleep in his bower. robinson had enough of exploring for some time. he was contented to remain at home. he made many things he needed. he had saved all the skins of the goats he had killed for meat and all that had died from any cause. these he made into rugs for his bed. he kept at his loom too, for he was anxious to weave enough of his coarse cloth to make him a suit of clothes. he learned how to braid mats and rugs out of his fibre, and finally replaced his awkward hat and parasol with others braided very skillfully from the long grasses that grew so abundantly in the marshy places. another thing that robinson was now able to make or weave out of his fibre was a hammock. he had slept all this time on a bed made of poles laid lengthwise and thickly covered with the skins of goats and rabbits. now he could have a comfortable place to sleep. he did not stop until he had made two. one was for the bower and the other was for use out-of-doors. when his work was done in the evening or in the heat of the midday he would lie in it at full length under the shade of the trees. xxxv a discovery robinson could not forget his boat. it seemed a companion. "it may be the means of my escape from this place," he thought. he took frequent journeys across the island to where his little boat lay in the cove. he would start out in the morning and walk over to the west side of the island, take his boat and have a pleasant little sail. he always returned home before dark, for to tell the truth, robinson was a coward. he was as timid as a hare. he was afraid of everything and spent many nights without sleep because of fear. it was while on one of his visits to his boat that robinson made a discovery that changed his whole life. it happened one day, about noon, when he was going toward his boat that he, with great surprise, saw the print of a man's naked foot on the shore in the sand. he stood like one rooted to the ground. he could not move, so great was his surprise and fear. he listened, looked around, but could hear and see nothing. he went up to a little hill to look further, but nothing was in sight. there was but the one footprint. there was no doubt about it, there it was, foot, toes, heel and every part of a foot. robinson tried to think how it might have gotten there, but he could not. it was a mystery. he was greatly afraid and started at once for his shelter. he ran like one pursued. at every little way he would look behind to see if anyone was following him. never a frightened rabbit ran to his hiding place with more terror than robinson ran to his cave. he did not sleep that night for fear and remained in his shelter for three days, never venturing out. but his food was growing short and his goats needed to be milked. he finally with a thousand wild fancies forced himself to go about his duties. but he could not get the footprint out of his mind. he spent many sad and fearful days thinking about it. "how could it have gotten there? whose was it? was the owner savage or not? what did he want on the island?" were some of the questions that haunted him. "perhaps," he thought one day, "i just imagined i saw a footprint, or perhaps it was one of my own that i have made when going to sail my boat." he took courage at this and began to go about the island again. but he went in great fear, always looking behind him. he was always ready to run at the first sign of danger. he had made himself a large, strong, new bow and plenty of arrows. he carried these in a quiver he had made from his cloth. he fashioned too a sharp-pointed, lance-like weapon which he hurled with a kind of sling. in his belt he carried some new sharpened stone knives. he had found a better kind of rock out of which to make his knives. it resembled glass and could be brought to a fine, keen edge. armed thus, he began to have more confidence. he had a strong desire to see the footprint again and make up his mind about it. he wished to measure it. in this way he could tell certainly whether it was a chance print of his own foot or not. so, after a few days, he again ventured across the island. alas, on measuring the print it was much larger than his own! there could no longer be any doubt that it belonged to someone else. again great fear fell on poor robinson. he shook with cold and fright. he resolved to make himself more secure against attack. he cut and carried willow stakes and set them in a thick hedge around in front of his shelter. this was outside the first and enclosed it. in a season or two these had grown to such a height as to shut out all view of his home from sight to one coming to it from the front. his flock of goats gave him many troubled thoughts. his goats were his greatest treasure. from them he obtained without trouble his meat, his milk and butter. "what if they were discovered and killed or carried away?" he resolved to divide his herd into three parts and secrete these in separate fenced pastures in different parts of the island. his herd of goats now numbered twenty-five. he made thorough search about the island for the most secluded and best hidden spots where he could fence in a pasture. one day as he was exploring on the west side of the island to find another open space for a goat field, he thought he spied away out to sea a boat. he looked long and anxiously and yet he was not sure that it was a boat he saw. but how easy, thought robinson, for the people of the mainland, which must be at no great distance to the westward, to come across to this side of the island in fair weather. he thought too, how fortunate he was to have been cast on the east side of the island. for there he had his shelter in the very safest part. as he was coming down from a hill where he had gone to get a better view of the sea he made another discovery. about him everywhere at the foot of the hill were bones of all kinds. near by too, were charcoal and ashes. there could be no mistake, the place was visited by human beings. these were very likely savages. everything showed that they came for the purpose of feasting and not for plundering. it was very likely that they neither sought anything on the island nor expected it. [illustration: watching for savages] this thought greatly relieved robinson. he returned home in a very thankful and composed state of mind. he had now been on the island almost eighteen years and had not been discovered. yet, no doubt, the island had been visited many times by the savages since he had been there. in a short time his fear of discovery wore off and he began to live just as he did before his discovery. he took, however, greater precaution against surprise. he always carried his bow and arrows, his lance and knives. he was also very careful about making a great smoke from his fire. he burned a great quantity of wood in a pit and made charcoal. with this material he had a fine fire with a very little smoke. every day also he went to the top of the hill back of his shelter in order to discover if possible the approach of savages. xxxvi the landing of the savages another year passed by, robinson longed more and more to get away from the island. year after year he had hoped and watched in vain for a passing ship. every day he would scan the waters that held him prisoner for the welcome sight of a sail. he had been disappointed. now his only hope was to escape to the mainland in some way. he feared the savages. he had heard stories of their being cannibals. but if they could come to his island in their canoes against the prevailing wind, why could he not get to the mainland with it in his favor? strange as it may be, robinson began to wish for the return of the savages. he hoped to watch them at a distance and find out something about their customs. more especially he wished that he might capture one of them. he had two reasons for this. in the first place he would have a companion. he pictured fondly how he would teach him gentle manners and the english speech. and, too, the companion would be able to help him. besides this he longed above all to know more of the mainland and whether it would be safe to go there. he wanted to find out in what kind of boat they made the voyage. he thought that if he had such a person he would have someone to show him the way to reach the land. the more he thought, the more anxious he became to see the savages on the island. he thought so much about it by day that he dreamed about it at night. one night he dreamed that the savages came, drew their boats upon the shore and began to prepare their feast. as he watched them one of their number broke away from his fellows and came straight toward his hiding-place. robinson thought he rushed out, drove away those that followed the fleeing man and rescued him. this dream made a deep impression upon him and made him await the coming of the savages with great hopes and eagerness. it was more than eighteen months after he had formed this plan of capturing one of the savages before the savages made their appearance. robinson was surprised one morning to see no less than five canoes drawn up on the shore at a point on his side of the island about two miles below his shelter, to the south. the people that had come in them were on shore and out of sight. robinson went back to his shelter to make his plans. he made up his mind that he would be foolish to attack them. there must be twenty-five or thirty of them. he finally went to a point where he could see farther inland and soon caught sight of a crowd of about thirty savages. they were naked and dancing around and around in a circle. all the while they were singing and making hideous noises. there was a fire in the center of the ring of savages. "they are cooking their feast," thought robinson. "maybe i can surprise them while they eat and rush in and seize one." but this seemed too great a risk to run. he had no weapons but his bow and arrows, his lance and knife. what could he do against so great a number? but fortune favored his plans. as he gazed at them from his safe distance he saw one of their number break away from the rest and run with utmost speed directly toward his hiding-place. at once two other savages pursued him. they had no weapons but clubs. they ran with great swiftness, but the man in front was steadily gaining ground. robinson now to tell the truth was dreadfully frightened to see the savage run directly toward him and his shelter. he kept his place, however, and watched the race. the man running away ran along the shore and would soon come to the little creek that emptied into the sea below his home. robinson saw that the savage would have to swim this to escape. he ran down thither and concealed himself behind a tree and waited for the fugitive to come up. as he did so, the fleeing savage plunged in and swam across with a few strong strokes. when he was well on the bank, robinson presented himself and made signs to him to come to him and he would help him. the savage was at first almost overcome with astonishment and fright, for robinson presented a very unusual sight. the savage at once ran to him and fell down at his feet. indeed so great was his fright and distress that he placed one of robinson's feet upon his neck in sign that he yielded up his life into his hands. robinson raised him up and motioned for him to take the lance and help in defence against the men, now coming up. they hid behind trees and waited for them to swim across the stream. but this they did not do. when they reached the creek, they could see nothing of their runaway. they very slowly turned and went back to their companions. robinson was well content not to let them know that there was any one on the island. he feared they might return and destroy his shelter and fields. robinson took the savage to his shelter and gave him bread and raisins to eat, and a cup of water to drink. he was very hungry and ate greedily. after he had eaten, robinson made signs for him to lie down and sleep, for the indian was nearly tired out with his long and swift run. he was a handsome fellow of his race. his limbs were large, straight and strong. he had a good face. his hair was long and black, his forehead high, and his eyes bright. his skin was not black, but of an olive color. his teeth were fine set and as white as ivory. he slept about an hour; when he awoke he came running to robinson and again made signs to him that he was his slave. "you saved my life," he seemed to say, "and now i will serve you." robinson named him friday at once, for that was the day on which the great event of his escape had taken place. robinson's next care was to fit him out with some clothing. he had by this time several suits made of his coarse cloth. he soon had friday dressed in one of the old ones, with a straw or braided hat on his head. he did not think it safe to allow friday to sleep with him in the bower. he made a little tent for him inside the enclosure. this was covered with goatskins and made a very good protection from both heat and rain. robinson took care to keep all his knives and weapons near him in the bower. but his fears that friday might harm him were unfounded. friday from the first was faithful to his master. he was sweet and obedient in all things. he seemed to look upon robinson with the love of a child for its father and never tired of serving him. xxxvii robinson as a teacher (from robinson's diary) "i began to consider that having now 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 plant. so i marked out a larger piece of land and began to fence it in. friday worked not only very willingly but very hard. i told him that it was for corn to make more bread because he was now with me. he let me know that he was grateful for my kindness and would work much harder 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 understood the names of almost all the things that i called for and of all the places which i wished to send him. i was careful to teach him all the things i knew. i showed him how to plant and harvest corn, how to gather fibre, spin yarn and to weave it into cloth. he learned these things quickly and became very skillful in making pots. he knew something about this because at home he had seen the women make them. he ornamented them with figures of birds and flowers. i taught him about the true god. but as for writing he could never do much with this. i had no books and could not make him understand the importance of writing. he began to talk a great deal to me. this delighted me very much. i began to love him exceedingly. he was so very honest and faithful. "after i had taught him english i tried one day to find out whether he had any wish to return to his own country and as i talked to him about it i saw his face light up with joy and his eye sparkle. from this i had no doubt but that friday would like to be in his own country again. this for a time made me sad, to think how eagerly he would leave me to be among his savage friends. 'do you not wish you were back in your own country, friday?' i said to him one day. 'yes,' he said, 'i be much o glad to be back in my country.' 'what would you do there,' said i? 'would you turn wild again and do as the savages do?' he shook his head and said very gravely, 'no, no, friday tell them to live good. he tell them to plant corn and live like white mans.' "one day when we were on the top of a hill on the west side of the island, friday suddenly began to jump and dance about in great glee. i asked him what the matter was. 'o, joy, o glad,' he said; 'there my country!' the air was so clear that from this place, as i had before discovered, land could be distinctly seen looking westward. "i asked him how far it was from our island to his country and whether their canoes were ever lost in coming and going. he said that there was no danger. no canoes were ever wrecked and that it was easy to get back and forth. i asked him many things about his people and country. he told me that away to the west of his country there lived 'white mans like you.' i thought these must be the people of central america, and asked him how i might come from this island and get among these white men. he made me understand that i must have a large boat as big as two canoes. "i resolved at once to begin to make a boat large enough for us to pass over to the land we could see lying to the west and if possible to go on to the white man's country friday told me about. it took us nearly two months to make our boat and rig her out with sails, masts, rudder, and anchor. we had to weave our sails and twist our rope. we burned out the canoe from a large fallen log. we used a great stone tied securely to the end of a strong rope for an anchor. "when we had the boat in the water, friday showed great skill in rowing or paddling it. [illustration: robinson and friday sailing the boat] "he had managed boats ever since he was old enough, but he did not know how to handle a sail or rudder. he learned very quickly, however, to sail and steer the boat and soon was perfectly at home in it. "we made our boat safe by keeping it in the little cove at the mouth of the creek. i had friday to fetch rocks and build a dock or place for landing. but the rainy season was now coming on and we must wait for fair weather. in the meantime i planned to lay by such quantities of food as we would need to take along." xxxviii another shipwreck one evening robinson sat in his shelter thinking of his plans to escape to friday's country. he was sad. for, after all, this place was very dear to him. it was the only home he had. had he not made everything with his own hands? it was doubly dear to him on this account. he thought how it would grieve him to leave his goats, his fields, and the many comforts he had here. he had been telling friday of his home in new york. he told him of the great city, and of its many wonderful sights. he told him of his country and people, of his flag and its history. all these things brought back memories of his boyhood and he wondered what changes had come in his long absence. friday, with wonderful intelligence, listened to all robinson told him. he was delighted in hearing robinson tell of the wonders of the great world, for he had never known anything about it. as they talked robinson noticed the approach of a storm. the sky was getting black with clouds. the winds were blowing a hurricane. the waves were coming in mountain high. it reminded him of the eventful night now twenty-five years ago when his ship was tossed up on the shore like an egg shell and broken to pieces. suddenly there was a sound that made robinson start from his seat with the wildest alarm. was it the sound of a cannon from the ocean or the terrible crash and roar of the water on the rocks of the coast? there it is again; it is a cannon! some ship is in distress! this is its signal! robinson ran out and down to the shore with friday at his heels. "o master!" said friday, "can we not help? if they only knew the island was here and how to steer into the harbor beyond the point of land on the south." robinson was so excited that he scarcely knew what he was doing. he ran up and down the shore calling wildly, but the awful roar of the sea and wind drowned his cries. suddenly his thoughts came to him. "quick, friday, get some fire in a pot. we will run to the point, gather grass and wood, and make a fire there. maybe we can guide them into the harbor." they soon had a great beacon light sending its welcome greeting far over the sea. the pilot of the ship saw it and steered his ship nearer and nearer. robinson was ready to shout for joy as the ship seemed about to make the harbor. the ship had her sails torn in shreds and her rudder broken. it was hard to steer her in such a gale. on rounding the point, she was blown on the rocks. with a frightful crash which could be heard above the din of the storm she struck and held fast. robinson could hear the cries of the men and the orders of the officers. they were trying to get boats ready to put off, but such was the confusion of the storm and the enormous waves breaking over the deck that it could not be done quickly. before the men could get a boat into the sea, and get into it, the ship gave a lurch to one side as though about to sink. all the men jumped for one boat. it was overburdened. the wind tossed it about. the sea soon filled it and it went down and all were lost. robinson and friday remained on the shore all night. they watched to see if they could not help some poor sailor that might cling to a plank and be blown on shore. they saw no one. at last they lay down, but they could not sleep. many times they sprang up and ran about for fear that some poor fellow would need their help. at last morning came. the storm ceased. robinson and friday searched everywhere for the bodies of the sailors, but could find none. but the wind had blown the ship in plain view, and into shallow waters. it was lying on the bottom with more than half its bulk out of the water. the masts were gone. it was a sad sight. no human being could be seen on it. they were now rejoiced that they had their boat ready. "let us take it," said robinson "and go out to the ship. it may be some person is still on the unfortunate ship." they were soon by the ship's side. they rowed around it until they saw a rope hanging down from the deck. robinson seized this and clambered up. friday tied the boat fast, and followed. robinson opened the door leading from the deck into the ship and went down. he searched in all the cabins, and knocked at all the doors. he called, but all was still. when he was satisfied that every person on board had been drowned he wept bitterly. friday stood there with open and staring eyes. he looked and looked. he was astonished at the large ship and at the wonderful things before him. they were in the cabin where the passengers had been. there stood trunks under the benches and clothes hung on the hooks on the wall. one trunk was open. in it were telescopes through which the travelers had looked at the land. robinson saw also paper, pens, pen-holders and ink. books were also near by. robinson first took a thick book. it was the bible, out of which his mother had so often taught him. then they came to the sailors' cabin. there hung muskets and swords and bags of shot and cartridges. then they went to the work-room. there were saws, hammers, spades, shovels, chisels, nails, bottles, and pails, knives and forks. and something more, over which robinson was most glad, matches. at last they came into the store-room. there lay bags of flour and barley, teas, lentils, beans and sugar. then robinson embraced friday in his great joy and said to him, "how rich we are!" xxxix saving things from the ship after robinson had looked through the ship he began to plan the way to get the tools and things he most wanted on shore. he and friday first carried everything together that he wanted to take on shore. when they had done this, he found he had the following things. robinson stood everything together that he needed most. 1. a case of nails and screws. 2. two iron axes and several hatchets. 3. a saw. 4. a small case of planes, tongs, augers, files, chisels, etc. 5. a third case with iron brackets, hooks, hinges, etc. 6. a case of matches. 7. a barrel of gunpowder. 8. two muskets and a pistol. 9. several swords. 10. a bag of cartridges. 11. a large sail cloth and some rope. 12. a telescope. by means of the ship's ropes, robinson let everything down into his boat. he himself took the bible and then they rowed to the shore, and unloaded the boat. everything was put into the bower where rain could not harm it. by the time they had this done, night was coming on and they decided to do no more that day, but wait until the next day. "we must work fast," said robinson. "the first storm is likely to break the ship in pieces and destroy everything in it." the next morning early they ate a hastily prepared breakfast and were off to the boat. neither robinson nor friday stopped for their noonday lunch. "a storm is brewing," said robinson, "the air is calm, the sky is overcast with clouds, the heat is oppressive. we must hurry." with the utmost diligence they rowed back and forth all day. they made nine trips. they had now on shore a surprising quantity of all kinds of tools, goods and weapons. they had all kinds of ware to use in the kitchen, clothes, and food. robinson prized a little four-wheeled wagon and a whetstone. but in looking over his stores, robinson suddenly discovered that he had no needles or thread. they went at once to procure these important articles. in looking for needles and thread, robinson found a small trunk full of money and valuable stones. there were diamonds, rubies, pearls, and much gold. robinson pushed it to one side. "what can i do with riches on this island? i would give them all for some needles and thread," he said to friday. but on second thought he took the trunk and its contents along with him to his cave. for in the trunk were also letters and writings. "perhaps," he said, "these tell to whom the valuables belong and i can return them some time." robinson at last found a case containing everything one could need with which to cut and sew cloth. there were scissors, thread, needles, thimbles, tapes, and buttons. but now the wind was rising and they must hurry. they were nearly ready for departure. they were passing through a part of the ship not before visited. they were surprised to hear a sound coming from a room whose door was kept shut by a heap of stuff that had been thrown against it by the violent pitching of the ship in the storm. robinson and friday cleared away the rubbish and were surprised to find a dog almost drowned. he was so weak from want of food that his cries could be heard a short distance only. robinson took him tenderly in his arms and carried him to the boat, while friday carried the sewing case and the trunk. the wind was now blowing a gale. a few yards from the ship they were in great danger. robinson grasped the rudder and made friday stand ready to cut away the mast in case they found the wind too strong. with the greatest difficulty they finally made the little cove at the mouth of the creek and were soon landed with their precious cargo. the next morning they eagerly searched the waters for the ship. not even their field glasses could reveal anything of it. some planks, a mast, and parts of a small boat were blown on shore. all else had disappeared. robinson set to work at once to make a door for his bower out of the pine wood cast up by the waves. how easy the work proceeded with saws, hammers, augers, squares, planes, nails, hinges, and screws! with the wagon too, friday could now gather his corn quickly and easily, or haul in a great quantity of grapes to dry for raisins. friday had never seen a gun. he did not know the use of firearms. the muskets that robinson had brought from the ship were a great mystery to him. robinson showed him their use. he showed how they could defend themselves. he told friday that these weapons would kill at a distance. he took some powder and touched a match to it. friday was greatly frightened. [illustration: robinson showing friday how to shoot] robinson then proceeded to load the gun. he put in some powder, a ball of lead or bullet. then at the hammer he placed a little cap which gave a flash when struck. this ignited the powder. when all was in readiness robinson bade friday follow him. they went slowly out into the forest along the stream. soon robinson espied a rabbit sitting under a clump of grass. robinson raised his gun, took careful aim, pressed the trigger. there was a flash and loud report and there lay the rabbit dead. but friday, too, was lying on the ground. he had fainted from astonishment and fright. robinson dropped his gun and raised the poor fellow up to a sitting position. he quickly recovered. he ran to get the rabbit. he examined it carefully. robinson at last pointed out the hole the bullet had made and the mystery of the way the rabbit was killed was solved. robinson had lived alone so long that he had learned to love every living creature on the island. he never harmed anything except when he needed food. he had lived so quietly that the birds and animals did not fear him. they lived near his shelter and seemed to know him. robinson was delighted with his new tools and weapons. but they reminded him of home. nothing that he had seen in all the time he had been on the island so turned his thoughts toward home and friends. robinson would sit for hours thinking of the past and making plans for the future. he was homesick. xl the return of the savages robinson now renewed his plans for escaping from the island to friday's country. they first rebuilt their boat with their new tools. they hollowed out the center till the sides were thin toward the top. they shaped her sides and keel. they made her prow sharp so that she would cut the water easily. they made a new mast, strong and tall and shapely. they made larger and stronger sails and ropes. they made two pairs of extra oars. they made boxes and cupboards in the prow and stern for keeping their fresh water and provisions. friday's eyes sparkled with joy when it was done. he hoped he would now be able to return to his own island and parents. robinson noticed his joy and asked him, "do you want to return to your own people?" "yes," said friday, "very much." "would you trust yourself in this boat?" "yes," said friday. "very well," said his master, "you may have it and start home when you please.". "yes, master, but you come too, my people will not hurt you." robinson resolved to venture over to friday's land with him. but before their preparations were complete the rainy season of our fall set in. they resolved to wait until the weather was settled and as soon as the rainy season was over to set out. they ran their boat well up into the creek and covered it over with a large tarpaulin made of sail-cloth obtained from the ship. robinson had now been on the island twenty-seven years. for the last three years he had lived happily with his companion friday. every year in september, robinson celebrated the day his life was saved and he was thrown up on the island. robinson celebrated it this year with more than the usual thankfulness. he thought that it would be his last anniversary on the island. one morning, friday had gone to the beach to find a turtle. soon he came running back out of breath. "o master," he cried, "they are coming, they are coming to take me prisoner!" he was trembling with fright. "we must take our guns and defend ourselves," said robinson. "but we will not kill anyone unless they attack us." this quieted friday. they loaded four muskets and three pistols. robinson put the pistols in his belt, where he also fastened a sword. he gave friday a pistol and a musket, for friday had learned to shoot well. besides friday carried a bag of powder and bullets. robinson took his field glasses and saw twenty-one savages with two prisoners. the prisoners were bound and lying on the ground. this was a war party celebrating a victory with a feast. they probably intended to kill their prisoners. "we must save the lives of those men," said robinson. the savages this time had landed quite near robinson's shelter, not more than a half mile below the creek's mouth. soon he and friday started off. robinson commanded friday to follow quietly and not to speak or shoot. "we will surprise them and give them a good scare," said robinson. when yet a considerable distance away they could hear the savages yelling and screaming. some of them were dancing their war dance. their faces and bodies were painted to make them look terrible to their enemies. they were dancing around their prisoners with hideous cries and gestures. they could now see the prisoners plainly. one had a beard and was plainly a white man. robinson was surprised and determined to save him at all risks. "get your gun ready to fire," he said to friday, "and when i say the word let us run forward yelling and firing our guns over their heads. this will fill them with such fright that they will take to their heels and boats and get away as soon as possible. in the scramble and confusion we will rush in and rescue the prisoners." this plan did not please friday at all. his savage blood was up and he wanted to kill all he could. "let's fire on them," he said. "let's kill all but the prisoners." "no, no," said robinson, "it's always wrong to take life unless it cannot be avoided to save one's own. let's try my plan first." with great reluctance friday consented. at a signal from robinson they rushed forward, and when in plain sight they fired off their muskets in the air. if the ground had suddenly exploded beneath their feet there could have been no more confusion, astonishment, and fright. a few took to their heels. others lay as if dead. they had swooned from fright. but as robinson came up they jumped to their feet and pushed into the boats, leaving the prisoners behind. robinson and friday still rushed forward and fired their remaining loaded guns and pistols in the air. the savages made all haste to get into their boats and push off. soon they were well out to sea, paddling rapidly for the west. robinson reloaded his arms and gave them a farewell volley, but not a soul was killed or even wounded. this gave robinson great pleasure. he had accomplished his purpose without bloodshed. they could now turn to the prisoners. robinson ran back to them and quickly cut their ropes. robinson asked the white man who he was, but the man was too weak to answer. robinson gave him a piece of bread. the fear of death being removed, the white man soon grew stronger. when friday came running back from watching the boats and saw the savage that had been a prisoner he gave a loud yell. he threw his arms around the man, kissed him and laughed and cried for joy. he put his head on his breast and hugged him again and again. robinson was greatly surprised and puzzled. he asked friday what his actions meant. but so intent was friday that he got no answer. at last friday recovered far enough from his great joy to say with face beaming with delight, "o, master, this man is my dear father." they at once began a long conversation, each one told his story. suddenly friday jumped up and said, "how foolish i am, i have not thought to give my father anything to eat and drink. he must be nearly starved." and away he ran toward the shelter and was soon back with food and water to drink. [illustration: friday and his father] robinson learned through friday from his father that the white man was a spaniard, that he had been captured by the tribe that had a battle with friday's people. the spaniard was one of sixteen men that had been saved by friday's people from a wrecked ship. so weak were the prisoners that they could not walk to the shelter. robinson and friday made a litter and carried them one after the other. when once there, friday prepared some rich rice soup. the prisoners ate heartily and in a few days were strong enough to go about the island. xli deliverance at last friday had not forgotten the plan for going to his home. he would often mention it and spent hours talking about it during the long rainy season. but now that the spaniard and friday's father had come into the family, robinson felt he must change his plans a little. he felt very sorry for the spaniards left in friday's country. they did not have enough to eat and were sick and sad besides. he talked the matter over with the spaniard many times. they at last planned to send for them. the spaniard and friday's father were to go. robinson was for doing it at once. but the spaniard advised delay. "how can we get food for ourselves and fifteen others? your small store will soon be used up," he argued. robinson at last saw that this difficulty must be overcome. there was just one thing to do, and this, to delay their departure until a new crop of corn could be raised. this would take six months. but at it they went. the four men could do much and work fast. they cleared more ground and planted all the seed corn they could spare from their store. besides this they sowed about twelve bushels of barley they had gotten in the ship. the care for so much crop, its harvesting and storing away, kept them very busy for the season. robinson not only did this, but also increased his flock of goats by catching kids and putting them in his pasture. he gathered, too, all the grapes he could and dried them on the branches of trees. at the end of the harvesting season, they made ready their boat. they filled it with all the bread it could well carry. they put in raisins and fresh water. robinson gave the spaniard and friday's father each a musket and plenty of powder and bullets. now, all was ready. friday gave his father a loving farewell. he stretched out his arms towards him as the boat moved away. the spaniard and robinson waved their hats and they were off. they promised to be back in eight or nine days. robinson and friday made every preparation to receive the guests. they were to have a home not far from robinson's built of poles, and thatched with the long marsh grasses, like robinson's bower. there was no need of hiding or defending it. it did not take long to fix it up. eight days had now passed since the boat had left. friday could hardly restrain himself longer. he watched the ocean all the time. he would go to the top of the hill with the field glasses every hour during the day to catch a first glimpse of them. [illustration: robinson and friday see a ship] on the ninth day, as friday put up his glasses to search the waters he dropped them with a yell of surprise. he tore down the hill with the utmost speed and rushed up to robinson as one gone mad. "look, look, o master!" he cried, "a big ship; a big ship way out on the sea!" robinson took the glasses, and sure enough, there within hailing distance was a large ocean going vessel. robinson was overcome with excitement. for twenty-eight years his aching eyes had scanned the waters for this welcome sight. his joy was boundless. the ship looked like an american. yes, there floated the american flag! how welcome a sight to robinson. he could not utter a word. tears filled his eyes and streamed down his cheeks. he would soon have news from home. he ran to the shore and shot off a gun to attract the attention of those on board. he heard answering shots at once. soon a boat was lowered and in it three men rowed toward the shore. it was the captain himself and two sailors. the captain was astonished to find a man in the lonely island. robinson told how it all had happened and how he would like to return home. to his unspeakable delight the captain told him that the ship was bound for new york and would take him along free of charge, but he must leave that day. the ship could not be delayed any longer. of course robinson would go. friday was beside himself with grief. he did not want to be left behind alone. he did not know that the spaniards would ever return. something might happen to them on the sea. but before the eventful day the spaniards landed. they brought word that friday's father had died after his return home. friday was thrown into a fit of grief at the news. he wept and repeated over and over his praise of the good man. xlii robinson at home it was with a sad heart that robinson made ready to leave. every familiar place seemed now doubly dear to him. he went from one to another with tears in his eyes. here lay his home. here were his fields, his crops and his goats. everything was the work of his own hands. he had made them all. which should he take? he hesitated long. he must take home some of his belongings to show the people at home. and there were his parrot and the dog which had won a place in robinson's heart. he decided to take them along. at length he got together his diary, his parasol, his bible, his treasures, a suit of clothes, his dog, and a hat. he had saved, too, his bow and arrows. these he decided to take along. everything else he gave to his good man friday and the spaniard who wished to be allowed to remain on the island. robinson kissed friday tenderly. he with great effort finally tore himself away and ran to the shore where the ship's boat awaited him. but robinson had not counted on the strength of friday's love for him. robinson's boat had not yet reached the ship when friday sprang into the water and swam after him shouting, "master, take me with you, i would rather die than stay here without you." robinson was touched at the devotion showed by the faithful friday, and gave orders to turn the boat back, and take him on board. the anchor was raised. the ship started on her way to the home robinson had left so long ago. [illustration: robinson leaving the island] the wind was favorable and in seven weeks the spires and buildings of his native city were in sight. his vessel came slowly up to the wharf where he had taken ship so many years ago. here, too, he had played and idled his time away. he remembered it all. his idleness and playing truant came back in sad memories. before robinson and friday landed, their good friend the captain gave them each a new suit of clothes. everything had changed. he scarcely knew the place. he was astonished and confused by the din, hurry and bustle of a great city. friday seemed dazed by it all and clung to robinson's side. the buildings were so tall, the street cars, the carriages were different. everywhere there were iron machines, casting out smoke, puffing and running about on iron rails. robinson had never seen these. robinson, however, did not stop to admire; he pushed on to a certain street and house where lived his parents at the time of his departure. it was with difficulty that he found the place. it was now in the heart of the city. upon inquiry he found, after much searching, that his father had removed his store and home to another part of the city, his mother had died of grief for her disobedient son. robinson was sorely grieved at this. he had hoped to see her and tell her how sorry he was that he had caused her so much anxiety and sorrow. when he had found the place where his father lived he stole quietly up to the house and opened the door. his father, now a gray-haired man, bent with age and sorrow, was sitting in his armchair reading. robinson came forward, but his father did not recognize him. "who are you?" he said. "i am robinson, your long-lost son." he knelt by his father's side and asked forgiveness for all the trouble he had caused. his father was overcome. he could not speak. he drew robinson with feeble hands to his breast. "my son, i forgive you," he said. robinson's boyhood friends heard of his strange return. they had thought him dead long ago. they never tired of hearing him tell his strange story. they pitied him in his misfortune. but robinson told them that it all happened to him because he was idle and disobedient in his youth. robinson at once relieved his father at the store. the business thrived. his father died. he soon had a home of his own with a happy family. friday, the dog, and the parrot lived in it, dearly beloved and cared for by their master the rest of their days. in the home there is a young robinson who loves to hear his father read from his diary of the wonderful things that happened on the island. robinson tried many times to find the rightful owner of the gold and jewels, but never succeeded. at last he gave them to a school where boys with idle habits were taught to lead useful and industrious lives. an american robinson crusoe for american boys and girls the adaptation, with additional incidents by samuel b. allison, ph.d. assistant superintendent of schools, chicago, ill. educational publishing company boston new york chicago san francisco copyright, 1918 by educational publishing company contents i robinson with his parents 7 ii robinson as an apprentice 10 iii robinson's departure 13 iv robinson far from home 17 v the shipwreck 19 vi robinson saved 21 vii the first night on land 23 viii robinson on an island 28 ix robinson's shelter 30 x robinson makes a hat 34 xi robinson's calendar 38 xii robinson makes a hunting bag 41 xiii robinson explores the island 44 xiv robinson as a hunter 48 xv robinson's shoes and parasol 51 xvi getting fire 53 xvii robinson makes some furniture 55 xviii robinson becomes a shepherd 57 xix robinson builds a home for his goats 60 xx robinson gets ready for winter 64 xxi how robinson lays up a store of food 67 xxii robinson's diary 70 xxiii robinson is sick 74 xxiv robinson's bower 77 xxv robinson again explores his island 81 xxvi robinson and his birds 84 xxvii robinson gets fire 89 xxviii robinson makes baskets 93 xxix robinson becomes a farmer 98 xxx robinson as potter 104 xxxi robinson as baker 108 xxxii robinson as fisherman 112 xxxiii robinson builds a boat 116 xxxiv robinson as a sailor 120 xxxv a discovery 127 xxxvi the landing of the savages 133 xxxvii robinson as teacher 139 xxxviii another shipwreck 144 xxxix saving things from the ship 149 xl the return of the savages 155 xli deliverance at last 162 xlii robinson at home 167 prefatory note "an american robinson crusoe" is the outcome of many years of experience with the story in the early grades of elementary schools. it was written to be used as a content in giving a knowledge of the beginning and development of human progress. the aim is not just to furnish an interesting narrative, but one that is true to the course of human development and the scientific and geographical facts of the island on which robinson is supposed to have lived. the excuse for departing so widely from the original story is to be found in the use which was desired to be made of it. the story here presented is simply the free adaptation of the original narrative to the demand for a specific kind of content in a form which would be interesting to the children. the teacher is and should be justified in using with entire freedom any material accessible for the ends of instruction. the text as here given has been published with an introduction and suggestive treatments as a teacher's manual for primary grades--"the teacher's robinson crusoe." explicit directions and ample suggestions are made for the use of the story as material for instruction in all the language arts, drawing, social history, and the manual arts. published by the educational publishing company. an american robinson crusoe i robinson with his parents there once lived in the city of new york, a boy by the name of robinson crusoe. he had a pleasant home. his father and mother were kind to him and sent him to school. they hoped that he would study hard and grow up to be a wise and useful man, but he loved rather to run idle about the street than to go to school. he was fond of playing along the river hudson, for he there saw the great ships come and go. they were as big as houses. he watched them load and unload their cargoes and hundreds of people get off and on. his father had told him that the ships came from far distant lands, where lived many large animals and black men. his father told him too, that in these faraway countries the nuts on the trees grew to be as large as one's head and that the tree were as high as church steeples. when robinson saw the ships put out to sea he would watch them till they would disappear below the horizon far out in the ocean, and think, "oh, if i could only go with them far away to see those strange countries!" thus he would linger along the great river and wish he might find an opportunity of making a voyage. often it would be dark before he would get home. when he came into the house his mother would meet him and say in a gentle voice, "why, robinson, how late you are in getting home! you have been to the river again." [illustration: robinson watching the ships] then robinson would hang his head and feel deeply ashamed, and when his father, who was a merchant, came home from the store, his mother would tell him that robinson had again been truant. this would grieve his father deeply and he would go to the boy's bedside and talk earnestly with him. "why do you do so?" he would say. "how often have i told you to go to school every day?" this would for a time win robinson back to school, but by the next week it had been forgotten and he would again be loitering along the river in spite of his father's remonstrances. ii robinson as an apprentice in this way one year after another slipped by. robinson was not more diligent. he was now almost sixteen years old and had not learned anything. then came his birthday. in the afternoon his father called him into his room. robinson opened the door softly. there sat his father with a sad face. he looked up and said, "well, robinson, all your schoolmates have long been busy trying to learn something, so that they may be able to earn their own living. paul will be a baker, robert a butcher, martin is learning to be a carpenter, herman a tailor, otto a blacksmith, fritz is going to high school, because he is going to be a teacher. now, you are still doing nothing. this will not do. from this time on i wish you to think of becoming a merchant. in the morning you will go with me to the store and begin work. if you are attentive and skillful, when the time comes you can take up my business and carry it on. but if you remain careless and continue to idle about, no one will ever want you and you must starve because you will never be able to earn a living." so the next morning robinson went to the store and began work. he wrapped up sugar and coffee, he weighed out rice and beans. he sold meal and salt, and when the dray wagon pulled up at the store, loaded with new goods, he sprang out quickly and helped to unload it. he carried in sacks of flour and chests of tea, and rolled in barrels of coffee and molasses. he also worked some at the desk. he looked into the account books and saw in neat writing, "goods received" and "goods sold." he noticed how his father wrote letters and reckoned up his accounts. he even took his pen in hand and put the addresses on the letters and packages as well as he could. but soon he was back in his careless habits. he was no longer attentive to business. he wrapped up salt instead of sugar. he put false weights on the scales. he gave some too much and others too little. his hands, only, were in the business, his mind was far away on the ocean with the ships. when he helped unload the wagons, he would often let the chests and casks drop, so that they were broken and their contents would run out on the ground. for he was always thinking, "where have these casks come from and how beautiful it must be there!" and many times packages came back because robinson had written the name of the place or the country wrong. for when he was writing the address, he was always thinking, "you will be laid upon a wagon and will then go into the ship." one day he had to write a letter to a man far over the sea. he could stand it no longer. his father had gone out. he threw down the pen, picked up his hat and ran out to the hudson to see the ships, and from that time on he spent more time loitering along the river than he did in the store. iii robinson's departure robinson's father soon noticed that his son was no longer attending to his work, and one morning sent for him to come to his office. when robinson came in his father arose from his chair and looked him long and earnestly in the face. then he said, "i am very sorry, robinson, that you seem determined to continue your evil ways. if you do not do better you will grow up to be a beggar or worse." robinson cast his eyes down and said, "i do not want to be a merchant, i would rather sail in a ship around the world." his father answered, "if you do not know anything you cannot be of use on a ship, and no one will want you. in a strange land you cannot live without working. if you run away from your parents you will come to be sorry for it." robinson wept, for he saw that his father was right, and he promised to obey. after two or three weeks, robinson went to his mother and said, "mother, won't you go to father and tell him that if he will only let me take one voyage and it proves to be unpleasant, i will come back to the store and work hard?" but the mother cried. with tears in her eyes, she said: "robinson, your brothers are both dead. you are the only child left to us and if you go away, we shall be entirely alone. how easy it would be to be drowned in the sea, or torn to pieces by wild animals away there in a foreign country. both your father and myself are getting along in years and who will take care of us when we are sick? do not cause us the grief we must suffer if you go away so far amid so many dangers. i cannot bear to have you speak of it again." robinson did not speak of it again, but he did not forget it. he was nineteen years old. it was one day in august that robinson stood at the wharf looking longingly after the departing ships. as he stood there, someone touched him on the shoulder. it was a ship captain's son. he pointed to a long ship and said, "my father sails to-day in that ship for africa and takes me with him." "oh, if i could only go with you!" cried robinson. "do come along," cried his comrade. "but i have no money," said robinson. "that doesn't make any difference," returned the captain's son. "we will take you anyway." robinson, without thinking for a moment, gave his friend his hand and promised to go with him. so without saying "good-bye" to his parents, robinson went immediately on board the ship with his friend. this happened on the 10th of august. [illustration: robinson and the captain's son] iv robinson far from home robinson's voyage once on board, robinson watched the preparations for departure. at command the sailors clambered up into the rigging and loosened the sails. then the captain from his bridge called out, "hoist the anchor!" then the great iron hooks that held the ship fast were lifted up, a cannon sounded a final farewell. robinson stood on the deck. he saw the great city shimmer in the sunshine before him. very fast now the land was being left behind. it was not long until all that could be seen of his native city was the tops of the highest towers. then all faded from sight. behind, in front, right and left, he saw nothing but waters. [illustration] he became a little afraid. at noon there arose a strong wind and the ship rocked to and fro. he became dizzy and had to hold fast to something. the masts and rigging began to dance. it seemed to him as if all was turning around. suddenly he fell full length on the deck and it was impossible for him to get up. he was seasick. he wailed and cried, but no one heard him, no one helped him. then he thought of his home, his parents whom he had so ungratefully left. he had been on the water about two weeks when one day as he lay in his room, robinson heard people over his head running about and crying, "a storm is coming!" the ship's sides trembled and creaked. the ship was tossed like a nutshell. now it rolled to the right, now to the left. and robinson was thrown from one side to the other. every moment he expected the ship to sink. he turned pale and trembled with fear. "ah, if i were only at home with my parents, safe on the land," he said. "if i ever get safe out of this, i will go home as quickly as i can and stay with my dear parents!" the storm raged the whole day and the whole night. but on the next morning the wind went down and the sea was calm. by evening the sky was clear and robinson was again cheerful. he ran about the ship. he looked at the glittering stars and was contented and happy. v the shipwreck several weeks went by. robinson had long ago forgotten his resolutions to return home. it was very hot. the glowing sun beat down upon the ship. the wide surface of the sea glistened. no breeze stirred. the sails hung loose on the top of the mast. but far away on the shore could be seen a black bank of clouds. all at once the ship was thrown violently to one side by a fierce gust of wind. robinson threw himself on the deck. the sea began to rise and fall. the waves were as high as mountains. now the ship was borne aloft to the skies, and now it would seem that it must be overwhelmed in the sea. when it sank down between the great waves of water, robinson thought it would never again rise. the waves beat violently on the ship's side. robinson went down the steps into his little room, but he came back full of anxiety. he believed every minute he would meet death in the waves. the night at last came on. the lightning flashed. the storm howled. the ship trembled. the water roared. so the night wore on. the storm raged for six days. then on the seventh day it was somewhat abated. but the hope was soon dashed. the storm had abated but to get new strength. suddenly it bore down with frightful power on the doomed vessel, struck it, and shot it like an arrow through the water. then robinson felt a fearful crash. the ship groaned as if it would fall into a thousand pieces. it had struck a rock and there held fast. at the same moment the sailors raised the cry, "the ship has sprung a leak!" the water surged into the ship. all called for help. each one thought only of himself. there was only one boat. the others had all been torn away. it was soon let down into the sea. all sprang in. for a moment the sailors forgot the waves, but all at once a wave, mountains high, struck the boat and swallowed it up. robinson shut his eyes. the water roared in his ears. he sank into the sea. vi robinson saved robinson was borne down far, far into the ocean. he attempted to work himself up, so that he could see light and breathe the air. but again and again the waves carried him down. finally a wave threw him up and he saw, for a moment, the light of day and got a breath of air, but the next instant he was deep under the water. then another wave bore him on its crest. he breathed a deep breath and at the same time saw land not far away. he bent all his strength toward reaching the land. he got almost to it, when a wave caught him and hurled him on a jutting rock. with all his strength he seized the rock with both hands and held on. presently he worked himself up a little and at last got a foothold. but, scarcely had he done so, when his strength left him and he fell on the ground as one dead. but he soon revived. he opened his eyes and looked around. he saw above him the blue sky, and under him the solid brown earth, and before him the gray angry sea. he felt to see if he still breathed. the storm had destroyed the ship. the waves had overwhelmed the boat. the water wished to draw him into the deep. the rocks seemed to want to hurl him back, but storm and wave and rock had accomplished nothing. there was one who was stronger than they. then robinson sank on his knees and folded his hands. tears came to his eyes. he breathed hard. at last he said, "dear father in heaven, i live. thou hast saved me. i thank thee." vii the first night on land "where are my companions?" that was his first thought. he began to call and halloo: "where are you? come here!" but no one answered. then he wished to see if anyone lived on the land, and he cried, "is there no one here? hello!" but all remained still. all at once he drew himself together and shrank back. he heard a bush rustle and the thought came like a flash, "that is a wild animal that will pounce upon me and tear my flesh with his teeth and claws. how shall i save myself? where shall i fly for safety? where shall i turn? i have nothing but my clothes and my life saved from the water. all that i had the waves have swallowed up." and then hunger and thirst began to trouble him. he had eaten nothing the whole day and the salt water had made him sick. in the meantime the night had come on. robinson was very tired. everything was new and strange. he did not know which way to move. he was in the greatest terror. he expected to hear the roar of wild beasts from every secluded spot. lions and tigers and dreadful serpents filled his thoughts. he must find shelter from them. but where should he pass the night? not a house, a hut or a cave was to be seen. he stood a long time hesitating and did not know what to do. finally he thought, "i will do as the birds do and get into a tree." he very soon found a tree which had such thick branches that it would hold him up. robinson climbed up into the tree, made himself as comfortable as possible, said his prayers, and as he was thoroughly exhausted, he soon fell asleep. when he awoke the sun was high in the sky. at first he could not remember where he was. then the truth burst upon him. he tried to move. he was stiff and sore. his flesh was bruised from being thrown against the rocks and beaten by the waves. he was dreadfully thirsty. his mouth and throat were dry and parched from the salt water. his tongue was thick and swollen. he said, "i must find some water to drink or i shall die!" it was hard work to get down from the tree. his limbs and back ached from sitting in the tree all night. at last he slipped down and fell on the ground. he clasped his hands in prayer and thanked god for keeping him through the night. [illustration] then he got up and tried to walk. he was so weak he could not stand. he threw himself down on the ground and began to sob and cry, "o lord, do not let me die! do not let me die!" as he lay there he heard a queer sound. he listened. it sounded like water running over rocks. he tried to get to the place from which the sound came. he tried to walk. when he fell he crawled on his hands and knees. at last the sound was close by. he dragged himself up on the rocks. yes, there was a spring of clear, cool, sparkling water bubbling up and trickling over the stones. robinson was so thirsty he put his face into the water and drank and drank. then he sat down, and after a while he drank again and again. after robinson had satisfied his thirst and rested awhile, he felt much better. he said, "i must try to walk and see whether i can find something to eat." he found many kinds of fruits and berries all around him, but he was afraid to eat them, as they were strange to him and he feared they might be poisonous. as he was walking along, all at once he spied a tall plant in the distance which had a familiar look. it looked like corn. he said to himself, "i wonder if it can be corn." at last he came near enough to recognize it. yes, it was corn. it did not look exactly like the corn that he saw at home, but still he knew it would be safe to eat it. he broke off an ear and eagerly ate the kernels raw. oh, how good it was! robinson could not remember anything that tasted half so good. he ate as much as he wanted and then filled his pockets with ears of corn for his supper. then he went back to the spring to get another drink. [illustration] viii robinson on an island after his hunger and thirst were satisfied, robinson thought he would try to find another dwelling place. "my legs are stiff and sore from sitting so uncomfortably last night, and there is so much danger of falling," he said. "i will climb yonder hill and look around and see on which side the houses are. i will find me a stick to help me on my way." he broke a stick from a dry bush and climbed up the steep sides of the hill. after a half hour's climb he was on top. what a sight met his eyes! there were no houses, no huts to be seen, no smoke arose from the forest, no field could be seen. nothing but trees and bush, sand and rock. "i am then upon an island alone, without food, without shelter, without weapons! what will become of me?" he cried. "i am a prisoner. the island is my prison, the waves are the guards which will not allow me to get away. will no ship ever come to set me free?" he stretched his gaze out to the sea till his eyes ached, but he saw no ship. robinson came down and seated himself on a stone and considered what he should do. it was not yet noon, yet he feared greatly the next night. "i must find me a better bed," was his first clear thought. [illustration] ix robinson's shelter robinson saw at a little distance what seemed to be a cleft or an opening in a huge rock. "if i could only get inside and find room to stay over night. the rock would protect me from rain, from the wind and wild animals better than a tree." he long sought in vain for a place wide enough to allow him to get into the opening in the rock. he was about to give up, when he seized hold of a branch of a thorn tree growing on the side of the rock. he looked closer and saw that it grew out of the cleft in the rock. he saw, too, that at this point the opening was wider and that he had only to remove the tree in order to get in. "the hole shall be my dwelling," he said. "i must get the thorn tree out so that i can have room." that was easily said. he had neither axe nor saw, nor knife nor spade. how could he do it? he had nothing but his hands. he tried to pull it out by the roots, but in vain. he wasn't strong enough. "i must dig it out," said robinson. he scratched with his nails, but the earth was too hard. what should he do? he sought a stick with a fork in it and dug in the earth, but it was slow work. then he found a clam-shell. he did better with it, but it was hard work, and robinson was not used to hard work. the sweat ran down his face and he had often to stop and rest in the shade. the sun burned so hot and the rock so reflected the heat that he was all but overcome. but he worked on. when evening came, he would sleep in the tree and next morning he would go at it again. on the third day the roots were all laid bare. but the roots were fast in the clefts of the rock and he could not loosen it, try ever so hard. what would he not have given for an axe, or at least a knife. and yet he had never thought of their value when at home. he attempted to cut one root through with his clam-shell, but the shell crumbled and would not cut the hard wood. he stood for a long time thinking, not knowing what next to do. he made up his mind that he must have something harder than the shell to cut with. then he tried a stone with a sharp edge, but soon found he needed another one, however. he found one. then he set the sharp one on the wood and struck it with the heavy one. in this way he slowly cut the roots in two. on the fifth day there was yet left one big root, bigger than any of the others. robinson got up early in the morning. he worked the whole day. finally it gave a crack and it, too, was broken. robinson had only now to remove the loose earth inside the cleft. he found the opening could be made large and roomy. it was choked up with dirt. he dug out enough to allow him room enough to make a place to lie down. "in the future," he thought, "i will take out all the dirt and then i shall be comfortable." it was then dark and the moon shone bright in the heavens. robinson gathered a heap of dry grass and made himself a safe bed. but as he lay there he saw the moonbeams shining into his cave. he sprang up. "how easy," he thought, "for wild animals to creep in here upon me." he crawled out and looked around. not far from the cave he saw a large flat stone. with great trouble he rolled it to the opening of his cave, but before this the morning began to dawn. he went inside the shelter, seized the stone with both hands and rolled it into the opening till it almost closed it. "i have now a closed home. i can again stretch my legs. wind and rain cannot get at me, nor wild animals." x robinson makes a hat refreshed and with renewed strength, robinson awoke late the next morning, but he had a bad headache. the day before the hot tropic sun had beat down on his bare head, as he worked at his cave. he was so busy that he forgot to go into the shade from time to time in order to shield himself from the scorching sunshine. he felt a new need. "i must make me a hat," said robinson to himself. "but how?" he had no straw, no thread and no needle. he looked around for a long time, but found nothing. the sun mounted even higher in the heavens, and shone hotter and hotter. he went to seek shelter at last in the deep shade of a nearby tall plant. as he stood there he examined the plant more carefully. "out of these leaves," he said, "i might make a hat." he climbed up the short stem of the plant and saw that it had not only leaves as long as himself, but between the leaves were big bunches of long, thin fruit, as thick as three fingers and similar in shape to a cucumber. he plucked the leaves and fruit and was about to eat some of the fruit when he heard near him a light stir as of some animal. he rolled the leaves and fruit together and hastened back to the cave. [illustration: the banana tree] the bananas, for that is what the fruit proved to be, were sweet and refreshing. after he had eaten enough he set immediately about making his hat. he broke off a couple of reeds. he bent one into a hoop. but the hoop would not hold without thread. sometimes it was too large and sometimes too small. but it must fit his head. he pulled up grass and bound its ends together, but the grass stalks were not strong enough. he hunted until he found a tree whose inner bark was soft and came out in long fibres. he bound his reed with this. this, too, made the hoop soft so that it did not hurt his head. when the hoop was ready and fitted to his head he found the banana leaves could not be used. their veins ran straight out from the midrib. this made them easily torn, and besides, they were too large. they were not the best shape. he saw that leaves about a foot long with broad and tapering points would be best. he saw too, that if the leaves had their veins running parallel with the midrib they would be stronger. he made search and at length found leaves that seemed made for his purpose. they were thick and leathery and tapered from base to apex like a triangle. he now proceeded with his hat-making. he would take a leaf and lay it on the ground with the base toward him. then he laid the hoop on the base of the leaf, wrapped it around the hoop and fastened it with thorns. he did the same with the other leaves. the thorns were his pins. at last he pinned the tips of the leaves together at the top and the hat was ready. it looked just like a big cone, but it kept out the heat of the sun. robinson now had corn and bananas and when he was thirsty he drank a handful of water from the spring. he had been now nine days on the island. every day he looked out on the sea until his eyes ached to see if he might discover a ship. he could not understand why no ship came his way. "who knows how long i must wait here?" said he sorrowfully. then the thought came to him: "you will not be able to keep track of the days unless you write it down." xi robinson's calendar the matter of keeping track of time puzzled robinson very much. it was getting more difficult every day to keep it in his memory. he must write down the days as they slip by, but where and how? he had neither pen, ink, nor paper. should he mark every day with a colored stone on the smooth side of the huge rock wall within whose clefts he had dug out his cave? but the rain would wash off the record and then he would lose all his bearings. then he thought of the beach, but there the wind and waves would soon also erase it. he thought a long time. "i must find something," he said to himself on which to keep a record. "i must also know when sunday is. i must rest one day in the week. yes, i must find something," he said, "on which to write." and finally he found it. he chose two trees standing near each other and then sought for a small sharp stone, which he could make still sharper by striking it on another. when he had got this pen ready he cut into the bark of one tree: _shipwreck, sunday, 10th of september, 1875._ he made seven cuts in a row for the seven days in the week. the first cut was longer than the others. this was to represent the sunday. at sundown every day he made a new cut in the bark. the other tree he called the month tree. on its stem he was to cut a mark every time his week tree told him a month had passed. but he must be careful, for the months were not of equal length. but he remembered that his teacher had once said in school that the months could be counted on the knuckles and hollows of the hand, in such a way that the long and short months could be found easily and he could tell in this way the number of days in each. robinson worked at enlarging his shelter a little every day. he was sorely at loss to find something in which to carry the dirt away from the entrance, or enough so that it would not choke up the opening. a large clam shell was all he could think of at present. he would carry the dirt to the entrance and some distance away, and then throw it. fortunately the ground sloped away rapidly, so that he needed a kind of platform before his door. he was careful to open the cleft at some distance above the large opening. for the air was damp and impure in the shelter. but with the opening made high above, fresh air was constantly passing into, and impure air out of, his cave. light, too, was admitted in this way. xii robinson makes a hunting bag several days passed with robinson's hat-making and his calendar-making and his watching the sea. every day his corn and bananas became more distasteful to him. and he planned a longer journey about the island to see if something new to eat could be found. but he considered that if he went a distance from his cave and found something it would really be of little use to him. "i could eat my fill," he said, "but that is all. and by the time i get back to my cave i will again be hungry. i must find something in which i can gather and carry food." he found nothing. "the people in new york," he said, "have baskets, or pockets, or bags made of coarse cloth. of them all, i could most easily make the net, perhaps, of vines. but the little things would fall out of the net. i will see whether i can make a net of small meshes." but he soon saw that the vines did not give a smooth surface. he thought for a long while. in his garden at home his father had sometimes bound up the young trees with the soft inner bark of others. he wondered if he could use this. he stripped away the outer bark from the tree, which before had yielded him a fibre for his hat, and pulled off the long, smooth pieces of the inner bark. he twisted them together. then he thought how he could weave the strands together. he looked at his shirt. a piece was torn off and unravelled. he could see the threads go up and down. he saw that some threads go from left to right (woof), others lengthwise (the warp). from his study of the woven cloth, robinson saw he must have a firmer thread than the strips of bark gave alone. he separated his bark into long, thin strips. these he twisted into strands of yarn by rolling between his hands, or on a smooth surface. as he twisted it he wound it on a stick. it was slow, hard work. of all his work, the making of yarn of thread gave him the most trouble. he learned to twist it by knotting the thread around the spindle or bobbin on which he wound it and twirling this in the air. he remembered sadly the old spinning wheel he had seen at his grandmother's house. his next care was something to hold the threads while he wove them in and out. he had never seen a loom. after long study robinson set two posts in the ground and these he bound with seventy-two strands horizontally under each other. then he tied in the top at the left another thread and wove it in and out through the seventy-two threads. so he tied seventy-two vertical strands and wove them in and out. thus he had a net three times as long as his foot and as wide as long. he tied the four corners together. he made a woven handle for it and put it on his shoulder like a sack, saying gleefully, "this shall be my hunting bag." [illustration: robinson's loom] xiii robinson explores the island after robinson made his hunting bag he was anxious to set off on his journey of exploring the island. so he arose very early next morning. "before it is hot," thought he, "i will be quite a distance on my journey." he ate a couple of bananas, scooped up a few handfuls of water from the spring, stuck a few ears of corn in his hunting bag, took his stick in his hand and went forth. as he left his cave the thought struck him: "what if i could not find my cave again? how can i manage so that i can come back to it? i will go away in one direction and return the same way; but suppose i were to lose the way?" then he noticed his shadow pointing like a great finger from the sea toward the land. he could direct himself by that. he kept his shadow in front of him. he had noticed, too, that the wind always blew north of the point where the sun rose. this helped him. but sometimes the wind died down. [illustration: cocoanut palm tree] he had to climb over many rocks and pierce many thickets. at each step he saw a rich growth of plants, stems, leaves, flowers, but nothing to eat, no fruits, or nuts. at length he came to a tree as high as a small church steeple. then he thought of what his father had once said about the trees in strange countries. "many are as tall as a church steeple and the nuts are as big as one's head." he looked again. yes, there they hung among the leaves, concealed high above in the crown! but so high, it was well that robinson had learned to climb while on board the ship. he quickly laid down his hunting bag and clambered up the smooth stem of the high tree, a palm. he picked off a nut and threw it down and then several more, and climbed down again. but the nuts were very hard. how should he open them? he had brought along his sharp stone with which he had stripped off the inner bark. with this he forced off the thick outer shell. but now came the hard nut within, and how hard it was! striking it was of no use. then he threw a great stone on the nut. the shell was crushed and a snow-white kernel lay before him. it tasted like almond. with astonishment robinson saw in the middle of the nut a large empty space which must have been filled with fluid as the inside was wet. he wished that he had the juice to drink, for he was very thirsty. with this in view, he examined another and riper nut, and the outside came off more easily. but how could he break it and at the same time save the juice? he studied the hull of the cocoanut on all sides. at the ends were three little hollows. he attempted first to bore in with his fingers, but he could not. "hold!" he cried. "maybe i can cut them there with the point of my stone knife." this was done without trouble and out of the hole flowed the sweet, white juice. robinson put a couple of nuts in his hunting bag, and also the shells from the broken nuts. "now," he thought, "i shall no longer have to drink from my hand." with this thought he went on his way. as robinson came to a rock in his path, out jumped what robinson took to be a rabbit. he ran after him to catch him, but the rabbit was much the swifter. so robinson hastened home, but before he reached it the stars were shining with their lustrous light. tired robinson stretched his limbs on his bed of grass and leaves and slept soundly. xiv robinson as a hunter all the time robinson was confined to the cave he kept thinking about the rabbit he had seen and how he might catch one. finally, he determined to make a spear. he broke down a thin, young sapling, stripped off its branches and in one end fastened a sharp stone. he then went to bed, for he wanted to be up early for his first hunting trip on the morrow. with his hunting sack and spear, robinson began to creep very, very cautiously through the underbrush. but he did not go far before he saw a lot of rabbits feeding peacefully on the soft leaves and grass. he drew back and threw his spear with all his might. but the spear did not reach the rabbits. it fell far short and the rabbits sprang up and ran quickly away. he tried it several times with the same result. then robinson, discouraged, turned back home and ate his corn, bananas, and cocoanuts without meat. in the meantime he found a new kind of food. he discovered a nest of eggs. how good they tasted to him! but his longing for meat was still very great. "i will try to make a bow and arrow," he said. no sooner said than done. he bent a long piece of tough, young wood and stretched between the ends a cord twisted out of the fiber taken from the cocoanut shell. he then sought for a piece of wood for arrows. he split the ends with his flint knife and fastened in splinters of stone. at the other end he fastened on some feathers found on the ground. the arrows flew through the air with great swiftness. "they will go far enough," thought robinson, "if i could only hit anything." he practised shooting. he stuck his stone knife in a tree and shot at it the whole day long. at first he could not hit it at all. the arrows flew far from the mark. after a while he could hit the tree, but not the knife. then as he practised, his arm grew ever surer, until at last he could hit the knife at almost every attempt. after a few days he again went rabbit hunting. he thought that the rabbit did not offer a mark so high as his knife, so he stuck a stone in the ground and practised shooting at that. he gradually increased the distance until he could hit the mark at twenty or thirty yards. the next morning robinson took his bow and arrows and went out to hunt. he aimed at a rabbit, shot, and it fell, pierced by the arrow. his very first shot was successful. he hastened up and took the dead rabbit on his shoulder, carried it to his cave and skinned it. then he cut off a nice, large piece of meat and was going to roast it, but alas, he had no fire! xv robinson's shoes and parasol the next morning robinson could not get up. his feet were swollen and sore in consequence of walking without shoes over thorns and stones. he must remain the whole day in his cave. before him, in the sun, his walking stick stuck in the ground. he thought how he had been troubled yesterday to find his way and about the shadow. he had now time to study it. he watched it the whole day through. in the morning it pointed toward the land. in the evening toward the sea. this comes from the daily movement of the sun. he determined to study the matter more carefully. robinson got up and with great effort walked to the spring. there he cooled his burning feet, and gathered some large leaves, which he bound on them. he decided to remain in his cave a few days, for he had enough food stored up to last him some length of time. he planned how he might make himself a pair of shoes. as soon as his feet were well, he sought out some thick bark and put fastenings of tough, strong fiber on it. these served very well to protect his feet. but he must have some further protection from the sun. it beamed so hot that his hat was not enough. he made a parasol out of leaves like his hat. he took a straight stick for a handle. he tied some reeds together and bent them into a hoop. he then fastened the upper end of the stick in the center of the hoop by means of six reeds which formed the ribs of the parasol. to keep out the sun he covered this framework with large, broad leaves. with a cord he tied the stem ends of the leaves to the stick just above where the reeds were tied. spread out, these broad leaves completely covered the ribs. their tips reached over the hoop. they were fastened together by means of small, needle-like fish-bones robinson had found on the beach. xvi getting fire now robinson had heard that savages take two dry pieces of wood and rub them so long on each other that they at length begin to burn. he tried it. the sweat ran down his cheeks, but every time the wood was about to catch fire his strength would give out, and he was obliged to rest, and when he began again the wood was cold. "how will it be in winter," he cried, "when it is cold, and i have no fire?" he must try other ways of preparing meat for his table. he must think of some other way of getting fire. he remembered that once, when a boy at home, he had in playing with a stick made it hot by twirling it on end on a piece of wood. "i will try this," he thought. he searched for a good hard stick and a piece of wood upon which to turn or twirl it with his hands. having found the best materials at hand, he began to twirl the stick. he made a little hollow in the block of wood in which to turn his upright stick. there was heat but no fire. he twirled and twirled, but he could not get the wood hot enough to blaze up or ignite. he had not skill. besides his hands were not used to such rough treatment. soon they blistered and this method had to be given up. "i must have fire," he still thought, and recalled the sparks that flew from the stone pavements of the streets when the iron shoes of the horses struck them as they slipped and strained at their cruel loads. why may i not get fire by striking together two stones? he sought out two hard stones and with great diligence kept striking them together until his strength gave out, and he was obliged again to acknowledge failure. he remembered that sometimes travelers put the meat underneath the saddle and ride on it until it is soft. he tried it with pounding. he laid some of the meat on a flat stone and pounded it. it became quite soft and tasted very well. he then tried hanging it in the sun and finally wrapped it in leaves and buried it for a few hours in the hot sand. xvii robinson makes some furniture one thing troubled robinson very much. he could not sit comfortably while eating. he had neither chair nor table. he wished to make them, but that was a big job. he had no saw, no hammer, no auger and no nails. robinson could not, therefore, make a table of wood. not far from his cave he had seen a smooth, flat stone. "ay," thought he, "perhaps i can make me a table out of stone." he picked out the best stone and built up four columns as high as a table and on these he laid his large, flat stone. it looked like a table, sure enough, but there were rough places and hollows in it. he wanted it smooth. he took clay and filled up the holes and smoothed it off. when the clay dried, the surface was smooth and hard. robinson covered it with leaves and decked it with flowers till it was quite beautiful. when the table was done, robinson began on a chair. he made it also of stone. it had no back. it looked like a bench. it was uncomfortable to sit on. robinson covered it with moss. then it was an easy seat. table and chair were now ready. robinson could not move them from one corner to another, nor when he sat on the chair could he put his feet under the table, and yet he thought them excellent pieces of furniture. every day robinson went hunting and shot a rabbit, but the meat would not keep. at home they would have put it in the cellar. if only he had a cellar! he saw near his cave a hole in the rock. he dug it out a little with his mussel shell and found that it led back under a rock. from much bending over in digging, robinson's back, unused to severe toil, ached wretchedly. he decided to make a spade. with his flint he bored four holes in a great, round mussel shell. they formed a rectangle as long as a little finger and as wide. through these holes he drew cocoanut fibre and bound the shell to a handle fast and strong. with his spade he dug a hole so deep that he could stand in it upright. then he put in a couple of shelves made of flat stones. in this cellar he put his rabbit meat and his eggs. then he laid branches over it and finally covered the whole with leaves. xviii robinson becomes a shepherd with his bow and arrow, robinson went hunting every day. the rabbits soon learned to know him and let themselves be seldom seen. as soon as they saw him, they took alarm. they became timid and shy. one day robinson went out as usual to shoot rabbits. he found none. but as he came to a great rock he heard from behind a new sound, one he had not heard before in the island. ba-a-a, it sounded. "a kid," thought robinson, "like that with which i have so often played at home." he slipped noiselessly around the rock and behold, really there stood a kid. he tried to call it, but the kid sought safety in flight. he hastened after it. then he noticed that it was lame in one fore foot. it ran into some brush, where robinson seized it by the horns and held it fast. how robinson rejoiced! he stroked it and fondled it. then he thought, how could it come into this wilderness on this lonesome island? "has your ship been cast upon the rocks too, and been broken to pieces? you dear thing, you shall be my comrade." he seized the goat by the legs, and no matter how it kicked, carried it to his cave. then he fetched quickly a cocoanut shell full of water and washed and bathed the goat's wounded leg. a stone had rolled down from the hill and had inflicted a severe wound on its left fore leg, or perhaps it had stepped into a crack in the rocks. robinson tore off a piece of linen from his shirt, dipped it in water and bound it with shreds of the cocoanut upon the wound. then he pulled some grass and moss and made a soft bed near the door of the cave. after he had given it water, it looked at him with thankful eyes and licked his hand. robinson could not sleep that night. he thought continually of his goat and got up time and again to see if it was safe. the moon shone clear in the heavens. as robinson sat before the goat's bed he looked down on his new possession as lovingly as a mother on her child. the next morning robinson's first thought was, "i am no longer alone. i have a companion, my goat." he sprang up and looked for it. there she lay on her side, still sleeping. as he stood and considered, the thought came to him that perhaps the goat had escaped from its keeper. there must then be some one living on the land. he quickly put on his shoes and his hat, took his parasol, and ran to the rock where he had found the goat. he called, he sought, he peered about to see if some shepherd were there somewhere. he found nothing. he found no trace of man. there was no road, no bridge, no field, no logs, not even a chip or shaving to show that the hand of man had been there. but what was that? in the distance ran a herd of goats over the rocks. but no dog followed them and no shepherd. they ran wild on the island. they had perhaps been left there by some ship. as he came home he noticed the goat sorrowfully. the bandage had become dry. the goat might be suffering pain. robinson loosened the bandage, washed the wound again and bound it up anew. it was so trustful. it ran after him and he decided always to protect it. "i will always be your shepherd and take care of you," he said. xix robinson builds a home for his goat but the goat was a new care. wild animals could come and kill and carry robinson's goat away while he slept, and if the goat got frightened while he was hunting it would run away. "i will have to make me a little yard in front of my cave," he said, "for my goat to live in." but from whence must come the tools? he had neither hatchet nor saw. where then were the stakes to come from? he went in search of something. after hunting for a long time he came upon a kind of thistle about two feet higher than himself, having at its top a red torch-like blossom. there were a great many of them. "good!" thought robinson. "if i could only dig up enough of them and plant them thick around the door of my cave, i would have just the thing. no one could get at me, nor at the goat, either. the thorns would keep anything from creeping through, peeping in or getting over." so he took his mussel-shell spade and went to work. it was pretty hard, but at length he succeeded in laying bare the roots of quite a number. but he could not drag them to his cave on account of the thorns sticking in him. he thought a long time. finally, he sought out two strong poles or branches which were turned up a little at one end and like a sled runner. to these he tied twelve cross-pieces with bark. to the foremost he tied a strong rope made from cocoa fiber. he then had something that looked much like a sled on which to draw his thistle-like brush to his cave. but for one day he had done enough. the transplanting of the thistles was hard work. his spade broke and he had to make a new one. in the afternoon he broke his spade again. and as he made his third one, he made up his mind that it was no use trying to dig with such a weak tool in the hard ground. it would only break again. "if i only had a pick." but he had none. he found a thick, hard, sharp stone. with it he picked up the hard earth, but had to bend almost double in using it. "at home," he thought, "they have handles to picks." the handle was put through a hole in the iron. he turned the matter over and over in his mind, how he might put a hole through the stone. but he found no means. he searched out a branch with a crotch at one end. he tied the stone to this with strong cocoa fiber and bark. how his eye glistened as he looked at the new tool! now he began to work. he first loosened up the earth with his pick, then he dug it out with his spade and planted in a high thistle. many days he had to work, but finally one evening the hedge was ready. he had a row in a semi-circle in front of his cave. he counted the marks on his calendar tree. the day on which he had begun to make his hedge he had especially marked out. he had worked fourteen days. [illustration: robinson's tools] he had completed his hedge with the exception of a small hole that must serve for a door. but the door must not be seen from without. as robinson thought, it came to him that there was still place for two thistles on the outside. he could easily get in, but the entrance was difficult to find from the outside. robinson looked on his hedge from without. it was not yet thick enough. for this reason he planted small thistles between the larger ones. with the digging them out and transplanting them he was a whole week longer. finally, the hedge and the yard were ready. now robinson could rest without fear and sleep in his cave, and could have his goat near him all the time. it delighted him greatly. it ran after him continually like a dog. when he came back from an absence, it bleated for joy and ran to meet him as soon as he got inside the hedge. robinson felt that he was not entirely alone. he had now a living being near him. xx robinson gets ready for winter there was one thing that troubled robinson greatly. "what will become of me when the winter comes? i will have no fire to warm me. i have no clothing to protect me from the cold, and where shall i find food when snow and ice cover all the ground and when the trees are bare and the spring is frozen? it will be cold then in my cave; what shall i do? it is cold and rainy already. i believe this is harvest time and winter will soon be here. winter and no stove, no winter clothing, no winter store of food and no winter dwelling. what shall i do?" he considered again the project of making fire. he again sought out two pieces of wood and sat down and rubbed them together. the sweat rolled down his face. when the wood began to get warm, his hand would become tired, and he would have to stop. when he began again the wood was cold. he worked for an hour or two, then he laid the wood aside and said, "i don't believe i can do it. i must do the next best thing. i can at least get warm clothing to protect me from the rain and snow." he looked down at his worn, thin clothing, his trousers, his shirt, his jacket; they had become so thin and worn that they were threadbare. "i will take the skins of the hares which i have shot and will make me something," he thought. he washed and cleaned them, but he needed a knife and he set about making one. he split one end of a tough piece of wood, thrust his stone blade in it and wound it with cocoa fibre. his stone knife now had a handle. he could now cut the skins quite well. but what should he do for needle and thread? maybe the vines would do. "but they are hardly strong enough," he thought. he pulled the sinews from the bones of the rabbit and found them hard. maybe he could use them. he found fish skeletons on the seashore and bored a hole in the end of the small, sharp rib bones. then he threaded his bone needle with the rabbit sinews and attempted to sew, but it would not go. his needle broke. the skin was too hard. he bored holes in the edge of the pieces of skin and sewed through the holes. this went very well. he sewed the skins together with the hair side inward, made himself a jacket, a pair of trousers, a hat, and finally covered his parasol with rabbit skin, for the rain had already dripped through the leaves of it. all went well, only the trousers did not fit. he loosened them and puckered them to no purpose. "anyway," he thought, "i am now well protected from the cold, when it does come." [illustration: robinson in his new suit] xxi how robinson lays up a store of food now for the food. could robinson preserve the meat? he had often heard his mother tell about preserving meat in salt. he had even eaten salt meat, pickled meat. but where could he get salt? one day when the wind blew hard the water was driven upon the shore and filled a little hollow. after a few days the ground glistened white as snow where the water had been. was it snow? robinson took it in his hands and put it in his mouth. it was salt. the sun had evaporated the water in the hollow--had vaporized it--and the air had drunk it up. what was left behind? salt. now he could get salt as long as he needed it. he took cocoanut shells and strewed salt in them. then he cut the rabbit meat in thin strips, rubbed them with salt, and laid them one on the other in the salt in the shells. he covered it over with a layer of salt. he put over each shell the half of a larger one and weighted it down with stones. after a period of fourteen days he found the meat quite red. it had pickled. but he did not stop here. he gathered and stored in his cellar cocoanuts and corn in such quantities that he would be supplied for a whole winter. it seemed best to catch a number of rabbits, build a house for them and keep them. then he could kill one occasionally and have fresh meat. then it came to him that goats would be much better, for they would give milk. he determined immediately to have a herd of goats. he made a string or lasso out of cocoa fibre. then he went out, slipped up quietly to a herd of goats and threw the lasso over one. but the lasso slipped from the horns and the goat ran away. the next day he had better luck. he threw the lasso, drew it tight and the goat was captured. he brought it home. he rejoiced when he saw that it gave milk. he was happy when he got his first cocoanut shell full of sweet rich milk. his goat herd grew. he soon had five goats. he had no more room in his yard. he could not provide food enough. he must let them out. he must make another hedge around his yard so that the goats could get food and yet be kept from going away. he got stakes from the woods and gathered them before his cave. he sharpened them and began to drive them in the earth. but it rained more and more each day. he was wet through as he worked. he had finally to stop work, for the rain was too heavy. xxii robinson's diary robinson was much disturbed because he had no means of keeping a record of things as they happened from day to day. he had his calendar, it is true. he would not lose track of the time. but he wished for some way to write down his thoughts and what happened. so he kept up keen search for anything that would serve him for this purpose. every time he journeyed about the island he kept careful watch for something that he might write upon. he thought of the leaves of the palm tree, the white under surface of the shelf fungus. but these he found would not do. he tried many kinds of bark and leaves. there was a kind of tall reed or grass growing in the marshes whose rind seemed good when dried. he examined the inner bark of many trees. he at last found that the inner bark of a tree which resembled our elm tree worked best. he would cut through the bark with his stone knife around the tree. at about one foot from this he would cut another ring. he then would cut through the bark lengthwise from one circular cut to the other. he could then peel off the section easily. while it was yet full of sap he would separate the soft, tough, thin inner layer of the bark. this usually came off in sheets without a break. when these sheets of bark were stretched and dried they could be used very nicely instead of paper. robinson next searched for something that would serve him as ink, and this was much easier to find than paper. he had noticed many kinds of galls of many different colors growing on trees. he did not know what they were, or how they grew, but he had learned in his father's store that ink was often made from galls gathered from trees. "anyway," he thought, "i can get ink from the cuttle-fish." he had watched this animal get away from its enemies by sending out a cloud of purplish fluid, in which to hide as it darted away. he had learned also that indigo is made from the leaves of a plant. he had noticed a plant growing in the open places in the forest whose leaves turned black when dried. robinson gathered a quantity of gall-nuts and soaked them in water. to the black fluid thus obtained he added a little rice water to make it flow well, and this served very well as an ink. he kept his ink in a cup made from a cocoanut shell. he was not long in getting a pen, though the lack of a good sharp knife made it hard to make a good one. in going about he had gathered a quantity of large feathers. he saved these for the time when he should have his paper and ink ready. now, he cut away a quill to a point and split it up a little way. he was now supplied with writing materials. "is it not wonderful," he thought, "how all our wants are filled? we have only to want a thing badly enough and it comes." robinson began at once to write down the date for each day and the main thing he did or that happened on it. he called this his diary. he had now a better way of keeping time than on his tree calendar. he did not need it any more. you have no doubt wondered how robinson could work in his cave, especially at night without a light. the truth is, it was a great source of discomfort to him. at sunset he was in total darkness in his cave. during the day light enough streamed in from the open doorway. to be alone in total darkness is not pleasant. "if i only had fire!" he said again and again. he watched the many large beetles and fire-flies flash their light in the dark of the evening as he sat in front of his shelter. the thought came to him that if he only had some way of keeping together a number of them, they would serve very well for a candle in his cave at night. how he longed for a glass bottle such as he had so often wantonly broken when at home! back of his shelter there was a hill where the rock layers jutted out. he had noticed here several times the thin transparent rock that he had seen in his father's store. it is called isinglass. "i will make a living lantern," he said aloud in his eagerness. he soon had a suitable piece pried loose. he cut a part of a cocoanut shell away and in its place he put a sheet of isinglass. that evening at dark he gathered several handfuls of the great fire beetles and put them in his lantern. what joy their glow gave him in his cave at night. it was almost as much comfort as a companion. but while it lighted up the deep dark of the cave and enabled him to move about, he was unable after all to write in his diary at night. every morning he set his captives free. in the evening he would go out and capture his light. xxiii robinson is sick one evening robinson went to bed sound and well. the next morning he was sick. before he had only the heat of the day to complain of. to-day he was freezing. he wanted to go to work to get warm, but even this did not break his chill. it increased till his teeth chattered with the cold. "perhaps," thought he, "if i can sleep a little i will get better." but he could not sleep. he was burning with fever and then shaking with cold by turns. he felt a strong thirst, but he was so weak that he could scarcely get the goat's milk. he had no sooner drunk the milk than his tongue was as dry as before. he felt better after a night of sleep, but the next day his fever and chills were worse than before. then he bethought him of his parents. how kindly his mother had taken care of him! now no one was near that could assist him. "ah," he sighed, "must i die here? who would bury me? there is no one to miss me." at this the tears came to his eyes. his sickness increased with each day. occasionally the fever would go down sufficiently to allow him to get something to eat. then it would be worse than before. in his dire need he wanted to pray, but he was so weak that he could only stammer, "dear god, help me, or i shall die!" one night he had a strange dream. he thought he saw his good old father standing before him calling to him. he spread out his arms and cried aloud, "here i am, here i am!" he tried to get up, but he was so weak that he fell back fainting. he lay there a long time, but finally came to. he felt a burning thirst, but no one reached him a drop of water. he prepared to die. he folded his hands and prayed to god that he would be merciful to him. he prayed forgiveness from his parents. once more he raised his head and gazed wildly around, then he sank back and knew no more. when he again awoke he felt better. his hot fever had gone. he attempted to walk. he had just enough strength to crawl to the table and fetch a shell of water. when he tried to walk he had to sit down at every two or three steps. from this he recovered gradually, growing better and better, and he thanked god inwardly for his recovery. his sickness had continued from june 18 to july 3. xxiv robinson's bower robinson's sickness set him thinking about his home. he had been so afraid of animals when he came to the island that he thought of nothing but protection from them. he had been now a year on the island and had seen nothing more dangerous than a goat. the fear of animals had practically faded away. in thinking over his sickness he made up his mind that it was caused by sleeping in his cave where the sun never shone. the ventilation seemed good, but the walls were damp, especially in the rainy season. then the water would trickle down through the cleft in spite of all he could do. he resolved to build, if possible, a little cottage, or, as he called it, a bower, in the yard in front of his shelter. the hedge of thistles was growing and formed a fence that an animal could not get through. his screen of willows on the outside of this would soon hide him from view from the sea. he had the wall of rock and the hill behind him. he planned out his way of building it very carefully. "it must be done," he said (robinson formed the habit of talking to himself, so that he would not forget how to talk), "without hammer, nails, or saw." he first sought out four posts, as large as he could well handle. there were always broken trees and branches in the forest. if he searched long enough he could find posts just suited to his need. he wanted four of the same thickness and height and with a fork at the end. after long searching he found what he wanted. he was careful to get those that he could drag to his shelter. he placed these in the ground, forming the corners of a square about ten feet long. in the forks he placed poles running around about eight feet from the ground. at about every three feet he fastened others, running in the same way, with heavy cords made of fibre. he found his greatest trouble with the roof. it must be sloped to shed rain. he had to find two more forked posts, three or four feet longer than the others. these he placed opposite each other in the centers of two sides. upon these he placed a ridge pole. he then laid other poles lengthwise from ridge pole to the edge of the frames. his frame was now done. his plan was now to cover this frame with straw or grasses tied in bundles. he had seen the barns in the country thatched in this way by the dutch farmers in new york state. he gathered the straw of the wild rice. it was long, straight and tough. it was easily tied into flat bundles. these he bound securely on to the frame work with cords. he began at the bottom so that the ends of the row would lap over the tops of the last one put on. [illustration: robinson's bower] in this way he built a very comfortable and rainproof bower. it was easy to make a bed of poles covered with straw. a table and bench were added and shelves of poles. robinson felt great joy over this new home. "i will not now be sick any more," he said. "in case of danger i can get into my cave. but at all other times i will live in my bower." he had use still for his cave. he could use it to store some things in. but he had to be careful about the dampness in wet weather. robinson was getting to feel at home. he was no longer so sad. he did not grieve so much for home. he looked upon his home with great delight. it was secure. he had his herd of goats always in his sight. at evening he would do his milking. he found he could keep the milk for some time in the cave. he was tempted to try making some butter from the good, rich cream. "but," said robinson, "i have neither vessels to make it in nor bread to eat it on." he planned many things to do. "i will make a hammock some day for my bower and some vessels to use in my work," he thought. xxv robinson again explores his island when robinson recovered his strength he had a strong desire to see more of the island. at first he had been in constant fear of wild animals, but now he thought he would like to see all there was to see in the island. on the 15th of july he started out. first he went to a brook which ran into the sea near his cave. its water was clear and pure; along its shore lay beautiful meadows. as he came to the upper course of the brook the meadow gave way to forest. on the border of the forest he found melons and grapes. the night came on and he slept again in a tree. the next morning he went farther and came to a clear rivulet. here the region was wonderfully beautiful. the flowers bloomed as in a garden, and near the flowers stood splendid apple and orange trees. he took as much of the fruit as he could carry and went on his way. this journey continued three days. the grapes which he had carried he dried in the sun and made raisins. the 10th of september came, one year had passed on the island. he was many hundred miles from home, alone on an island. with tears he cried out, "ah! what are my dear parents saying? they have no doubt long given me up as dead. if i could only send them a message to comfort them and let them know how much i love them!" the day was celebrated as a holiday. he thanked god that he had given him so many good things. often he had lived the whole day in care and anxiety. now he tried to be more cheerful and to meet the troubles of each day with courage. but robinson was not yet satisfied. he longed to know more of the island and prepared himself for a greater journey. he slung his hunting pouch over his shoulder, filled it full of food, took his bow and arrows, stuck his stone hatchet in his belt and started on his way. he traveled over meadows, through beautiful forests in which were hundreds of birds. he was delighted as they sang and fluttered about. the journey was beautiful and pleasant to robinson. in the forests he often saw small wild creatures, but he shot nothing. after the first night he slept under a tree in the soft grass, for he had now no fear of wild animals. along the shore he saw great groves of palms with their large nuts. he saw, too, many goats in all parts of the island. now he was ready to take the shortest way home. he had not gone far before he came into a dark forest. he became confused and wandered about for several days. on the fourth day he came to a little pile of stones, which he had made to mark the way as he was going out. from this place the way was easy to find. on this trip he was gone already two weeks. xxvi robinson and his birds of all the things he saw on his journey robinson was most delighted with the birds. they were of the most beautiful colors. the forest was full of them. they gleamed like jewels in the deep masses of foliage. in the morning their singing filled the air with sound. robinson had never taken much notice of the birds at home. but now every living thing attracted him. he loved to see them happy. he would watch often by the hour and learn the habits of nesting and getting food of nearly every bird on the island. robinson did not know the names of many of the birds he saw on the island. he had to make names for them. the strangest thing he saw on his journey was the nest of what he called the yellow-tail. this bird lives in colonies and makes its nest at the ends of the long leaves of the mountain palm. when he first saw these queer looking sacks hanging from the leaves he was amazed. he had never seen so strange a sight. from the end of each great leaf hung a long, closely woven nest. robinson could not make out at first what they were. soon, however, he saw the birds come out of the mouths of the nests. here, one hundred feet from the ground, they hung their nests. but they were perfectly safe. he had not gone far from the tree in which the yellow tails had their nests when he was suddenly startled by a voice crying, "who, who are you?" robinson was greatly frightened and hid beneath the drooping branches of a cedar tree. he feared every moment that the owner of the voice would make his appearance. but it kept at a distance. every few minutes from the depths of the forest would come the doleful cry, "who, who are you?" robinson did not dare to stir from his hiding place. he remained there over night. after the night came on he heard the strange voice no more. the next day he renewed his journey. he saw many birds that were wholly strange to him. there was a kind of wild pigeon that built its home in a hole in the rock. it was a most beautiful bird with long, slender, graceful feathers in its tail. he saw the frigate bird soaring high above the island. the number and beauty of the humming-birds amazed robinson. they were of all colors. one had a bill in the shape of a sickle. the most brilliant of them all was the ruby-crested humming-bird. near noon, while robinson was shielding himself from the scorching heat of the sun in a deep, shaded glen, he was startled again by the strange voice crying, "who, who, who are you?" he lay quite still, determined if possible to allow the voice to come, if it would, within sight. he heard it slowly coming up the glen. each time it repeated the cry it sounded nearer. at last he saw spying at him through the boughs of the tree under which he was lying a large bird with soft, silky feathers of green and chestnut. "who, who, who are you?" said the bird. robinson could not help but laugh. he had been frightened at the cry of a bird. but the bird that interested robinson most was the parrot. there were several kinds of them. they flew among the trees with great noise and clatter and shrieking. robinson determined if possible to secure one for a pet. "i can teach it to talk," he said, "and i will have something to talk to." as soon as he returned home he set about catching one. he noticed that a number were in the habit of visiting an old tree near the shelter every morning. he planned to snare one and tried several mornings, but he could not get one into the snare. he tried to hit one with his bow and arrow. he at last succeeded in hitting one and stunning it so that it fell to the ground. he ran rapidly to pick it up, but before he could get to where it lay in the bushes it had disappeared. after thinking the matter over he concluded that it would be much better to get a pair of young birds and raise them. the old ones would be hard to tame and difficult to teach. it was easy enough to find a nest in a hollow tree. he secured from the nest two birds just ready to fly. he made a cage for them out of willow rods. he placed the cage at the entrance of his cave and studied how he would feed them. much to his surprise the parent birds discovered their young ones and brought them food and fed them through the open work of the cage. when the birds were grown they rapidly learned to talk. robinson took great delight in teaching them. he taught them to call his name and when he came near they would call out, "poor old robinson crusoe!" these birds remained for many years with robinson. in fact, he was never afterward without a parrot. they helped him to pass away very pleasantly many hours that without them would have been sad. another bird that robinson loved was the little house wren. this bird was exceedingly tame and friendly. it was a very sweet and strong singer. it loved to make its nest in or near his shelter. there it would build and rear its young, within reach of his hands, while its throat was always bursting with melody. the mocking bird, too, always nested near and awakened him in the morning with its wonderful song. robinson became a great friend and favorite of the bird inhabitants of the island. they seemed to know him and showed no fear when near him. this pleased him very much. xxvii robinson gets fire robinson was now pretty comfortable. he had his bower with its chair and table. he had his cave in case of danger. he had his cellar in which to keep his meat. he would sit in the shade near the door of his bower and think of the many things he should be thankful for. but there was one hardship that robinson could not get used to and that was the eating of raw food. "how fine it would be if only i could parch a few grains of corn in the fire! i could like live a prince," thought he, "if i had fire. i would grind some of my corn into flour and make some corn bread or cakes and cook rice." he did so long for roasted meat and determined again to make the attempt to get fire. robinson was fast losing his idle, thoughtless ways of doing things. he had become a thoughtful and diligent man in the short time that he had been on the island. trouble and hardship had made a man of him. "i must carefully think over the whole matter of getting fire," he said. he had failed twice and was now resolved to succeed. "if the lightning would only strike a tree," he thought, "and set it on fire." but he could not wait for such a thing to happen, and how could he keep it when once thus obtained? it was clear he must have some way of producing fire when he wanted it, just as they did at home. he thought over the ways he had tried and the one most likely to be successful. he resolved to make a further trial of the method by twirling a stick in his hands. he selected new wood that was hard and dry. he carefully sharpened a stick about eighteen inches long and, standing it upright in a hollow in the block of wood, began to roll it between his hands. by the time robinson's hands were well hardened, it seemed that he was going to succeed at last. but he lacked the skill to be obtained only by long practice. "if i could only make it go faster," he said. "there must be some way of doing this. i believe i can do it. i used to make my top spin round with a cord; i wonder if i can use the cord here." the only cord he had was attached to his bow. he was going to take it off when a thought struck him. he loosened the string a bit and twisted it once about his spindle. then he drew the bow back and forth. the spindle was turned at a great rate. he saw he must hold one end with his left hand while the other rested in the hollow in the block. with his right, he drew the bow back and forth. how eagerly he worked! he had twirled but a few minutes when the dust in the hollow burst into fire from the heat produced by the rapidly twirling spindle. [illustration: robinson's tools for making fire] robinson was too overjoyed to make any use of it. he danced and capered about like one gone mad until the fire had gone out. but that was of no matter now, since he could get fire when he wanted it. he hastened to make him a rude fireplace and oven of stones. he hollowed out a place in the ground and lined and covered it with large flat stones. on one side he built up a chimney to draw up the smoke and make the fire burn brightly. he brought wood and some dry fungus or mushroom. this he powdered and soon had fire caught in it. he kindled in this way the wood in his stove and soon had a hot fire. the first thing he did in the way of cooking was to roast some rabbit meat on a spit or forked stick held in his hand over the fire. nothing robinson had ever eaten was to be compared to this. "i can do many things now," thought robinson. "my work will not be nearly so hard. my fire will be my servant and help me make my tools as well as cook my food. i can now cook my corn and rice." xxviii robinson makes baskets robinson still continued anxious about his food supply when he could no longer gather it fresh from the fields and forest. corn had again become ripe. he had found in a wet, marshy place some wild rice-plants loaded with ripened grain. as he now had fire he only had to have some way of storing up grains and he would not lack for food. he knew that grain stored away must be kept dry and that he must especially provide against dampness in his cave or in his bower. if he only had some baskets. these would be just the thing. but how was he to get them? robinson had never given a thought to either material or the method of making them. he, however, was gradually acquiring skill and confidence in himself. so far he had managed to meet all his wants. he had invented tools and made his own clothes and shelter, and, "now," said he to himself, "i will solve the new problem. i must first study the materials that i have at hand." he remembered the splint market baskets in which his father took vegetables home from the store. he recalled how the thin splints were woven. "they went over and under," he said. "that is simple enough if i had the splints." he set himself diligently to work to find a plant whose bark or split branches could be used for splints. he tried to peel off the rough outer bark of several trees in order to examine the inner layers of soft fibrous material. he found several trees that gave promise of furnishing abundance of long, thin strips, but the labor of removing the bark with his rude imperfect tools was so great that he resolved that he would have to find some other kind of material. "why need the strips be flat?" he thought. "i believe i could weave them in the same way if i used the long, thin, tough willow rods i saw growing by the brookside, when i was returning from my journey." he found on trial that the weaving went very well, but that he must have strong, thick rods or ribs running up and down to give strength and form to his basket. he worked hard, but it was slow work. it was three days before his first basket was done. he made many mistakes and was obliged many times to undo what he had accomplished in order to correct some error. and at last when he had woven the basket as large as he thought was suitable for his purpose, he did not know how to stop or finish the top so as to keep the basket from unraveling. at last he hit upon the plan of fastening two stout rods, one outside, the other inside, the basket. these he sewed firmly, over and over, to the basket with a kind of fibre from a plant he had discovered that looked almost to be what he had heard called the century plant in the parks at home. on attempting his next basket, he thought long how he might improve and save time. he must hasten, or the now almost daily rains would destroy his ripened wild corn and rice. "if i could use coils of that long grass i saw growing in the marsh beside the rice," he thought, "i could make twice the progress." he gathered an armful, twisted it into cables about an inch thick and wove it into his frame of upright rods instead of the horizontal layer of willow canes. this answered his purpose just as well and rendered the making of large baskets the work of a few hours. he found, however, that the willow rods or osiers were not pliant enough to work well in fastening his coils of grass cables together. he tried several things and at last succeeded best when he used the long thread-like fibre of the century-like plant. he had, however, to make a stout framework of rods. he would first coil his grass rope into this frame and then sew it together with twine or thread made from this fibre. [illustration: robinson's baskets] he afterwards tried making smaller and finer baskets out of the fibre that he had discovered, which could be easily had from the thick-leaved plant he thought he had seen at home. he first used long, tough, fine roots he had seen when digging up the tree at the mouth of his cave. afterwards he discovered some tall, tough reeds growing near by. he laid in a supply of these. he found that when he wanted to use them, a good soaking in water made them as pliable and tough as when first cut. the making of the baskets and storing up grains made it possible for robinson to become a farmer and thus make himself independent. this thought was a great relief to him. xxix robinson becomes a farmer robinson had now been on the island long enough to know how the seasons changed. he found that there were two kinds of weather there, wet weather and dry weather. there were two wet seasons in each year and two dry ones. during the wet seasons, which lasted nearly three months, robinson had to remain pretty closely at home, and could not gather grain, for the plants were then starting from the seeds. it ripened in the dry seasons. robinson soon found that he must have a store of corn and wild rice for food during the rainy seasons. he, however, knew nothing about planting and harvesting, nor preparing the ground for seed. he had it all to learn with no teacher or books to instruct him. he found a little space near his dwelling free from trees and thought he would plant some corn seed here. he did not know the proper time for planting. he thought because it was warm, seed would grow at any time. it happened his first seed was put in at the beginning of the dry season. he watched and waited to rejoice his eyes with the bright green of sprouting corn, but the seed did not grow. there was no rain and the sun's heat parched the land till it was dry and hard on the upland where his corn was planted. "very well," thought robinson, "i will plant it at the beginning of the wet season, either in march or september." he did so; the seed quickly sprouted up. but the weeds, shrubs, and vines sprouted as quickly, and before robinson was aware, his corn was overgrown and choked out by a rank growth of weeds and vines. "i see," said robinson, "that i must thoroughly prepare the soil before planting my seed." but he had no spade and no other tool that would stand the strain of digging among tough matted roots. but he must succeed. he put a new handle in the stone hoe or pick he had already made. his mussel shell spade was worn out. he must set himself to fashion out another. he decided to make one from the tough heavy wood of a tree that grew plentifully in the forest. he was lucky enough to find a tree of this kind whose bole had been split lengthwise by the falling of an old rotten tree near it. with his stone tools and the help of fire he managed after several days' work to make a wide sharpened tool out of one of the large pieces split off. it was a little over three feet long. he had trimmed one end small and cut notches in the sides about one foot from the flat end. he could place his foot in the notch and thrust his wooden spade into the earth. with his rude tool he dug up and turned the soil of a small space of ground several times to kill the vines and weeds. his corn quickly sprouted after this attempt and outstripped the weeds and vines which robinson constantly had to hold in check by pulling and hoeing. he was rejoiced at his growing crop and went each morning to feast his eyes on the rapidly expanding leaves and ears. one morning as he came in sight of the little clearing he thought he saw something disappearing in the low brush on the other side as he approached. alas, his labor had been in vain! a herd of wild goats had found out the place and had utterly destroyed his crop. robinson sat down nearby and surveyed the ruin of his little field. "it is plain," thought he, "i will have to fence in the field or i will never be able to harvest my crop. i cannot watch it all the time." he had already learned from his experience in making the fence around the goat pasture that the branches of many kinds of shrubs and trees, when broken off and thrust into the ground, will send out roots and leaves and at length if planted close together in a line, will form a thick hedge which no kind of beast can get through or over. he found out some willow trees whose branches broke easily, and soon had enough to thrust into the ground about six inches apart around the entire edge of his little field, which contained about one eighth of an acre. after this hedge had grown so as to be a fair protection to his crop he tried planting again at the proper season. he spaded up the ground and pulled out the matted roots as best he could and with great pains and care planted his corn in straight even rows. to make them straight and each hill of corn the same distance from its neighbors, he first marked off the ground in squares whose sides were about three and one half feet long. "now," thought he, "i will reap the reward of my labor." the corn grew rapidly, and toward the end of the first dry season was filling out and ripening its ears. but to robinson's dismay a new danger threatened his crop against which he could not fence. he was in despair. the birds were fast eating and destroying his partially ripened corn. he could not husk it yet. it was not ripe enough. he thought how easy it would be to protect his field if he had a gun. but he had learned that it is useless to give time to idle dreaming. he must do something and that quick. "if i could catch some of these rascals," he thought, "i would hang them up on poles, dead, as a warning to the rest." it seemed almost a hopeless task, but he went about it. it was in vain he tried to kill some of them by throwing rocks and sticks. he could not get near enough to them. at length he laid snares and succeeded in snaring three birds. he had learned to weave a pliable, strong thong out of cocoa and other fibre that he was now acquainted with. the birds thus caught he fastened on broken branches of trees which he stuck into the earth in different parts of his field. the birds heeded the warning and visited his corn field no more that season. at the end of the season he gathered or husked his corn and after it was thoroughly dry he shelled it from the cob with his hands. he used his baskets in which to carry his husked ears from the field to his cave and in which to store it when shelled. he found that the ears were larger and better filled and plumper than when the plants grew wild. he selected the largest and best filled ears for his seed the next time. in this way his new crop of corn was always better in kind and yielded more than the old one. at first he grew two crops a year, but by experimenting he found out about how much he needed for his own use and planted once a year enough to give him a liberal supply. he observed that the wild rice grew in swampy lands, so that he did not make the mistake of trying to raise it upon the upland where the corn grew best. he saw at once that the planting of rice on low, marshy or wet land was beyond his present strength and tools. "some time in the future," he thought, "i may try it." robinson also found wild grapes in abundance. these he dried by hanging them on the branches of trees. he thus had a store of raisins for each rainy season. xxx robinson as potter robinson was now anxious to cook his food, to boil his rice and vegetables and bake bread, but he could do nothing without cooking vessels. he had tried to use cocoanut shells, but these were too small and there was no way to keep them from falling over and spilling the contents. he determined to try to make some clay vessels. he knew where he could get a kind of clay that had the appearance of making good ware. it was fine grained and without lumps or pebbles. he was much perplexed to mould the clay into right shapes. he tried taking a lump and shaping it into a vessel with his hands. he tried many times, but each time the clay broke and he was forced to try some other way. he recalled how he had made his basket out of strands of twisted grass and wondered whether he could not make his pots in the same way. he spun the clay out into a long rope and began to coil it around a small basket forming the layers together with his hands. this was easy, but he did not see clearly how he was going to get the basket out from the inside of the pot. he found he could copy in this way any form he wished, but he finally hit upon the plan of making a form of wicker work and coiling the clay rope inside it, for he saw that whether he succeeded or not in getting the clay free from the basket he could use the pot, and besides if the pot would stand the fire the basket would burn off. to dry the pots robinson stood them in the sun a few days. when they were dry he tried to cook some soup in one of them. he filled it with water and put it on his stove or oven, but how sadly had he deceived himself. in a short time the water soaked into the clay and soon the pot had fallen to pieces. "how foolish i am!" said robinson to himself; "the pots have to be fired before they can be used." he set about this at once. he found two stones of equal size, placed them near each other and laid a third across these. he then placed three large pots upon them and made a hot fire under them. no sooner had the flame shot up than one of the pots cracked in two. "i probably made the fire too hot at first," thought robinson. he drew out some of the coals and wood, but afterwards gradually increased the fire again. he could not, however, get the pots hot enough to turn red. he brought the dryest and hardest wood, but could not succeed in getting them hot enough to turn red. at length he was tired out and was compelled to give it up. when the pots were cool he tried to boil water in one. it was no better than the sun dried one. he saw that he must provide some way to get the pots much hotter than he could in the open air. he resolved to make an oven of stones large enough to take in the wood as well as the pots. it must be above ground so that there might be plenty of draught for the fire. with great labor, he pried up and carried together flat stones enough to make an oven about four feet high with a chimney at one side. he had put in the center a stone table on which he could place three quite large pots. he left an opening in one side that could be partially closed by a large, flat stone. he worked eagerly and at the end of the second day he was ready to fire his oven. he first carried together a good quantity of dry wood, then he put in his pots and laid the wood around them. in a short time he had a very hot fire. he kept this up all day and until late at night. [illustration: some of robinson's dishes] the next morning he went to his oven and found his pots were a beautiful red. he drew out the fire and allowed them to cool slowly. then he filled one with water and set it over the fire to heat it. before many minutes the water was boiling and robinson had another reason to be thankful. he wept for joy. his patient labors had brought their rewards. no prince could feel as happy as robinson now. he had overcome all difficulties. starting with nothing but his hands, he was now able to supply all his wants. "if i only had a companion now," he thought, "i would have nothing further to wish as long as i stay on the island." xxxi robinson as baker now that robinson had fire, he determined to try to make bread. he had seen the servants at home make bread many times, but he had not observed closely and knew next to nothing about the way bread is made. he knew he must in some way grind the corn into flour, but how could he do this? he had no mill nor any tools with which to crush the corn. he first tried to find a stone large and hard enough out of which he might hollow a vessel or kind of mortar. he thought he could put the corn into this mortar and grind it by means of another stone or pestle. it was with great difficulty that he could get a stone of suitable size and form. after several days' trial he at last got one cut out from some layers of rock near the shore. he made a hollow place in it. then he took a smaller oblong shaped rock for his pestle. he took great pride in these new tools. "i shall soon be a stone-cutter," he said to himself, "as well as a farmer and potter." but his stone mortar was a failure. the rock was too soft. every time he thrust the pestle down, it loosened small pieces of the stone vessel. these mixed with the ground corn or flour and made it unfit to eat. there was no way to separate the sand from the crushed grain. he resolved then to try to make a mortar and pestle of hard wood. now that he had fire, he could do this, though it cost him many a hard day's work. he found not far away a log of very hard wood. by building a fire at the right distance from one end he was able to separate a piece of the log. he rolled this to his cave and made a good-sized hollow in it by burning. this pestle was not so difficult to make. he took a limb or branch of an ironwood tree, burned it in two at the place to make it the right length. by burning also he rounded one end and then he was ready for the grinding. after cleaning his mortar and pestle carefully he placed some corn in the hollow and soon had some fine yellow meal or flour without any grit or sand in it. his next care was to separate the coarse outer husk or covering of the kernel from the finer parts that make the meal. he had no sieve. his net was too coarse. it let both bran and meal go through. "i must make a net or cloth fine enough to sift or bolt my flour," said he. such was now his skill in spinning and weaving that this was not hard to do. he had soon woven in his loom a piece of fine netting which allowed the meal to shake through, but held back the coarse bran or outer husk of the kernel. out of the dry corn that he had stored up he now made quite a quantity of flour. this he kept tightly covered in a large earthen pot or jar that he had made for this purpose. "i must keep all my food clean and protect it from the ants and other insects as well as dust and damp," he thought. his preparations were now nearly made. he had already his stove of flat stones. on this he could set his pots to boil water, cook rice, and meat, but it would not do for baking a loaf of bread of any thickness. he must have an oven or enclosed place into which he could put the loaf to bake it. by the use of flat stones he soon rebuilt his stove so as to have an oven that did fine service. now it was mixing the dough that claimed his attention. he had of course no yeast to make raised or light bread. he poured goats' milk on the flour and kneaded it into a thick dough. he did not forget to add salt. he placed his loaf in a shallow earthen pan he had made for this purpose. after the fire had heated the stones of his oven through, he put in his loaf and soon was enjoying a meal of corn bread and meat stew. robinson soon tried to make cocoa from the beans of the cocoa palm that grew in the island. this with good rich goats' milk in it he thought the best drink in the world. he often thought of making sugar from the sugar cane plant he had discovered in the island. but the labor of squeezing out the juice was too great. he could think of no way to do this without the help of horses or oxen. xxxii robinson as fisherman robinson was now eager to use his fire and cooking vessels. he had noticed with hungry eyes fine large fish in the creek near his cave. but he had never taken the trouble to catch any. "what is the use?" he thought. "i cannot eat them raw." it was different now and he began to devise ways of making a catch. how he longed for a fish-hook, such as he had so often used when loitering along the hudson river! "but a fish-hook is not to be thought of," he said to himself, "unless i can make one of bone." he went down to the brook and searched long for a fish-bone that he might make use of for this purpose. he found nothing. "i must try something else," he thought. he remembered the nets he used to see along the hudson and wondered if he could not make a small one to pull through the water and thus catch the fish. he had now a better source of fibre for weaving and for spinning into lines and ropes. he had discovered this when he was trying to find a good strong thread or yarn with which to bind the coils of his grass-made baskets together. he obtained fibre in great abundance from the century-like plant. he found if he broke off the long leaves of this plant and allowed them to decay there remained a long, tough fibrous substance out of which strong cords could be twisted or yarn made for weaving a coarse cloth or netting. out of this he spun yarn thread to make a net about three or four feet by two feet. he fastened cords to four corners of this, tied them to a long pole, and was now prepared to test his plan for catching fish. the brook he found was too shallow for him to catch fish in this way. at the sight of him and his net, they scurried away to deep water. neither could he succeed in the shallow water along the shore. "i must wade out as far as i can," he said to himself, "and draw the net through the water." as he did this he was surprised at the many forms of sea life, new to him, that he saw. he, however, was careful and watchful. he walked along near the shore to a point where some rocks showed above the surface. as he looked ahead he saw the single eye of a giant cuttle-fish glaring at him from among the rocks. it was thrusting out its long arms towards him. he drew back quickly, but as he did so he was terrified to hear the snap of some huge creature's jaws near him. a great shark had seen him and had thrown himself on his back to seize him in his rows of sharp teeth, but was prevented reaching him by the shallowness of the water. robinson was too much terrified to continue longer his attempt at fishing. he went back to his cave with only a few small ones, not worth the trouble of dressing for his dinner. the next day undismayed he tried again. he succeeded in drawing in some very beautiful large fish. their sides shone as burnished gold and silver. "now," he thought, "i will have a feast." he carried them home, carefully cleaned and dressed them, seasoned them with his salt, and broiled them over his fire. imagine his disappointment when they proved unfit to eat. their flesh was coarse and tough and ill-tasting. he saw that the catching of fish for his table was a more difficult thing than he thought it. he must not only catch fish, but catch ones that could be eaten. he could only tell the good from the bad by trying them. he was more fortunate in his next venture. he was going along the shore at the mouth of the creek which ran near his cave when he noticed a group of fishes, dark bluish above with silvery sides. the largest of them were about two feet long. they were feeding on the bottom in the brackish water at the mouth of the creek, which at its mouth opened out into quite a little bay or inlet. they would take up a mouthful of earth from the bottom and let it wash through their mouths, keeping all the bits of food that happened to be in it. when one fish got a good place to feed the others swam around it and tried to get some of the food. robinson watched his chance and slipped his net under a group, while each one was busy trying to get the best mouthful of mud. he drew up three quite large fish, but just as he was about to lift them from the water, one of the cords which bound the net to the poles broke and he saw his catch fall back into the creek and dart away in the deepest water. but robinson was not to be discouraged. he soon mended his net and at last was successful. in a short time he drew out another catch of two fish. these proved excellent food and were so abundant as to furnish robinson with all the fish he wanted as long as he stayed on the island. xxxiii robinson builds a boat robinson had wished for a boat many times. he wished to explore the shore of his island. he wanted to go clear around it so that he might see it on every side. but he knew the work of making a boat would be great, if not wholly impossible. the shaping of boards to build a boat with his rude tools was not to be thought of. he knew how the indians made boats out of bark of trees. but he saw that for his purpose so light a boat would not do. he finally remembered a second indian way of making a boat by hollowing out a large log. the forest was full of the boles of trees that had been blown down. but they were far away from the shore. at first he did not think of this very much. he had overcome so many difficulties that he thought, "never mind, i will get my boat to water, no matter where i make it, in some way." so he selected a tree trunk some distance from the bank of the little creek near his cave and began work. he had first to burn out his log the proper length and hack it into boat shape with his stone tools. this was very slow and tedious work. he had to handle the fire with great care for there was always the danger of spoiling the shape of the slowly forming boat. both ends must be sharpened, but one more than the other to form the prow or forward going end. after he had shaped his boat, he began hollowing it out. this he did also by burning for the most part. he used the branches of pitch bearing trees for this purpose. but it was so slow. he worked at his boat all the time he could spare from his regular duties in attending to his goats, his garden and his cave. he was always making his cave larger. every time he made a piece of furniture or stored away grain he must make more room in his cave by digging away the earth and carrying it out. he had made a large strong wicker basket for this purpose. he had had a vague idea that when he got his boat done he would dig a trench back from the bank of the creek and thus float his boat. but he had not thought it out clearly. "or anyway," he thought, "i can in some way manage to roll it to the water." he must now actually plan to put some of these ideas into effect. he first went over the ground and found that to dig a trench from the water to the boat, so that the water would come to the boat, he would have to dig it twenty feet deep. "i can never do this," he said, "with my poor tools." he next tried his rolling plan. but he had been so anxious to have a large boat that he had overlooked everything else. try as hard as he might he could not stir his boat from the spot. after many trials with the longest levers he could handle, the boat still stuck fast. it would not budge an inch. he at last gave it up. "it will lie here," he thought, "to remind me how foolish it is to attempt to do anything without first having thought it out carefully." there was nothing to do but to choose another tree trunk. this time he selected a much smaller one, and one that lay at the top of the little slope or incline from the bank of the creek. after another weary six months of work he had his second boat ready for launching. with a good stout lever he gave it a start, when it rolled quickly down into the water. robinson again wept for joy. of all his projects this had cost him the most work and pains and at last to see his plans successful filled him with delight. the next problem was how to make it go. he had no certain knowledge how far it was around the island, but he knew it was farther than he wanted to row or paddle his boat. yet he knew from the way the wind blew that he could not always depend upon a sail to help him. he must become skillful in paddling his boat. a sail too would be very helpful at times. he imagined how pleasant it would be sitting in the boat sailing along with a gentle wind. "when the wind is favorable," he thought, "i will only have to steer with my paddle." so he set about weaving a sail of his sisal fibre. to do this he had to make a much larger loom than he had yet used. his sail must be at least four feet square. he was now so skilled in weaving that this was soon finished. he then made plenty of string, cord, and rope, put in a mast and was ready to sail. but he did not venture far away until he had spent weeks and weeks in learning to steer, sail, and paddle his boat. xxxiv robinson as a sailor ever since robinson had finished his boat he had been eager to make a tour of his island. he had indeed made a journey by land. but the deep forests and tangled vines made it very difficult to travel. his journeys had shown him but a small part of the land. he wished to know all about the land of which he, so far as he knew, was the sole master. his first care was to fit up his boat with provisions. he made some large baskets in which to carry food and a large covered jar for water. these he stored in the bow and the stern of his boat. he fastened his parasol on the stern for a shelter from the sun. he baked up a quantity of cakes or loaves of bread and packed them in his baskets. he had woven these so carefully that they would almost hold water. at last all was ready. it was on the sixth day of november in the sixth year of his life on the island that robinson hoisted his sail and set out upon this voyage of discovery. he had waited until the wind was gentle and blowing as far easterly as it does at that place. he scudded along bravely, running with the land toward the east and north. all went well until he came to a low reef or ledge of rocks running far out to sea in a north-easterly direction. [illustration] when robinson observed this he went on shore and climbed to a high point to see if it was safe to venture. he was afraid of hidden currents, or streams of water. these might carry him away from the shore and prevent him from getting around the point. he did indeed observe that there was a current running out to sea past the ledge, but he thought he could by careful paddling keep his boat from striking the rock. if he could once get beyond the ledge, the wind would help him double or get around the point. indeed the danger was that the wind would blow him on to the rocks. he waited for two days for a gentle wind. at last without sail he pushed his boat into the current and was born swiftly seaward. he found the current much stronger than he thought it would be. it rushed his frail boat on past the point of the rocks and out into the sea. try as best he might he could not change its course. he was steadily going out to sea. he gave himself up for lost. he reproached himself for being so rash and foolhardy as to trust his fortunes in so frail a craft. how dear at this time seemed the island to him! the wind which he had depended on to help him at this point had died down so that it was at the mercy of the current. he kept urging his boat to the westward as much as possible, with all his strength, hoping that a breeze would finally spring up. he struggled on bravely until about noon. he had been carried out a great distance into the sea, but not so far as to lose sight of the land. all at once he felt the breeze freshening up. it caught his sail and soon his boat was cutting across the current. he did not have to go far before he was free from it and making headway for the island, which he reached about four o'clock in the afternoon. he found himself on the northern shore of the island, but before long the shore ran away to the southward again. he ran briskly along the west side until he found a little bay or cove. he determined to enter this, draw up his boat on shore and make his way back home across the island on foot. he was almost exhausted with his great labor and was worn out with anxiety. in the centre of the arms of the cove he found a little creek entering the sea. he paddled into this and found a good place to hide his boat. as soon as robinson was again on land he fell on his knees and with tears in his eyes thanked god for his deliverance. the island which had seemed to him a prison now seemed the fairest and dearest place in the world. having made his boat safe he started back toward his shelter. but he was too tired to go far. he soon came to a little grove of trees beneath which he laid himself down and soon was fast asleep. you can imagine with what surprise robinson was awakened out of his sleep by a voice calling his name. "robinson, robinson crusoe," it said, "poor robinson crusoe! where are you robinson, where have you been?" [illustration] he was so fast asleep that he did not at first rouse up entirely and thought he was dreaming. but the voice kept calling, "robinson, robinson, poor robinson crusoe!" he was greatly frightened and started up. but no sooner were his eyes opened than he saw his parrot sitting on a branch of a tree. he knew at once the source of the voice. polly had missed her master and was also exploring the island. it was a pleasant surprise. she immediately flew to him and lit on his shoulder. she showed in many ways how glad she was to see him and kept saying, "poor robinson, poor robinson crusoe!" robinson remained here over night and the next morning made his way back to the shelter. up to this time robinson had never seen any dangerous animals on the island. he had grown used to life there and went about without fear of animals. but as he was returning across a little opening, he saw a clump of palms in the centre of the opening, swaying about. he did not at first see what caused this, but soon there was thrust out the head of a great serpent. its jaws were open and its eyes were fixed on a poor terrified little rabbit. the rabbit seemed rooted to the spot. it could not stir a muscle and was soon caught in the folds of the great snake. this sight made robinson greatly afraid. he wanted to rush to the rescue of the rabbit, but what could he do against such a foe? he resolved in the future to keep a more careful watch and always to sleep in his bower. robinson had enough of exploring for some time. he was contented to remain at home. he made many things he needed. he had saved all the skins of the goats he had killed for meat and all that had died from any cause. these he made into rugs for his bed. he kept at his loom too, for he was anxious to weave enough of his coarse cloth to make him a suit of clothes. he learned how to braid mats and rugs out of his fibre, and finally replaced his awkward hat and parasol with others braided very skillfully from the long grasses that grew so abundantly in the marshy places. another thing that robinson was now able to make or weave out of his fibre was a hammock. he had slept all this time on a bed made of poles laid lengthwise and thickly covered with the skins of goats and rabbits. now he could have a comfortable place to sleep. he did not stop until he had made two. one was for the bower and the other was for use out-of-doors. when his work was done in the evening or in the heat of the midday he would lie in it at full length under the shade of the trees. xxxv a discovery robinson could not forget his boat. it seemed a companion. "it may be the means of my escape from this place," he thought. he took frequent journeys across the island to where his little boat lay in the cove. he would start out in the morning and walk over to the west side of the island, take his boat and have a pleasant little sail. he always returned home before dark, for to tell the truth, robinson was a coward. he was as timid as a hare. he was afraid of everything and spent many nights without sleep because of fear. it was while on one of his visits to his boat that robinson made a discovery that changed his whole life. it happened one day, about noon, when he was going toward his boat that he, with great surprise, saw the print of a man's naked foot on the shore in the sand. he stood like one rooted to the ground. he could not move, so great was his surprise and fear. he listened, looked around, but could hear and see nothing. he went up to a little hill to look further but nothing was in sight. there was but the one footprint. there was no doubt about it, there it was, foot, toes, heel and every part of a foot. robinson tried to think how it might have gotten there, but he could not. it was a mystery. he was greatly afraid and started at once for his shelter. he ran like one pursued. at every little way he would look behind to see if anyone was following him. never a frightened rabbit ran to his hiding place with more terror than robinson ran to his cave. he did not sleep that night for fear and remained in his shelter for three days, never venturing out. but his food was growing short and his goats needed to be milked. he finally with a thousand wild fancies forced himself to go about his duties. but he could not get the footprint out of his mind. he spent many sad and fearful days thinking about it. "how could it have gotten there? whose was it? was the owner savage or not? what did he want on the island?" were some of the questions that haunted him. "perhaps," he thought one day, "i just imagined i saw a footprint, or perhaps it was one of my own that i have made when going to sail my boat." he took courage at this and began to go about the island again. but he went in great fear, always looking behind him. he was always ready to run at the first sign of danger. he had made himself a large, strong, new bow and plenty of arrows. he carried these in a quiver he had made from his cloth. he fashioned too a sharp-pointed, lance-like weapon which he hurled with a kind of sling. in his belt he carried some new sharpened stone knives. he had found a better kind of rock out of which to make his knives. it resembled glass and could be brought to a fine, keen edge. armed thus, he began to have more confidence. he had a strong desire to see the footprint again and make up his mind about it. he wished to measure it. in this way he could tell certainly whether it was a chance print of his own foot or not. so, after a few days, he again ventured across the island. alas, on measuring the print it was much larger than his own! there could no longer be any doubt that it belonged to someone else. again great fear fell on poor robinson. he shook with cold and fright. he resolved to make himself more secure against attack. he cut and carried willow stakes and set them in a thick hedge around in front of his shelter. this was outside the first and enclosed it. in a season or two these had grown to such a height as to shut out all view of his home from sight to one coming to it from the front. his flock of goats gave him many troubled thoughts. his goats were his greatest treasure. from them he obtained without trouble his meat, his milk and butter. "what if they were discovered and killed or carried away?" he resolved to divide his herd into three parts and secrete these in separate fenced pastures in different parts of the island. his herd of goats now numbered twenty-five. he made thorough search about the island for the most secluded and best hidden spots where he could fence in a pasture. one day as he was exploring on the west side of the island to find another open space for a goat field, he thought he spied away out to sea a boat. he looked long and anxiously and yet he was not sure that it was a boat he saw. but how easy, thought robinson, for the people of the mainland, which must be at no great distance to the westward, to come across to this side of the island in fair weather. he thought too, how fortunate he was to have been cast on the east side of the island. for there he had his shelter in the very safest part. as he was coming down from a hill where he had gone to get a better view of the sea he made another discovery. about him everywhere at the foot of the hill were bones of all kinds. near by too, were charcoal and ashes. there could be no mistake, the place was visited by human beings. these were very likely savages. everything showed that they came for the purpose of feasting and not for plundering. it was very likely that they neither sought anything on the island nor expected it. [illustration: watching for savages] this thought greatly relieved robinson. he returned home in a very thankful and composed state of mind. he had now been on the island almost eighteen years and had not been discovered. yet, no doubt, the island had been visited many times by the savages since he had been there. in a short time his fear of discovery wore off and he began to live just as he did before his discovery. he took, however, greater precaution against surprise. he always carried his bow and arrows, his lance and knives. he was also very careful about making a great smoke from his fire. he burned a great quantity of wood in a pit and made charcoal. with this material he had a fine fire with a very little smoke. every day also he went to the top of the hill back of his shelter in order to discover if possible the approach of savages. xxxvi the landing of the savages another year passed by, robinson longed more and more to get away from the island. year after year he had hoped and watched in vain for a passing ship. every day he would scan the waters that held him prisoner for the welcome sight of a sail. he had been disappointed. now his only hope was to escape to the mainland in some way. he feared the savages. he had heard stories of their being cannibals. but if they could come to his island in their canoes against the prevailing wind, why could he not get to the mainland with it in his favor? strange as it may be, robinson began to wish for the return of the savages. he hoped to watch them at a distance and find out something about their customs. more especially he wished that he might capture one of them. he had two reasons for this. in the first place he would have a companion. he pictured fondly how he would teach him gentle manners and the english speech. and, too, the companion would be able to help him. besides this he longed above all to know more of the mainland and whether it would be safe to go there. he wanted to find out in what kind of boat they made the voyage. he thought that if he had such a person he would have someone to show him the way to reach the land. the more he thought, the more anxious he became to see the savages on the island. he thought so much about it by day that he dreamed about it at night. one night he dreamed that the savages came, drew their boats upon the shore and began to prepare their feast. as he watched them one of their number broke away from his fellows and came straight toward his hiding-place. robinson thought he rushed out, drove away those that followed the fleeing man and rescued him. this dream made a deep impression upon him and made him await the coming of the savages with great hopes and eagerness. it was more than eighteen months after he had formed this plan of capturing one of the savages before the savages made their appearance. robinson was surprised one morning to see no less than five canoes drawn up on the shore at a point on his side of the island about two miles below his shelter, to the south. the people that had come in them were on shore and out of sight. robinson went back to his shelter to make his plans. he made up his mind that he would be foolish to attack them. there must be twenty-five or thirty of them. he finally went to a point where he could see farther inland and soon caught sight of a crowd of about thirty savages. they were naked and dancing around and around in a circle. all the while they were singing and making hideous noises. there was a fire in the center of the ring of savages. "they are cooking their feast," thought robinson. "maybe i can surprise them while they eat and rush in and seize one." but this seemed too great a risk to run. he had no weapons but his bow and arrows, his lance and knife. what could he do against so great a number? but fortune favored his plans. as he gazed at them from his safe distance he saw one of their number break away from the rest and run with utmost speed directly toward his hiding-place. at once two other savages pursued him. they had no weapons but clubs. they ran with great swiftness, but the man in front was steadily gaining ground. robinson now to tell the truth was dreadfully frightened to see the savage run directly toward him and his shelter. he kept his place, however, and watched the race. the man running away ran along the shore and would soon come to the little creek that emptied into the sea below his home. robinson saw that the savage would have to swim this to escape. he ran down thither and concealed himself behind a tree and waited for the fugitive to come up. as he did so, the fleeing savage plunged in and swam across with a few strong strokes. when he was well on the bank, robinson presented himself and made signs to him to come to him and he would help him. the savage was at first almost overcome with astonishment and fright, for robinson presented a very unusual sight. the savage at once ran to him and fell down at his feet. indeed so great was his fright and distress that he placed one of robinson's feet upon his neck in sign that he yielded up his life into his hands. robinson raised him up and motioned for him to take the lance and help in defence against the men, now coming up. they hid behind trees and waited for them to swim across the stream. but this they did not do. when they reached the creek, they could see nothing of their runaway. they very slowly turned and went back to their companions. robinson was well content not to let them know that there was any one on the island. he feared they might return and destroy his shelter and fields. robinson took the savage to his shelter and gave him bread and raisins to eat, and a cup of water to drink. he was very hungry and ate greedily. after he had eaten, robinson made signs for him to lie down and sleep, for the indian was nearly tired out with his long and swift run. he was a handsome fellow of his race. his limbs were large, straight and strong. he had a good face. his hair was long and black, his forehead high, and his eyes bright. his skin was not black, but of an olive color. his teeth were fine set and as white as ivory. he slept about an hour; when he awoke he came running to robinson and again made signs to him that he was his slave. "you saved my life," he seemed to say, "and now i will serve you." robinson named him friday at once, for that was the day on which the great event of his escape had taken place. robinson's next care was to fit him out with some clothing. he had by this time several suits made of his coarse cloth. he soon had friday dressed in one of the old ones, with a straw or braided hat on his head. he did not think it safe to allow friday to sleep with him in the bower. he made a little tent for him inside the enclosure. this was covered with goatskins and made a very good protection from both heat and rain. robinson took care to keep all his knives and weapons near him in the bower. but his fears that friday might harm him were unfounded. friday from the first was faithful to his master. he was sweet and obedient in all things. he seemed to look upon robinson with the love of a child for its father and never tired of serving him. xxxvii robinson as a teacher (from robinson's diary) "i began to consider that having now 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 plant. so i marked out a larger piece of land and began to fence it in. friday worked not only very willingly but very hard. i told him that it was for corn to make more bread because he was now with me. he let me know that he was grateful for my kindness and would work much harder 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 understood the names of almost all the things that i called for and of all the places which i wished to send him. i was careful to teach him all the things i knew. i showed him how to plant and harvest corn, how to gather fibre, spin yarn and to weave it into cloth. he learned these things quickly and became very skillful in making pots. he knew something about this because at home he had seen the women make them. he ornamented them with figures of birds and flowers. i taught him about the true god. but as for writing he could never do much with this. i had no books and could not make him understand the importance of writing. he began to talk a great deal to me. this delighted me very much. i began to love him exceedingly. he was so very honest and faithful. "after i had taught him english i tried one day to find out whether he had any wish to return to his own country and as i talked to him about it i saw his face light up with joy and his eye sparkle. from this i had no doubt but that friday would like to be in his own country again. this for a time made me sad, to think how eagerly he would leave me to be among his savage friends. 'do you not wish you were back in your own country, friday?' i said to him one day. 'yes,' he said, 'i be much o glad to be back in my country.' 'what would you do there,' said i? 'would you turn wild again and do as the savages do?' he shook his head and said very gravely, 'no, no, friday tell them to live good. he tell them to plant corn and live like white mans.' "one day when we were on the top of a hill on the west side of the island, friday suddenly began to jump and dance about in great glee. i asked him what the matter was. 'o, joy, o glad,' he said; 'there my country!' the air was so clear that from this place, as i had before discovered, land could be distinctly seen looking westward. "i asked him how far it was from our island to his country and whether their canoes were ever lost in coming and going. he said that there was no danger. no canoes were ever wrecked and that it was easy to get back and forth. i asked him many things about his people and country. he told me that away to the west of his country there lived 'white mans like you.' i thought these must be the people of central america, and asked him how i might come from this island and get among these white men. he made me understand that i must have a large boat as big as two canoes. "i resolved at once to begin to make a boat large enough for us to pass over to the land we could see lying to the west and if possible to go on to the white man's country friday told me about. it took us nearly two months to make our boat and rig her out with sails, masts, rudder, and anchor. we had to weave our sails and twist our rope. we burned out the canoe from a large fallen log. we used a great stone tied securely to the end of a strong rope for an anchor. [illustration: robinson and friday sailing the boat] "when we had the boat in the water, friday showed great skill in rowing or paddling it. he had managed boats ever since he was old enough, but he did not know how to handle a sail or rudder. he learned very quickly, however, to sail and steer the boat and soon was perfectly at home in it. "we made our boat safe by keeping it in the little cove at the mouth of the creek. i had friday to fetch rocks and build a dock or place for landing. but the rainy season was now coming on and we must wait for fair weather. in the meantime i planned to lay by such quantities of food as we would need to take along." xxxviii another shipwreck one evening robinson sat in his shelter thinking of his plans to escape to friday's country. he was sad. for, after all, this place was very dear to him. it was the only home he had. had he not made everything with his own hands? it was doubly dear to him on this account. he thought how it would grieve him to leave his goats, his fields, and the many comforts he had here. he had been telling friday of his home in new york. he told him of the great city, and of its many wonderful sights. he told him of his country and people, of his flag and its history. all these things brought back memories of his boyhood and he wondered what changes had come in his long absence. friday, with wonderful intelligence, listened to all robinson told him. he was delighted in hearing robinson tell of the wonders of the great world, for he had never known anything about it. as they talked robinson noticed the approach of a storm. the sky was getting black with clouds. the winds were blowing a hurricane. the waves were coming in mountain high. it reminded him of the eventful night now twenty-five years ago when his ship was tossed up on the shore like an egg shell and broken to pieces. suddenly there was a sound that made robinson start from his seat with the wildest alarm. was it the sound of a cannon from the ocean or the terrible crash and roar of the water on the rocks of the coast? there it is again; it is a cannon! some ship is in distress! this is its signal! robinson ran out and down to the shore with friday at his heels. "o master!" said friday, "can we not help? if they only knew the island was here and how to steer into the harbor beyond the point of land on the south." robinson was so excited that he scarcely knew what he was doing. he ran up and down the shore calling wildly, but the awful roar of the sea and wind drowned his cries. suddenly his thoughts came to him. "quick, friday, get some fire in a pot. we will run to the point, gather grass and wood, and make a fire there. maybe we can guide them into the harbor." they soon had a great beacon light sending its welcome greeting far over the sea. the pilot of the ship saw it and steered his ship nearer and nearer. robinson was ready to shout for joy as the ship seemed about to make the harbor. the ship had her sails torn in shreds and her rudder broken. it was hard to steer her in such a gale. on rounding the point, she was blown on the rocks. with a frightful crash which could be heard above the din of the storm she struck and held fast. robinson could hear the cries of the men and the orders of the officers. they were trying to get boats ready to put off, but such was the confusion of the storm and the enormous waves breaking over the deck that it could not be done quickly. before the men could get a boat into the sea, and get into it, the ship gave a lurch to one side as though about to sink. all the men jumped for one boat. it was overburdened. the wind tossed it about. the sea soon filled it and it went down and all were lost. robinson and friday remained on the shore all night. they watched to see if they could not help some poor sailor that might cling to a plank and be blown on shore. they saw no one. at last they lay down, but they could not sleep. many times they sprang up and ran about for fear that some poor fellow would need their help. at last morning came. the storm ceased. robinson and friday searched everywhere for the bodies of the sailors, but could find none. but the wind had blown the ship in plain view, and into shallow waters. it was lying on the bottom with more than half its bulk out of the water. the masts were gone. it was a sad sight. no human being could be seen on it. they were now rejoiced that they had their boat ready. "let us take it," said robinson "and go out to the ship. it may be some person is still on the unfortunate ship." they were soon by the ship's side. they rowed around it until they saw a rope hanging down from the deck. robinson seized this and clambered up. friday tied the boat fast, and followed. robinson opened the door leading from the deck into the ship and went down. he searched in all the cabins, and knocked at all the doors. he called, but all was still. when he was satisfied that every person on board had been drowned he wept bitterly. friday stood there with open and staring eyes. he looked and looked. he was astonished at the large ship and at the wonderful things before him. they were in the cabin where the passengers had been. there stood trunks under the benches and clothes hung on the hooks on the wall. one trunk was open. in it were telescopes through which the travelers had looked at the land. robinson saw also paper, pens, pen-holders and ink. books were also near by. robinson first took a thick book. it was the bible, out of which his mother had so often taught him. then they came to the sailors' cabin. there hung muskets and swords and bags of shot and cartridges. then they went to the work-room. there were saws, hammers, spades, shovels, chisels, nails, bottles, and pails, knives and forks. and something more, over which robinson was most glad, matches. at last they came into the store-room. there lay bags of flour and barley, teas, lentils, beans and sugar. then robinson embraced friday in his great joy and said to him, "how rich we are!" xxxix saving things from the ship after robinson had looked through the ship he began to plan the way to get the tools and things he most wanted on shore. he and friday first carried everything together that he wanted to take on shore. when they had done this, he found he had the following things. robinson stood everything together that he needed most. 1. a case of nails and screws. 2. two iron axes and several hatchets. 3. a saw. 4. a small case of planes, tongs, augers, files, chisels, etc. 5. a third case with iron brackets, hooks, hinges, etc. 6. a case of matches. 7. a barrel of gunpowder. 8. two muskets and a pistol. 9. several swords. 10. a bag of cartridges. 11. a large sail cloth and some rope. 12. a telescope. by means of the ship's ropes, robinson let everything down into his boat. he himself took the bible and then they rowed to the shore, and unloaded the boat. everything was put into the bower where rain could not harm it. by the time they had this done, night was coming on and they decided to do no more that day, but wait until the next day. "we must work fast," said robinson. "the first storm is likely to break the ship in pieces and destroy everything in it." the next morning early they ate a hastily prepared breakfast and were off to the boat. neither robinson nor friday stopped for their noonday lunch. "a storm is brewing," said robinson, "the air is calm, the sky is overcast with clouds, the heat is oppressive. we must hurry." with the utmost diligence they rowed back and forth all day. they made nine trips. they had now on shore a surprising quantity of all kinds of tools, goods and weapons. they had all kinds of ware to use in the kitchen, clothes, and food. robinson prized a little four-wheeled wagon and a whetstone. but in looking over his stores, robinson suddenly discovered that he had no needles or thread. they went at once to procure these important articles. in looking for needles and thread, robinson found a small trunk full of money and valuable stones. there were diamonds, rubies, pearls, and much gold. robinson pushed it to one side. "what can i do with riches on this island? i would give them all for some needles and thread," he said to friday. but on second thought he took the trunk and its contents along with him to his cave. for in the trunk were also letters and writings. "perhaps," he said, "these tell to whom the valuables belong and i can return them some time." robinson at last found a case containing everything one could need with which to cut and sew cloth. there were scissors, thread, needles, thimbles, tapes, and buttons. but now the wind was rising and they must hurry. they were nearly ready for departure. they were passing through a part of the ship not before visited. they were surprised to hear a sound coming from a room whose door was kept shut by a heap of stuff that had been thrown against it by the violent pitching of the ship in the storm. robinson and friday cleared away the rubbish and were surprised to find a dog almost drowned. he was so weak from want of food that his cries could be heard a short distance only. robinson took him tenderly in his arms and carried him to the boat, while friday carried the sewing case and the trunk. the wind was now blowing a gale. a few yards from the ship they were in great danger. robinson grasped the rudder and made friday stand ready to cut away the mast in case they found the wind too strong. with the greatest difficulty they finally made the little cove at the mouth of the creek and were soon landed with their precious cargo. the next morning they eagerly searched the waters for the ship. not even their field glasses could reveal anything of it. some planks, a mast, and parts of a small boat were blown on shore. all else had disappeared. robinson set to work at once to make a door for his bower out of the pine wood cast up by the waves. how easy the work proceeded with saws, hammers, augers, squares, planes, nails, hinges, and screws! with the wagon too, friday could now gather his corn quickly and easily, or haul in a great quantity of grapes to dry for raisins. friday had never seen a gun. he did not know the use of firearms. the muskets that robinson had brought from the ship were a great mystery to him. robinson showed him their use. he showed how they could defend themselves. he told friday that these weapons would kill at a distance. he took some powder and touched a match to it. friday was greatly frightened. [illustration: robinson showing friday how to shoot] robinson then proceeded to load the gun. he put in some powder, a ball of lead or bullet. then at the hammer he placed a little cap which gave a flash when struck. this ignited the powder. when all was in readiness robinson bade friday follow him. they went slowly out into the forest along the stream. soon robinson espied a rabbit sitting under a clump of grass. robinson raised his gun, took careful aim, pressed the trigger. there was a flash and loud report and there lay the rabbit dead. but friday, too, was lying on the ground. he had fainted from astonishment and fright. robinson dropped his gun and raised the poor fellow up to a sitting position. he quickly recovered. he ran to get the rabbit. he examined it carefully. robinson at last pointed out the hole the bullet had made and the mystery of the way the rabbit was killed was solved. robinson had lived alone so long that he had learned to love every living creature on the island. he never harmed anything except when he needed food. he had lived so quietly that the birds and animals did not fear him. they lived near his shelter and seemed to know him. robinson was delighted with his new tools and weapons. but they reminded him of home. nothing that he had seen in all the time he had been on the island so turned his thoughts toward home and friends. robinson would sit for hours thinking of the past and making plans for the future. he was homesick. xl the return of the savages robinson now renewed his plans for escaping from the island to friday's country. they first rebuilt their boat with their new tools. they hollowed out the center till the sides were thin toward the top. they shaped her sides and keel. they made her prow sharp so that she would cut the water easily. they made a new mast, strong and tall and shapely. they made larger and stronger sails and ropes. they made two pairs of extra oars. they made boxes and cupboards in the prow and stern for keeping their fresh water and provisions. friday's eyes sparkled with joy when it was done. he hoped he would now be able to return to his own island and parents. robinson noticed his joy and asked him, "do you want to return to your own people?" "yes," said friday, "very much." "would you trust yourself in this boat?" "yes," said friday. "very well," said his master, "you may have it and start home when you please." "yes, master, but you come too, my people will not hurt you." robinson resolved to venture over to friday's land with him. but before their preparations were complete the rainy season of our fall set in. they resolved to wait until the weather was settled and as soon as the rainy season was over to set out. they ran their boat well up into the creek and covered it over with a large tarpaulin made of sail-cloth obtained from the ship. robinson had now been on the island twenty-seven years. for the last three years he had lived happily with his companion friday. every year in september, robinson celebrated the day his life was saved and he was thrown up on the island. robinson celebrated it this year with more than the usual thankfulness. he thought that it would be his last anniversary on the island. one morning, friday had gone to the beach to find a turtle. soon he came running back out of breath. "o master," he cried, "they are coming, they are coming to take me prisoner!" he was trembling with fright. "we must take our guns and defend ourselves," said robinson. "but we will not kill anyone unless they attack us." this quieted friday. they loaded four muskets and three pistols. robinson put the pistols in his belt, where he also fastened a sword. he gave friday a pistol and a musket, for friday had learned to shoot well. besides friday carried a bag of powder and bullets. robinson took his field glasses and saw twenty-one savages with two prisoners. the prisoners were bound and lying on the ground. this was a war party celebrating a victory with a feast. they probably intended to kill their prisoners. "we must save the lives of those men," said robinson. the savages this time had landed quite near robinson's shelter, not more than a half mile below the creek's mouth. soon he and friday started off. robinson commanded friday to follow quietly and not to speak or shoot. "we will surprise them and give them a good scare," said robinson. when yet a considerable distance away they could hear the savages yelling and screaming. some of them were dancing their war dance. their faces and bodies were painted to make them look terrible to their enemies. they were dancing around their prisoners with hideous cries and gestures. they could now see the prisoners plainly. one had a beard and was plainly a white man. robinson was surprised and determined to save him at all risks. "get your gun ready to fire," he said to friday, "and when i say the word let us run forward yelling and firing our guns over their heads. this will fill them with such fright that they will take to their heels and boats and get away as soon as possible. in the scramble and confusion we will rush in and rescue the prisoners." this plan did not please friday at all. his savage blood was up and he wanted to kill all he could. "let's fire on them," he said. "let's kill all but the prisoners." "no, no," said robinson, "it's always wrong to take life unless it cannot be avoided to save one's own. let's try my plan first." with great reluctance friday consented. at a signal from robinson they rushed forward, and when in plain sight they fired off their muskets in the air. if the ground had suddenly exploded beneath their feet there could have been no more confusion, astonishment, and fright. a few took to their heels. others lay as if dead. they had swooned from fright. but as robinson came up they jumped to their feet and pushed into the boats, leaving the prisoners behind. robinson and friday still rushed forward and fired their remaining loaded guns and pistols in the air. the savages made all haste to get into their boats and push off. soon they were well out to sea, paddling rapidly for the west. robinson reloaded his arms and gave them a farewell volley, but not a soul was killed or even wounded. this gave robinson great pleasure. he had accomplished his purpose without bloodshed. they could now turn to the prisoners. robinson ran back to them and quickly cut their ropes. robinson asked the white man who he was, but the man was too weak to answer. robinson gave him a piece of bread. the fear of death being removed, the white man soon grew stronger. when friday came running back from watching the boats and saw the savage that had been a prisoner he gave a loud yell. he threw his arms around the man, kissed him and laughed and cried for joy. he put his head on his breast and hugged him again and again. robinson was greatly surprised and puzzled. he asked friday what his actions meant. but so intent was friday that he got no answer. at last friday recovered far enough from his great joy to say with face beaming with delight, "o, master, this man is my dear father." they at once began a long conversation, each one told his story. suddenly friday jumped up and said, "how foolish i am, i have not thought to give my father anything to eat and drink. he must be nearly starved." and away he ran toward the shelter and was soon back with food and water to drink. [illustration: friday and his father] robinson learned through friday from his father that the white man was a spaniard, that he had been captured by the tribe that had a battle with friday's people. the spaniard was one of sixteen men that had been saved by friday's people from a wrecked ship. so weak were the prisoners that they could not walk to the shelter. robinson and friday made a litter and carried them one after the other. when once there, friday prepared some rich rice soup. the prisoners ate heartily and in a few days were strong enough to go about the island. xli deliverance at last friday had not forgotten the plan for going to his home. he would often mention it and spent hours talking about it during the long rainy season. but now that the spaniard and friday's father had come into the family, robinson felt he must change his plans a little. he felt very sorry for the spaniards left in friday's country. they did not have enough to eat and were sick and sad besides. he talked the matter over with the spaniard many times. they at last planned to send for them. the spaniard and friday's father were to go. robinson was for doing it at once. but the spaniard advised delay. "how can we get food for ourselves and fifteen others? your small store will soon be used up," he argued. robinson at last saw that this difficulty must be overcome. there was just one thing to do, and this, to delay their departure until a new crop of corn could be raised. this would take six months. but at it they went. the four men could do much and work fast. they cleared more ground and planted all the seed corn they could spare from their store. besides this they sowed about twelve bushels of barley they had gotten in the ship. the care for so much crop, its harvesting and storing away, kept them very busy for the season. robinson not only did this, but also increased his flock of goats by catching kids and putting them in his pasture. he gathered, too, all the grapes he could and dried them on the branches of trees. at the end of the harvesting season, they made ready their boat. they filled it with all the bread it could well carry. they put in raisins and fresh water. robinson gave the spaniard and friday's father each a musket and plenty of powder and bullets. now, all was ready. friday gave his father a loving farewell. he stretched out his arms towards him as the boat moved away. the spaniard and robinson waved their hats and they were off. they promised to be back in eight or nine days. robinson and friday made every preparation to receive the guests. they were to have a home not far from robinson's built of poles, and thatched with the long marsh grasses, like robinson's bower. there was no need of hiding or defending it. it did not take long to fix it up. eight days had now passed since the boat had left. friday could hardly restrain himself longer. he watched the ocean all the time. he would go to the top of the hill with the field glasses every hour during the day to catch a first glimpse of them. [illustration: robinson and friday see a ship] on the ninth day, as friday put up his glasses to search the waters he dropped them with a yell of surprise. he tore down the hill with the utmost speed and rushed up to robinson as one gone mad. "look, look, o master!" he cried, "a big ship; a big ship way out on the sea!" robinson took the glasses, and sure enough, there within hailing distance was a large ocean going vessel. robinson was overcome with excitement. for twenty-eight years his aching eyes had scanned the waters for this welcome sight. his joy was boundless. the ship looked like an american. yes, there floated the american flag! how welcome a sight to robinson. he could not utter a word. tears filled his eyes and streamed down his cheeks. he would soon have news from home. he ran to the shore and shot off a gun to attract the attention of those on board. he heard answering shots at once. soon a boat was lowered and in it three men rowed toward the shore. it was the captain himself and two sailors. the captain was astonished to find a man in the lonely island. robinson told how it all had happened and how he would like to return home. to his unspeakable delight the captain told him that the ship was bound for new york and would take him along free of charge, but he must leave that day. the ship could not be delayed any longer. of course robinson would go. friday was beside himself with grief. he did not want to be left behind alone. he did not know that the spaniards would ever return. something might happen to them on the sea. but before the eventful day the spaniards landed. they brought word that friday's father had died after his return home. friday was thrown into a fit of grief at the news. he wept and repeated over and over his praise of the good man. xlii robinson at home it was with a sad heart that robinson made ready to leave. every familiar place seemed now doubly dear to him. he went from one to another with tears in his eyes. here lay his home. here were his fields, his crops and his goats. everything was the work of his own hands. he had made them all. which should he take? he hesitated long. he must take home some of his belongings to show the people at home. and there were his parrot and the dog which had won a place in robinson's heart. he decided to take them along. at length he got together his diary, his parasol, his bible, his treasures, a suit of clothes, his dog, and a hat. he had saved, too, his bow and arrows. these he decided to take along. everything else he gave to his good man friday and the spaniard who wished to be allowed to remain on the island. [illustration: robinson leaving the island] robinson kissed friday tenderly. he with great effort finally tore himself away and ran to the shore where the ship's boat awaited him. but robinson had not counted on the strength of friday's love for him. robinson's boat had not yet reached the ship when friday sprang into the water and swam after him shouting, "master, take me with you, i would rather die than stay here without you." robinson was touched at the devotion showed by the faithful friday, and gave orders to turn the boat back, and take him on board. the anchor was raised. the ship started on her way to the home robinson had left so long ago. the wind was favorable and in seven weeks the spires and buildings of his native city were in sight. his vessel came slowly up to the wharf where he had taken ship so many years ago. here, too, he had played and idled his time away. he remembered it all. his idleness and playing truant came back in sad memories. before robinson and friday landed, their good friend the captain gave them each a new suit of clothes. everything had changed. he scarcely knew the place. he was astonished and confused by the din, hurry and bustle of a great city. friday seemed dazed by it all and clung to robinson's side. the buildings were so tall, the street cars, the carriages were different. everywhere there were iron machines, casting out smoke, puffing and running about on iron rails. robinson had never seen these. robinson, however, did not stop to admire; he pushed on to a certain street and house where lived his parents at the time of his departure. it was with difficulty that he found the place. it was now in the heart of the city. upon inquiry he found, after much searching, that his father had removed his store and home to another part of the city, his mother had died of grief for her disobedient son. robinson was sorely grieved at this. he had hoped to see her and tell her how sorry he was that he had caused her so much anxiety and sorrow. when he had found the place where his father lived he stole quietly up to the house and opened the door. his father, now a gray-haired man, bent with age and sorrow, was sitting in his arm-chair reading. robinson came forward, but his father did not recognize him. "who are you?" he said. "i am robinson, your long-lost son." he knelt by his father's side and asked forgiveness for all the trouble he had caused. his father was overcome. he could not speak. he drew robinson with feeble hands to his breast. "my son, i forgive you," he said. robinson's boyhood friends heard of his strange return. they had thought him dead long ago. they never tired of hearing him tell his strange story. they pitied him in his misfortune. but robinson told them that it all happened to him because he was idle and disobedient in his youth. robinson at once relieved his father at the store. the business thrived. his father died. he soon had a home of his own with a happy family. friday, the dog, and the parrot lived in it, dearly beloved and cared for by their master the rest of their days. in the home there is a young robinson who loves to hear his father read from his diary of the wonderful things that happened on the island. robinson tried many times to find the rightful owner of the gold and jewels, but never succeeded. at last he gave them to a school where boys with idle habits were taught to lead useful and industrious lives. transcribed from the 1919 seeley, sevice & co edition by david price, email ccx074@pglaf.org the further adventures of robinson crusoe chapter i--revisits island that homely proverb, used on so many occasions in england, viz. "that what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," was never more verified than in the story of my life. any one would think that after thirty-five years' affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life, and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy; i say, after all this, any one would have thought that the native propensity to rambling which i gave an account of in my first setting out in the world to have been so predominant in my thoughts, should be worn out, and i might, at sixty one years of age, have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life and fortune any more. nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken away in me, for i had no fortune to make; i had nothing to seek: if i had gained ten thousand pounds i had been no richer; for i had already sufficient for me, and for those i had to leave it to; and what i had was visibly increasing; for, having no great family, i could not spend the income of what i had unless i would set up for an expensive way of living, such as a great family, servants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things i had no notion of, or inclination to; so that i had nothing, indeed, to do but to sit still, and fully enjoy what i had got, and see it increase daily upon my hands. yet all these things had no effect upon me, or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination i had to go abroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper. in particular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the colony i left there, ran in my head continually. i dreamed of it all night, and my imagination ran upon it all day: it was uppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it that i talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothing could remove it out of my mind: it even broke so violently into all my discourses that it made my conversation tiresome, for i could talk of nothing else; all my discourse ran into it, even to impertinence; and i saw it myself. i have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stir that people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost walking; that people's poring affectionately upon the past conversation of their deceased friends so realises it to them that they are capable of fancying, upon some extraordinary circumstances, that they see them, talk to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour in the thing, and they really know nothing of the matter. for my part, i know not to this hour whether there are any such things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they are dead; or whether there is anything in the stories they tell us of that kind more than the product of vapours, sick minds, and wandering fancies: but this i know, that my imagination worked up to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, or what else i may call it, that i actually supposed myself often upon the spot, at my old castle, behind the trees; saw my old spaniard, friday's father, and the reprobate sailors i left upon the island; nay, i fancied i talked with them, and looked at them steadily, though i was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and this i did till i often frightened myself with the images my fancy represented to me. one time, in my sleep, i had the villainy of the three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the first spaniard, and friday's father, that it was surprising: they told me how they barbarously attempted to murder all the spaniards, and that they set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve them; things that i had never heard of, and that, indeed, were never all of them true in fact: but it was so warm in my imagination, and so realised to me, that, to the hour i saw them, i could not be persuaded but that it was or would be true; also how i resented it, when the spaniard complained to me; and how i brought them to justice, tried them, and ordered them all three to be hanged. what there was really in this shall be seen in its place; for however i came to form such things in my dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was, i say, much of it true. i own that this dream had nothing in it literally and specifically true; but the general part was so true--the base; villainous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, and had been so much worse than all i can describe, that the dream had too much similitude of the fact; and as i would afterwards have punished them severely, so, if i had hanged them all, i had been much in the right, and even should have been justified both by the laws of god and man. but to return to my story. in this kind of temper i lived some years; i had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion but what had something or other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night that she believed there was some secret, powerful impulse of providence upon me, which had determined me to go thither again; and that she found nothing hindered me going but my being engaged to a wife and children. she told me that it was true she could not think of parting with me: but as she was assured that if she was dead it would be the first thing i would do, so, as it seemed to her that the thing was determined above, she would not be the only obstruction; for, if i thought fit and resolved to go--[here she found me very intent upon her words, and that i looked very earnestly at her, so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. i asked her why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say? but i perceived that her heart was too full, and some tears stood in her eyes.] "speak out, my dear," said i; "are you willing i should go?"--"no," says she, very affectionately, "i am far from willing; but if you are resolved to go," says she, "rather than i would be the only hindrance, i will go with you: for though i think it a most preposterous thing for one of your years, and in your condition, yet, if it must be," said she, again weeping, "i would not leave you; for if it be of heaven you must do it, there is no resisting it; and if heaven make it your duty to go, he will also make it mine to go with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that i may not obstruct it." this affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of the vapours, and i began to consider what i was doing; i corrected my wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately what business i had after threescore years, and after such a life of tedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner; i, say, what business had i to rush into new hazards, and put myself upon adventures fit only for youth and poverty to run into? with those thoughts i considered my new engagement; that i had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of another; that i had all the world could give me, and had no need to seek hazard for gain; that i was declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what i had gained than of seeking to increase it; that as to what my wife had said of its being an impulse from heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, i had no notion of that; so, after many of these cogitations, i struggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as i believe people may always do in like cases if they will: in a word, i conquered it, composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my thoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifully with; and particularly, as the most effectual method, i resolved to divert myself with other things, and to engage in some business that might effectually tie me up from any more excursions of this kind; for i found that thing return upon me chiefly when i was idle, and had nothing to do, nor anything of moment immediately before me. to this purpose, i bought a little farm in the county of bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither. i had a little convenient house upon it, and the land about it, i found, was capable of great improvement; and it was many ways suited to my inclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, and improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, i was removed from conversing among sailors and things relating to the remote parts of the world. i went down to my farm, settled my family, bought ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon-horses, cows, and sheep, and, setting seriously to work, became in one half-year a mere country gentleman. my thoughts were entirely taken up in managing my servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and i lived, as i thought, the most agreeable life that nature was capable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortunes was capable of retreating to. i farmed upon my own land; i had no rent to pay, was limited by no articles; i could pull up or cut down as i pleased; what i planted was for myself, and what i improved was for my family; and having thus left off the thoughts of wandering, i had not the least discomfort in any part of life as to this world. now i thought, indeed, that i enjoyed the middle state of life which my father so earnestly recommended to me, and lived a kind of heavenly life, something like what is described by the poet, upon the subject of a country life:- "free from vices, free from care, age has no pain, and youth no snare." but in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseen providence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon me inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into a deep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as i may say, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me; and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with an irresistible force upon me. this blow was the loss of my wife. it is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. she was, in a few words, the stay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; the engine that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass i was in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that filled my head, and did more to guide my rambling genius than a mother's tears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my own reasoning powers could do. i was happy in listening to her, and in being moved by her entreaties; and to the last degree desolate and dislocated in the world by the loss of her. when she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me. i was as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as i was in the brazils, when i first went on shore there; and as much alone, except for the assistance of servants, as i was in my island. i knew neither what to think nor what to do. i saw the world busy around me: one part labouring for bread, another part squandering in vile excesses or empty pleasures, but equally miserable because the end they proposed still fled from them; for the men of pleasure every day surfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow and repentance; and the men of labour spent their strength in daily struggling for bread to maintain the vital strength they laboured with: so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end of wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily bread. this put me in mind of the life i lived in my kingdom, the island; where i suffered no more corn to grow, because i did not want it; and bred no more goats, because i had no more use for them; where the money lay in the drawer till it grew mouldy, and had scarce the favour to be looked upon in twenty years. all these things, had i improved them as i ought to have done, and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have taught me to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity; and that there was something which certainly was the reason and end of life superior to all these things, and which was either to be possessed, or at least hoped for, on this side of the grave. but my sage counsellor was gone; i was like a ship without a pilot, that could only run afore the wind. my thoughts ran all away again into the old affair; my head was quite turned with the whimsies of foreign adventures; and all the pleasant, innocent amusements of my farm, my garden, my cattle, and my family, which before entirely possessed me, were nothing to me, had no relish, and were like music to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste. in a word, i resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm, and return to london; and in a few months after i did so. when i came to london, i was still as uneasy as i was before; i had no relish for the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but to saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said he is perfectly useless in god's creation, and it is not one farthing's matter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive. this also was the thing which, of all circumstances of life, was the most my aversion, who had been all my days used to an active life; and i would often say to myself, "a state of idleness is the very dregs of life;" and, indeed, i thought i was much more suitably employed when i was twenty-six days making a deal board. it was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, whom, as i have observed before, i had brought up to the sea, and had made him commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage to bilbao, being the first he had made. he came to me, and told me that some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing to him to go a voyage for them to the east indies, and to china, as private traders. "and now, uncle," says he, "if you will go to sea with me, i will engage to land you upon your old habitation in the island; for we are to touch at the brazils." nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and of the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of second causes with the idea of things which we form in our minds, perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world. my nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering was returned upon me, and i knew nothing of what he had in his thought to say, when that very morning, before he came to me, i had, in a great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, that i would go to lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and if it was rational and practicable, i would go and see the island again, and what was become of my people there. i had pleased myself with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the possession and i know not what; when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as i have said, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to the east indies. i paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, "what devil," said i, "sent you on this unlucky errand?" my nephew stared as if he had been frightened at first; but perceiving that i was not much displeased at the proposal, he recovered himself. "i hope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir," says he. "i daresay you would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once reigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs in the world." in a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that is to say, the prepossession i was under, and of which i have said so much, that i told him, in a few words, if he agreed with the merchants, i would go with him; but i told him i would not promise to go any further than my own island. "why, sir," says he, "you don't want to be left there again, i hope?" "but," said i, "can you not take me up again on your return?" he told me it would not be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allow him to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being a month's sail out of his way, and might be three or four. "besides, sir, if i should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, then you would be just reduced to the condition you were in before." this was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it, which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being taken in pieces, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom we agreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, and finished fit to go to sea in a few days. i was not long resolving, for indeed the importunities of my nephew joined so effectually with my inclination that nothing could oppose me; on the other hand, my wife being dead, none concerned themselves so much for me as to persuade me one way or the other, except my ancient good friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to consider my years, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazards of a long voyage; and above all, my young children. but it was all to no purpose, i had an irresistible desire for the voyage; and i told her i thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions i had upon my mind, that it would be a kind of resisting providence if i should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased her expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provision for my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs for my absence, and providing for the education of my children. in order to do this, i made my will, and settled the estate i had in such a manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that i was perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them, whatever might befall me; and for their education, i left it wholly to the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken more care in their education, or understood it better; and as she lived till i came home, i also lived to thank her for it. my nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of january 1694-5; and i, with my man friday, went on board, in the downs, the 8th; having, besides that sloop which i mentioned above, a very considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony, which, if i did not find in good condition, i resolved to leave so. first, i carried with me some servants whom i purposed to place there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my account while i stayed, and either to leave them there or carry them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, i carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious fellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a general mechanic; for he was dexterous at making wheels and handmills to grind corn, was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made anything that was proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word, we called him our jack-of-all-trades. with these i carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go a passenger to the east indies with my nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and who proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired in many other businesses besides that of his trade; for, as i observed formerly, necessity arms us for all employments. my cargo, as near as i can recollect, for i have not kept account of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, and some english thin stuffs, for clothing the spaniards that i expected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculation might comfortably supply them for seven years; if i remember right, the materials i carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds, bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds more in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges, and every necessary thing i could think of. i carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, because i knew not what time and what extremities i was providing for, i carried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes and halberds. in short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of store; and i made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leave behind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we might build a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies. indeed, i at first thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen in the course of that story. i had not such bad luck in this voyage as i had been used to meet with, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weather happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer than i expected it at first; and i, who had never made but one voyage, my first voyage to guinea, in which i might be said to come back again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to think the same ill fate attended me, and that i was born to be never contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at sea. contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were obliged to put in at galway, in ireland, where we lay wind-bound twoand-twenty days; but we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched the ship's stores, but rather added to them. here, also, i took in several live hogs, and two cows with their calves, which i resolved, if i had a good passage, to put on shore in my island; but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them. we set out on the 5th of february from ireland, and had a very fair gale of wind for some days. as i remember, it might be about the 20th of february in the evening late, when the mate, having the watch, came into the round-house and told us he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, a boy came in and told us the boatswain heard another. this made us all run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard nothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found that there was some very terrible fire at a distance; immediately we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed that there could be no land that way in which the fire showed itself, no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at wnw. upon this, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, by our hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that it could not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and were presently satisfied we should discover it, because the further we sailed, the greater the light appeared; though, the weather being hazy, we could not perceive anything but the light for a while. in about half-an-hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of the sea. i was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all acquainted with the persons engaged in it; i presently recollected my former circumstances, and what condition i was in when taken up by the portuguese captain; and how much more deplorable the circumstances of the poor creatures belonging to that ship must be, if they had no other ship in company with them. upon this i immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon after another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that there was help for them at hand and that they might endeavour to save themselves in their boat; for though we could see the flames of the ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us. we lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship drove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our great terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the air; and in a few minutes all the fire was out, that is to say, the rest of the ship sunk. this was a terrible, and indeed an afflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, i concluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost distress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean; which, at present, as it was dark, i could not see. however, to direct them as well as i could, i caused lights to be hung out in all parts of the ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept firing guns all the night long, letting them know by this that there was a ship not far off. about eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats by the help of our perspective glasses, and found there were two of them, both thronged with people, and deep in the water. we perceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they saw our ship, and did their utmost to make us see them. we immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we saw them, and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on board, and then made more sail, standing directly to them. in little more than half-an-hour we came up with them; and took them all in, being no less than sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great many passengers. upon inquiry we found it was a french merchant ship of three-hundred tons, home-bound from quebec. the master gave us a long account of the distress of his ship; how the fire began in the steerage by the negligence of the steersman, which, on his crying out for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out; but they soon found that some sparks of the first fire had got into some part of the ship so difficult to come at that they could not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between the timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they were able to exert. they had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to their great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great service to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisions into her, after they had secured their lives from the fire. they had, indeed, small hopes of their lives by getting into these boats at that distance from any land; only, as they said, that they thus escaped from the fire, and there was a possibility that some ship might happen to be at sea, and might take them in. they had sails, oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and water as, with sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might support them about twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and no contrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banks of newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain them till they might go on shore. but there were so many chances against them in all these cases, such as storms, to overset and founder them; rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds, to keep them out and starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had escaped. in the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless and ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me they were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and after that four more: these were the five guns which i caused to be fired at first seeing the light. this revived their hearts, and gave them the notice, which, as above, i desired it should, that there was a ship at hand for their help. it was upon the hearing of these guns that they took down their masts and sails: the sound coming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning. some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired three muskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, the wind being contrary, we never heard. some time after that again they were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights, and hearing the guns, which, as i have said, i caused to be fired all the rest of the night. this set them to work with their oars, to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might the sooner come up with them; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found we saw them. it is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the strange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poor delivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at so unexpected a deliverance. grief and fear are easily described: sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands, make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it. there were some in tears; some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downright lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others wringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, some laughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; others sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; and a few were crossing themselves and giving god thanks. i would not wrong them either; there might be many that were thankful afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them at first, and they were not able to master it: then were thrown into ecstasies, and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few that were composed and serious in their joy. perhaps also, the case may have some addition to it from the particular circumstance of that nation they belonged to: i mean the french, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid than in other nations. i am not philosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing i had ever seen before came up to it. the ecstasies poor friday, my trusty savage, was in when he found his father in the boat came the nearest to it; and the surprise of the master and his two companions, whom i delivered from the villains that set them on shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that i saw in friday, or anywhere else in my life. it is further observable, that these extravagances did not show themselves in that different manner i have mentioned, in different persons only; but all the variety would appear, in a short succession of moments, in one and the same person. a man that we saw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, would the next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic; and the next moment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feet like a madman; in a few moments after that we would have him all in tears, then sick, swooning, and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few moments have been dead. thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if i remember right, our surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirty persons. there were two priests among them: one an old man, and the other a young man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was the worst. as soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe, he dropped down stone dead to all appearance. not the least sign of life could be perceived in him; our surgeon immediately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was the only man in the ship that believed he was not dead. at length he opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible. upon this the blood, which only dropped at first, flowing freely, in three minutes after the man opened his eyes; a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew better, and after the blood was stopped, he walked about, told us he was perfectly well, and took a dram of cordial which the surgeon gave him. about a quarter of an hour after this they came running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a frenchwoman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. it seems he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his mind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy. his spirits whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them, the blood grew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for bedlam as any creature that ever was in it. the surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him to sleep; which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awoke next morning perfectly composed and well. the younger priest behaved with great command of his passions, and was really an example of a serious, well-governed mind. at his first coming on board the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which i unhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a swoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving god thanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments, and that, next to his maker, he would give me thanks also. i was heartily sorry that i disturbed him, and not only left him, but kept others from interrupting him also. he continued in that posture about three minutes, or little more, after i left him, then came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of seriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me, that had, under god, given him and so many miserable creatures their lives. i told him i had no need to tell him to thank god for it, rather than me, for i had seen that he had done that already; but i added that it was nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to give thanks to god, who had blessed us so far as to make us the instruments of his mercy to so many of his creatures. after this the young priest applied himself to his countrymen, and laboured to compose them: he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their reason; and with some he had success, though others were for a time out of all government of themselves. i cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be useful to those into whose hands it may fall, for guiding themselves in the extravagances of their passions; for if an excess of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage, and a provoked mind carry us to? and, indeed, here i saw reason for keeping an exceeding watch over our passions of every kind, as well those of joy and satisfaction as those of sorrow and anger. we were somewhat disordered by these extravagances among our new guests for the first day; but after they had retired to lodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and had slept heartily--as most of them did, being fatigued and frightened--they were quite another sort of people the next day. nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness shown them, was wanting; the french, it is known, are naturally apt enough to exceed that way. the captain and one of the priests came to me the next day, and desired to speak with me and my nephew; the commander began to consult with us what should be done with them; and first, they told us we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enough for a return to us for that kindness received. the captain said they had saved some money and some things of value in their boats, caught hastily out of the flames, and if we would accept it they were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only desired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible, they might get a passage to france. my nephew wished to accept their money at first word, and to consider what to do with them afterwards; but i overruled him in that part, for i knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if the portuguese captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and taken all i had for my deliverance, i must have been starved, or have been as much a slave at the brazils as i had been at barbary, the mere being sold to a mahometan excepted; and perhaps a portuguese is not a much better master than a turk, if not in some cases much worse. i therefore told the french captain that we had taken them up in their distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, as we were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered if we were in the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for them but what we believed they would have done for us if we had been in their case and they in ours; but that we took them up to save them, not to plunder them; and it would be a most barbarous thing to take that little from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; that this would be first to save them from death, and then kill them ourselves: save them from drowning, and abandon them to starving; and therefore i would not let the least thing be taken from them. as to setting them on shore, i told them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the east indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward a very great way, and perhaps were directed by heaven on purpose for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage on their particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charter to pursue his voyage by way of brazil; and all i knew we could do for them was to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships homeward bound from the west indies, and get them a passage, if possible, to england or france. the first part of the proposal was so generous and kind they could not but be very thankful for it; but they were in very great consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the east indies; they then entreated me that as i was driven so far to the westward before i met with them, i would at least keep on the same course to the banks of newfoundland, where it was probable i might meet with some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to canada. i thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and therefore i inclined to agree to it; for indeed i considered that to carry this whole company to the east indies would not only be an intolerable severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining our whole voyage by devouring all our provisions; so i thought it no breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessary to us, and in which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws of god and nature would have forbid that we should refuse to take up two boats full of people in such a distressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to set them on shore somewhere or other for their deliverance. so i consented that we would carry them to newfoundland, if wind and weather would permit: and if not, i would carry them to martinico, in the west indies. the wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as the winds had continued in the points between ne. and se. a long time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to france; for we met several ships bound to europe, whereof two were french, from st. christopher's, but they had been so long beating up against the wind that they durst take in no passengers, for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on. it was about a week after this that we made the banks of newfoundland; where, to shorten my story, we put all our french people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them to france, if they could get provisions to victual themselves with. when i say all the french went on shore, i should remember that the young priest i spoke of, hearing we were bound to the east indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on shore on the coast of coromandel; which i readily agreed to, for i wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves on our ship, and proved very useful fellows. from hence we directed our course for the west indies, steering away s. and s. by e. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no wind at all; when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before. chapter ii--intervening history of colony it was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes n., on the 19th day of march 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course se. and by s. we soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun as a signal of distress. the weather was pretty good, wind at nnw. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her. we found her a ship of bristol, bound home from barbadoes, but had been blown out of the road at barbadoes a few days before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone on shore; so that, besides the terror of the storm, they were in an indifferent case for good mariners to bring the ship home. they had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terrible storm, after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they lost their masts. they told us they expected to have seen the bahama islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east, by a strong gale of wind at nnw., the same that blew now: and having no sails to work the ship with but a main course, and a kind of square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they had set up, they could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away for the canaries. but that which was worst of all was, that they were almost starved for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone; their bread and flesh were quite gone--they had not one ounce left in the ship, and had had none for eleven days. the only relief they had was, their water was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some succades, or sweetmeats, they had at first, but these were all devoured; and they had seven casks of rum. there was a youth and his mother and a maid-servant on board, who were passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable condition than the rest: for the seamen being reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and they were, indeed, in such a condition that their misery is very hard to describe. i had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, the weather being fair and the wind abated, to go on board the ship. the second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, had been on board our ship, and he told me they had three passengers in the great cabin that were in a deplorable condition. "nay," says he, "i believe they are dead, for i have heard nothing of them for above two days; and i was afraid to inquire after them," said he, "for i had nothing to relieve them with." we immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could spare; and indeed i had so far overruled things with my nephew, that i would have victualled them though we had gone away to virginia, or any other part of the coast of america, to have supplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that. but now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid of eating too much, even of that little we gave them. the mate, or commander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they could hardly sit to their oars. the mate himself was very ill, and half starved; for he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and went share and share alike with them in every bit they ate. i cautioned him to eat sparingly, and set meat before him immediately, but he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be sick and out of order; so he stopped a while, and our surgeon mixed him up something with some broth, which he said would be to him both food and physic; and after he had taken it he grew better. in the meantime i forgot not the men. i ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it: they were so exceedingly hungry that they were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them ate with so much greediness that they were in danger of their lives the next morning. the sight of these people's distress was very moving to me, and brought to mind what i had a terrible prospect of at my first coming on shore in my island, where i had not the least mouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any; besides the hourly apprehensions i had of being made the food of other creatures. but all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miserable condition of the ship's company, i could not put out of my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the great cabin, viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days, and whom, he seemed to confess, they had wholly neglected, their own extremities being so great; by which i understood that they had really given them no food at all, and that therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the cabin. as i therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with his men, to refresh them, so i also forgot not the starving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. our surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at a time: and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose to save their lives. at the same time i ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and see what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they were alive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper: and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with some of the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he did not question would restore them gradually. i was not satisfied with this; but, as i said above, having a great mind to see the scene of misery which i knew the ship itself would present me with, in a more lively manner than i could have it by report, i took the captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went myself, a little after, in their boat. i found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate observed his orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door, and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasion to have patience, kept them off by force; however, he caused some biscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened with the liquor of the meat, which they called brewis, and gave them every one some to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their own safety that he was obliged to give them but little at a time. but it was all in vain; and had i not come on board, and their own commander and officers with me, and with good words, and some threats also of giving them no more, i believe they would have broken into the cook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace--for words are indeed of very small force to a hungry belly; however, we pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously at first, and the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and the men did well enough. but the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company had so little for themselves, it was but too true that they had at first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them: so that for six or seven days it might be said they had really no food at all, and for several days before very little. the poor mother, who, as the men reported, was a woman of sense and good breeding, had spared all she could so affectionately for her son, that at last she entirely sank under it; and when the mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the floor on deck, with her back up against the sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head sunk between her shoulders like a corpse, though not quite dead. my mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put some broth into her mouth. she opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late for her, but pointed to her child, as if she would have said they should take care of him. however, the mate, who was exceedingly moved at the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into her mouth, and, as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down--though i question whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was too late, and she died the same night. the youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate mother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin bed, as one stretched out, with hardly any life left in him. he had a piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; however, being young, and having more strength than his mother, the mate got something down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive; though by giving him, some time after, but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again. but the next care was the poor maid: she lay all along upon the deck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down in a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life. her limbs were distorted; one of her hands was clasped round the frame of the chair, and she gripped it so hard that we could not easily make her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the frame of the cabin table: in short, she lay just like one in the agonies of death, and yet she was alive too. the poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying for two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly. we knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who was a man of very great knowledge and experience, had, with great application, recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hands still; for she was little less than distracted for a considerable time after. whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired to consider that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. our business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not lie by for them; and though they were willing to steer the same course with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with a ship that had no masts. however, as their captain begged of us to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast to his jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days; and then, having given him five barrels of beef, a barrel of pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks of sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them for satisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods. the young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with the loss of his mother, and also at having lost his father but a few months before, at barbadoes. he begged of the surgeon to speak to me to take him out of the ship; for he said the cruel fellows had murdered his mother: and indeed so they had, that is to say, passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to the poor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough to keep her alive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, no right, and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion. the surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it would carry him away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in as bad circumstances almost as those we found him in, that is to say, starving in the world. he said it mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among; that the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us carry them where we would. the surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me that i yielded, and we took them both on board, with all their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed or come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, i made his commander sign a writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as he came to bristol, to one mr. rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which i wrote to him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow; which, i suppose, was not done, for i could never learn that the ship came to bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that i am of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards she might founder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we met with her. i was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and had hitherto a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds had been contrary. i shall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c., on the rest of our voyage; but to shorten my story, shall observe that i came to my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of april 1695. it was with no small difficulty that i found the place; for as i came to it and went to it before on the south and east side of the island, coming from the brazils, so now, coming in between the main and the island, and having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, i did not know it when i saw it, or, know whether i saw it or not. we beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands in the mouth of the great river orinoco, but none for my purpose; only this i learned by my coasting the shore, that i was under one great mistake before, viz. that the continent which i thought i saw from the island i lived in was really no continent, but a long island, or rather a ridge of islands, reaching from one to the other side of the extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who came to my island were not properly those which we call caribbees, but islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited nearer to our side than the rest. in short, i visited several of these islands to no purpose; some i found were inhabited, and some were not; on one of them i found some spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with them, found they had a sloop lying in a small creek hard by, and came thither to make salt, and to catch some pearl-mussels if they could; but that they belonged to the isle de trinidad, which lay farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees. thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship, sometimes with the frenchman's shallop, which we had found a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will, at length i came fair on the south side of my island, and presently knew the very countenance of the place: so i brought the ship safe to an anchor, broadside with the little creek where my old habitation was. as soon as i saw the place i called for friday, and asked him if he knew where he was? he looked about a little, and presently clapping his hands, cried, "oh yes, oh there, oh yes, oh there!" pointing to our old habitation, and fell dancing and capering like a mad fellow; and i had much ado to keep him from jumping into the sea to swim ashore to the place. "well, friday," says i, "do you think we shall find anybody here or no? and do you think we shall see your father?" the fellow stood mute as a stock a good while; but when i named his father, the poor affectionate creature looked dejected, and i could see the tears run down his face very plentifully. "what is the matter, friday? are you troubled because you may see your father?" "no, no," says he, shaking his head, "no see him more: no, never more see him again." "why so, friday? how do you know that?" "oh no, oh no," says friday, "he long ago die, long ago; he much old man." "well, well, friday, you don't know; but shall we see any one else, then?" the fellow, it seems, had better eyes than i, and he points to the hill just above my old house; and though we lay half a league off, he cries out, "we see! we see! yes, we see much man there, and there, and there." i looked, but i saw nobody, no, not with a perspective glass, which was, i suppose, because i could not hit the place: for the fellow was right, as i found upon inquiry the next day; and there were five or six men all together, who stood to look at the ship, not knowing what to think of us. as soon as friday told me he saw people, i caused the english ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we were friends; and in about a quarter of an hour after we perceived a smoke arise from the side of the creek; so i immediately ordered the boat out, taking friday with me, and hanging out a white flag, i went directly on shore, taking with me the young friar i mentioned, to whom i had told the story of my living there, and the manner of it, and every particular both of myself and those i left there, and who was on that account extremely desirous to go with me. we had, besides, about sixteen men well armed, if we had found any new guests there which we did not know of; but we had no need of weapons. as we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, we rowed directly into the creek; and the first man i fixed my eye upon was the spaniard whose life i had saved, and whom i knew by his face perfectly well: as to his habit, i shall describe it afterwards. i ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself; but there was no keeping friday in the boat, for the affectionate creature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off the spaniards, where, indeed, i saw nothing of him; and if they had not let him go ashore, he would have jumped into the sea. he was no sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow out of a bow. it would have made any man shed tears, in spite of the firmest resolution, to have seen the first transports of this poor fellow's joy when he came to his father: how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him, as any one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay down on the ground, and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and then got up again and stared at him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched. but it would have made a dog laugh the next day to see how his passion ran out another way: in the morning he walked along the shore with his father several hours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady; and every now and then he would come to the boat to fetch something or other for him, either a lump of sugar, a dram, a biscuit, or something or other that was good. in the afternoon his frolics ran another way; for then he would set the old man down upon the ground, and dance about him, and make a thousand antic gestures; and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, and telling him one story or another of his travels, and of what had happened to him abroad to divert him. in short, if the same filial affection was to be found in christians to their parents in our part of the world, one would be tempted to say there would hardly have been any need of the fifth commandment. but this is a digression: i return to my landing. it would be needless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the spaniards received me with. the first spaniard, whom, as i said, i knew very well, was he whose life i had saved. he came towards the boat, attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce also; and he not only did not know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no notion of its being me that was come, till i spoke to him. "seignior," said i, in portuguese, "do you not know me?" at which he spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man that was with him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in spanish that i did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me, telling me he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he had once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; he said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred spaniard always knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attended him, bade him go and call out his comrades. he then asked me if i would walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possession of my own house again, and where i should see they had made but mean improvements. i walked along with him, but, alas! i could no more find the place than if i had never been there; for they had planted so many trees, and placed them in such a position, so thick and close to one another, and in ten years' time they were grown so big, that the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways as they themselves only, who made them, could find. i asked them what put them upon all these fortifications; he told me i would say there was need enough of it when they had given me an account how they had passed their time since their arriving in the island, especially after they had the misfortune to find that i was gone. he told me he could not but have some pleasure in my good fortune, when he heard that i was gone in a good ship, and to my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong persuasion that one time or other he should see me again, but nothing that ever befell him in his life, he said, was so surprising and afflicting to him at first as the disappointment he was under when he came back to the island and found i was not there. as to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left behind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell me, the spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages, only that their number was so small: "and," says he, "had they been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory;" and with that he crossed himself on the breast. "but, sir," says he, "i hope you will not be displeased when i shall tell you how, forced by necessity, we were obliged for our own preservation to disarm them, and make them our subjects, as they would not be content with being moderately our masters, but would be our murderers." i answered i was afraid of it when i left them there, and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island but that they were not come back, that i might have put them in possession of everything first, and left the others in a state of subjection, as they deserved; but if they had reduced them to it i was very glad, and should be very far from finding any fault with it; for i knew they were a parcel of refractory, ungoverned villains, and were fit for any manner of mischief. while i was saying this, the man came whom he had sent back, and with him eleven more. in the dress they were in it was impossible to guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear, both to them and to me. first, he turned to me, and pointing to them, said, "these, sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to you;" and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let them know who i was; upon which they all came up, one by one, not as if they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and the like, but really as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and i a monarch or great conqueror: their behaviour was, to the last degree, obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly, majestic gravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they had so much more manners than i, that i scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much less how to return them in kind. the history of their coming to, and conduct in, the island after my going away is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents which the former part of my relation will help to understand, and which will in most of the particulars, refer to the account i have already given, that i cannot but commit them, with great delight, to the reading of those that come after me. in order to do this as intelligibly as i can, i must go back to the circumstances in which i left the island, and the persons on it, of whom i am to speak. and first, it is necessary to repeat that i had sent away friday's father and the spaniard (the two whose lives i had rescued from the savages) in a large canoe to the main, as i then thought it, to fetch over the spaniard's companions that he left behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity that he had been in, and in order to succour them for the present; and that, if possible, we might together find some way for our deliverance afterwards. when i sent them away i had no visible appearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance, any more than i had twenty years before--much less had i any foreknowledge of what afterwards happened, i mean, of an english ship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not be but a very great surprise to them, when they came back, not only to find that i was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot, possessed of all that i had left behind me, which would otherwise have been their own. the first thing, however, which i inquired into, that i might begin where i left off, was of their own part; and i desired the spaniard would give me a particular account of his voyage back to his countrymen with the boat, when i sent him to fetch them over. he told me there was little variety in that part, for nothing remarkable happened to them on the way, having had very calm weather and a smooth sea. as for his countrymen, it could not be doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seems he was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel they had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time): they were, he said, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he was fallen into the hands of the savages, who, they were satisfied, would devour him as they did all the rest of their prisoners; that when he told them the story of his deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream to them, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat like that of joseph's brethren when he told them who he was, and the story of his exaltation in pharaoh's court; but when he showed them the arms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought them for their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately prepared to come away with him. their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were obliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but to trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large canoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for pleasure. in these they came away the next morning. it seems they wanted no time to get themselves ready; for they had neither clothes nor provisions, nor anything in the world but what they had on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their bread. they were in all three weeks absent; and in that time, unluckily for them, i had the occasion offered for my escape, as i mentioned in the other part, and to get off from the island, leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable villains behind me that any man could desire to meet with--to the poor spaniards' great grief and disappointment. the only just thing the rogues did was, that when the spaniards came ashore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions, and other relief, as i had ordered them to do; also they gave them the long paper of directions which i had left with them, containing the particular methods which i took for managing every part of my life there; the way i baked my bread, bred up tame goats, and planted my corn; how i cured my grapes, made my pots, and, in a word, everything i did. all this being written down, they gave to the spaniards (two of them understood english well enough): nor did they refuse to accommodate the spaniards with anything else, for they agreed very well for some time. they gave them an equal admission into the house or cave, and they began to live very sociably; and the head spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my methods, together with friday's father, managed all their affairs; but as for the englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came home at night, the spaniards provided their suppers for them. the spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the others but let them alone, which, however, they could not find in their hearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, they would not eat themselves, neither would they let the others eat. the differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such as are not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war: and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can be imagined--without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the first relation of it came from the spaniards themselves, whom i may call the accusers, yet when i came to examine the fellows they could not deny a word of it. but before i come to the particulars of this part, i must supply a defect in my former relation; and this was, i forgot to set down among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set sail, there happened a little quarrel on board of our ship, which i was once afraid would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was it appeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us all to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons: and as they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some ugly, dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry them in irons to england, and have them hanged there for mutiny and running away with the ship. this, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, frightened some other men in the ship; and some of them had put it into the head of the rest that the captain only gave them good words for the present, till they should come to same english port, and that then they should be all put into gaol, and tried for their lives. the mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that i, who still passed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate and satisfy the men, and tell them that they might be assured, if they behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time past should be pardoned. so i went, and after passing my honour's word to them they appeared easy, and the more so when i caused the two men that were in irons to be released and forgiven. but this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; the wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men who had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and some other weapons (what powder or shot they had we knew not), and had taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and run away with her to their companions in roguery on shore. as soon as we found this, i ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they could neither find them nor any of the rest, for they all fled into the woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. the mate was once resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their plantations, burned all their household stuff and furniture, and left them to shift without it; but having no orders, he let it all alone, left everything as he found it, and bringing the pinnace way, came on board without them. these two men made their number five; but the other three villains were so much more wicked than they, that after they had been two or three days together they turned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, and would have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good while be persuaded to give them any food: as for the spaniards, they were not yet come. when the spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go forward: the spaniards would have persuaded the three english brutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said, they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so the two poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing but industry and application would make them live comfortably, they pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little more to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who always landed on the east parts of the island. here they built them two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and stores in; and the spaniards having given them some corn for seed, and some of the peas which i had left them, they dug, planted, and enclosed, after the pattern i had set for them all, and began to live pretty well. their first crop of corn was on the ground; and though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of the fellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and the milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do. they were going on in this little thriving position when the three unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was theirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given them the possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and that they should build no houses upon their ground unless they would pay rent for them. the two men, thinking they were jesting at first, asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they were that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded; and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon their land, and made improvements, they would, according to the custom of landlords, grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to draw the writings. one of the three, cursing and raging, told them they should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a firebrand, and claps it to the outside of their hut, and set it on fire: indeed, it would have been all burned down in a few minutes if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not without some difficulty too. the fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him away, that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand, and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his days at once. his comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran after him, and immediately they came both out with their muskets, and the man that was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow down that began the quarrel with the stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to help him; and then, seeing the rest come at them, they stood together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, bade them stand off. the others had firearms with them too; but one of the two honest men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger, told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were dead men, and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. they did not, indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him so resolute, it brought them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with them and be gone: and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow. however, they were much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to the spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treated them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them some intimation that they did so. chapter iii--fight with cannibals but not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of the rogueries with which they plagued them continually, night and day, it forced the two men to such a desperation that they resolved to fight them all three, the first time they had a fair opportunity. in order to do this they resolved to go to the castle (as they called my old dwelling), where the three rogues and the spaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair battle, and the spaniards should stand by to see fair play: so they got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, and called the englishmen by their names telling a spaniard that answered that they wanted to speak with them. it happened that the day before two of the spaniards, having been in the woods, had seen one of the two englishmen, whom, for distinction, i called the honest men, and he had made a sad complaint to the spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met with from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their three kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, and that if he and his friends, meaning the spaniards, did not assist them again, they should be starved. when the spaniards came home at night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedom to reprove the three englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerly terms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they being harmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were putting themselves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them a great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they were then in. one of the englishmen returned very briskly, "what had they to do there? that they came on shore without leave; and that they should not plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground." "why," says the spaniard, very calmly, "seignior inglese, they must not starve." the englishman replied, like a rough tarpaulin, "they might starve; they should not plant nor build in that place." "but what must they do then, seignior?" said the spaniard. another of the brutes returned, "do? they should be servants, and work for them." "but how can you expect that of them?" says the spaniard; "they are not bought with your money; you have no right to make them servants." the englishman answered, "the island was theirs; the governor had given it to them, and no man had anything to do there but themselves;" and with that he swore that he would go and burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land. "why, seignior," says the spaniard, "by the same rule, we must be your servants, too." "ay," returned the bold dog, "and so you shall, too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or three oaths in the proper intervals of his speech. the spaniard only smiled at that, and made him no answer. however, this little discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other. (i think it was he they called will atkins), "come, jack, let's go and have t'other brush with them; we'll demolish their castle, i'll warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions." upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among themselves of what they would do to the spaniards, too, when opportunity offered; but the spaniards, it seems, did not so perfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, only that in general they threatened them hard for taking the two englishmen's part. whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that evening, the spaniards said they did not know; but it seems they wandered about the country part of the night, and them lying down in the place which i used to call my bower, they were weary and overslept themselves. the case was this: they had resolved to stay till midnight, and so take the two poor men when they were asleep, and as they acknowledged afterwards, intended to set fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burn them there or murder them as they came out. as malice seldom sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been kept awake. however, as the two men had also a design upon them, as i have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they were up and gone abroad before the bloody-minded rogues came to their huts. when they came there, and found the men gone, atkins, who it seems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrade, "ha, jack, here's the nest, but the birds are flown." they mused a while, to think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad so soon, and suggested presently that the spaniards had given them notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to one another that they would be revenged of the spaniards. as soon as they had made this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poor men's habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, to anything, but they pulled down both their houses, and left not the least stick standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; they tore all their household stuff in pieces, and threw everything about in such a manner, that the poor men afterwards found some of their things a mile off. when they had done this, they pulled up all the young trees which the poor men had planted; broke down an enclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a horde of tartars would have done. the two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have been blood shed among them, for they were all very stout, resolute fellows, to give them their due. but providence took more care to keep them asunder than they themselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged one another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three were come to the old habitation again: we shall see their different conduct presently. when the three came back like furious creatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about had put them into, they came up to the spaniards, and told them what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of them stepping up to one of the spaniards, as if they had been a couple of boys at play, takes hold of his hat as it was upon his head, and giving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says to him, "and you, seignior jack spaniard, shall have the same sauce if you do not mend your manners." the spaniard, who, though a quiet civil man, was as brave a man as could be, and withal a strong, well-made man, looked at him for a good while, and then, having no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and, with one blow of his fist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a poleaxe; at which one of the rogues, as insolent as the first, fired his pistol at the spaniard immediately; he missed his body, indeed, for the bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, and he bled pretty much. the blood made the spaniard believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into some heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but now resolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking the fellow's musket whom he had knocked down, was just going to shoot the man who had fired at him, when the rest of the spaniards, being in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them. when they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they began to cool, and giving the spaniards better words, would have their arms again; but the spaniards, considering the feud that was between them and the other two englishmen, and that it would be the best method they could take to keep them from killing one another, told them they would do them no harm, and if they would live peaceably, they would be very willing to assist and associate with them as they did before; but that they could not think of giving them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do mischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened them all to make them their servants. the rogues were now quite deaf to all reason, and being refused their arms, they raved away like madmen, threatening what they would do, though they had no firearms. but the spaniards, despising their threatening, told them they should take care how they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they did they would shoot them as they would ravenous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they should certainly be hanged. however, this was far from cooling them, but away they went, raging and swearing like furies. as soon as they were gone, the two men came back, in passion and rage enough also, though of another kind; for having been at their plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above mentioned, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough. they could scarce have room to tell their tale, the spaniards were so eager to tell them theirs: and it was strange enough to find that three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment at all. the spaniards, indeed, despised them, and especially, having thus disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the two englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains soever it cost to find them out. but the spaniards interposed here too, and told them that as they had disarmed them, they could not consent that they (the two) should pursue them with firearms, and perhaps kill them. "but," said the grave spaniard, who was their governor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if you will leave it to us: for there is no doubt but they will come to us again, when their passion is over, being not able to subsist without our assistance. we promise you to make no peace with them without having full satisfaction for you; and upon this condition we hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other than in your own defence." the two englishmen yielded to this very awkwardly, and with great reluctance; but the spaniards protested that they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make them all easy at last. "for," said they, "we are not so many of us; here is room enough for us all, and it is a great pity that we should not be all good friends." at length they did consent, and waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with the spaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed. in about five days' time the vagrants, tired with wandering, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggs all that while, came back to the grove; and finding my spaniard, who, as i have said, was the governor, and two more with him, walking by the side of the creek, they came up in a very submissive, humble manner, and begged to be received again into the society. the spaniards used them civilly, but told them they had acted so unnaturally to their countrymen, and so very grossly to themselves, that they could not come to any conclusion without consulting the two englishmen and the rest; but, however, they would go to them and discourse about it, and they should know in half-an-hour. it may be guessed that they were very hard put to it; for, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they begged they would send them out some bread in the meantime, which they did, sending at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh and a boiled parrot, which they ate very eagerly. after half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a long debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they owned before, and therefore could not deny now. upon the whole, the spaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they had obliged the two englishmen not to hurt the three while they were naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuild their fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other of larger dimensions than they were before; to fence their ground again, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the land again for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything to the same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could. well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty of provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together again; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded to work--i mean for themselves--except now and then a little, just as they pleased. however, the spaniards told them plainly that if they would but live sociably and friendly together, and study the good of the whole plantation, they would be content to work for them, and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; and thus, having lived pretty well together for a month or two, the spaniards let them have arms again, and gave them liberty to go abroad with them as before. it was not above a week after they had these arms, and went abroad, before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and troublesome as ever. however, an accident happened presently upon this, which endangered the safety of them all, and they were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the preservation of their lives. it happened one night that the governor, the spaniard whose life i had saved, who was now the governor of the rest, found himself very uneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep: he was perfectly well in body, only found his thoughts tumultuous; his mind ran upon men fighting and killing one another; but he was broad awake, and could not by any means get any sleep; in short, he lay a great while, but growing more and more uneasy, he resolved to rise. as they lay, being so many of them, on goat-skins laid thick upon such couches and pads as they made for themselves, so they had little to do, when they were willing to rise, but to get upon their feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their pumps, and they were ready for going any way that their thoughts guided them. being thus got up, he looked out; but being dark, he could see little or nothing, and besides, the trees which i had planted, and which were now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that he could only look up, and see that it was a starlight night, and hearing no noise, he returned and lay down again; but to no purpose; he could not compose himself to anything like rest; but his thoughts were to the last degree uneasy, and he knew not for what. having made some noise with rising and walking about, going out and coming in, another of them waked, and asked who it was that was up. the governor told him how it had been with him. "say you so?" says the other spaniard; "such things are not to be slighted, i assure you; there is certainly some mischief working near us;" and presently he asked him, "where are the englishmen?" "they are all in their huts," says he, "safe enough." it seems the spaniards had kept possession of the main apartment, and had made a place for the three englishmen, who, since their last mutiny, were always quartered by themselves, and could not come at the rest. "well," says the spaniard, "there is something in it, i am persuaded, from my own experience. i am satisfied that our spirits embodied have a converse with and receive intelligence from the spirits unembodied, and inhabiting the invisible world; and this friendly notice is given for our advantage, if we knew how to make use of it. come, let us go and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it to justify the trouble, i'll tell you a story to the purpose, that shall convince you of the justice of my proposing it." they went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where i used to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone, as i was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, but were going round through the grove unwarily, when they were surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way from them, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a great number. among the precautions i used to take on the savages landing on the island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place: and when by any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectually that they that got away were scarce able to give any account of it; for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that had seen me escape to tell any one else, except it was the three savages in our last encounter who jumped into the boat; of whom, i mentioned, i was afraid they should go home and bring more help. whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men that so great a number came now together, or whether they came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the spaniards could not understand; but whatever it was, it was their business either to have concealed themselves or not to have seen them at all, much less to have let the savages have seen there were any inhabitants in the place; or to have fallen upon them so effectually as not a man of them should have escaped, which could only have been by getting in between them and their boats; but this presence of mind was wanting to them, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a great while. we need not doubt but that the governor and the man with him, surprised with this sight, ran back immediately and raised their fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they were all in, and they again as readily took the alarm; but it was impossible to persuade them to stay close within where they were, but they must all run out to see how things stood. while it was dark, indeed, they were safe, and they had opportunity enough for some hours to view the savages by the light of three fires they had made at a distance from one another; what they were doing they knew not, neither did they know what to do themselves. for, first, the enemy were too many; and secondly, they did not keep together, but were divided into several parties, and were on shore in several places. the spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and, as they found that the fellows went straggling all over the shore, they made no doubt but, first or last, some of them would chop in upon their habitation, or upon some other place where they would see the token of inhabitants; and they were in great perplexity also for fear of their flock of goats, which, if they should be destroyed, would have been little less than starving them. so the first thing they resolved upon was to despatch three men away before it was light, two spaniards and one englishman, to drive away all the goats to the great valley where the cave was, and, if need were, to drive them into the very cave itself. could they have seen the savages all together in one body, and at a distance from their canoes, they were resolved, if there had been a hundred of them, to attack them; but that could not be done, for they were some of them two miles off from the other, and, as it appeared afterwards, were of two different nations. after having mused a great while on the course they should take, they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send the old savage, friday's father, out as a spy, to learn, if possible, something concerning them, as what they came for, what they intended to do, and the like. the old man readily undertook it; and stripping himself quite naked, as most of the savages were, away he went. after he had been gone an hour or two, he brings word that he had been among them undiscovered, that he found they were two parties, and of two several nations, who had war with one another, and had a great battle in their own country; and that both sides having had several prisoners taken in the fight, they were, by mere chance, landed all on the same island, for the devouring their prisoners and making merry; but their coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled all their mirth--that they were in a great rage at one another, and were so near that he believed they would fight again as soon as daylight began to appear; but he did not perceive that they had any notion of anybody being on the island but themselves. he had hardly made an end of telling his story, when they could perceive, by the unusual noise they made, that the two little armies were engaged in a bloody fight. friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade our people to lie close, and not be seen; he told them their safety consisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but lie still, and the savages would kill one another to their hands, and then the rest would go away; and it was so to a tittle. but it was impossible to prevail, especially upon the englishmen; their curiosity was so importunate that they must run out and see the battle. however, they used some caution too: they did not go openly, just by their own dwelling, but went farther into the woods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they might securely see them manage the fight, and, as they thought, not be seen by them; but the savages did see them, as we shall find hereafter. the battle was very fierce, and, if i might believe the englishmen, one of them said he could perceive that some of them were men of great bravery, of invincible spirit, and of great policy in guiding the fight. the battle, they said, held two hours before they could guess which party would be beaten; but then that party which was nearest our people's habitation began to appear weakest, and after some time more some of them began to fly; and this put our men again into a great consternation, lest any one of those that fled should run into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, and thereby involuntarily discover the place; and that, by consequence, the pursuers would also do the like in search of them. upon this, they resolved that they would stand armed within the wall, and whoever came into the grove, they resolved to sally out over the wall and kill them, so that, if possible, not one should return to give an account of it; they ordered also that it should be done with their swords, or by knocking them down with the stocks of their muskets, but not by shooting them, for fear of raising an alarm by the noise. as they expected it fell out; three of the routed army fled for life, and crossing the creek, ran directly into the place, not in the least knowing whither they went, but running as into a thick wood for shelter. the scout they kept to look abroad gave notice of this within, with this comforting addition, that the conquerors had not pursued them, or seen which way they were gone; upon this the spanish governor, a man of humanity, would not suffer them to kill the three fugitives, but sending three men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round, come in behind them, and surprise and take them prisoners, which was done. the residue of the conquered people fled to their canoes, and got off to sea; the victors retired, made no pursuit, or very little, but drawing themselves into a body together, gave two great screaming shouts, most likely by way of triumph, and so the fight ended; the same day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their canoes. and thus the spaniards had the island again free to themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages for several years after. after they were all gone, the spaniards came out of their den, and viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty men dead on the spot; some were killed with long arrows, which were found sticking in their bodies; but most of them were killed with great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found in the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great many arrows. these swords were strange, unwieldy things, and they must be very strong men that used them; most of those that were killed with them had their heads smashed to pieces, as we may say, or, as we call it in english, their brains knocked out, and several their arms and legs broken; so that it is evident they fight with inexpressible rage and fury. we found not one man that was not stone dead; for either they stay by their enemy till they have killed him, or they carry all the wounded men that are not quite dead away with them. this deliverance tamed our ill-disposed englishmen for a great while; the sight had filled them with horror, and the consequences appeared terrible to the last degree, especially upon supposing that some time or other they should fall into the hands of those creatures, who would not only kill them as enemies, but for food, as we kill our cattle; and they professed to me that the thoughts of being eaten up like beef and mutton, though it was supposed it was not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horrible that it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when they thought of it, and filled their minds with such unusual terror, that they were not themselves for some weeks after. this, as i said, tamed even the three english brutes i have been speaking of; and for a great while after they were tractable, and went about the common business of the whole society well enough--planted, sowed, reaped, and began to be all naturalised to the country. but some time after this they fell into such simple measures again as brought them into a great deal of trouble. they had taken three prisoners, as i observed; and these three being stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taught them to work for them, and as slaves they did well enough; but they did not take their measures as i did by my man friday, viz. to begin with them upon the principle of having saved their lives, and then instruct them in the rational principles of life; much less did they think of teaching them religion, or attempt civilising and reducing them by kind usage and affectionate arguments. as they gave them their food every day, so they gave them their work too, and kept them fully employed in drudgery enough; but they failed in this by it, that they never had them to assist them and fight for them as i had my man friday, who was as true to me as the very flesh upon my bones. but to come to the family part. being all now good friends--for common danger, as i said above, had effectually reconciled them--they began to consider their general circumstances; and the first thing that came under consideration was whether, seeing the savages particularly haunted that side of the island, and that there were more remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way of living, and manifestly to their advantage, they should not rather move their habitation, and plant in some more proper place for their safety, and especially for the security of their cattle and corn. upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would not remove their habitation; because that, some time or other, they thought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; and if i should send any one to seek them, i should be sure to direct them to that side, where, if they should find the place demolished, they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we were gone, and so our supply would go too. but as to their corn and cattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cave was, where the land was as proper for both, and where indeed there was land enough. however, upon second thoughts they altered one part of their resolution too, and resolved only to remove part of their cattle thither, and part of their corn there; so that if one part was destroyed the other might be saved. and one part of prudence they luckily used: they never trusted those three savages which they had taken prisoners with knowing anything of the plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle they had there, much less of the cave at that place, which they kept, in case of necessity, as a safe retreat; and thither they carried also the two barrels of powder which i had sent them at my coming away. they resolved, however, not to change their habitation; yet, as i had carefully covered it first with a wall or fortification, and then with a grove of trees, and as they were now fully convinced their safety consisted entirely in their being concealed, they set to work to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually than before. for this purpose, as i planted trees, or rather thrust in stakes, which in time all grew up to be trees, for some good distance before the entrance into my apartments, they went on in the same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole space of ground from the trees i had set quite down to the side of the creek, where i landed my floats, and even into the very ooze where the tide flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or any sign that there had been any landing thereabouts: these stakes also being of a wood very forward to grow, they took care to have them generally much larger and taller than those which i had planted. as they grew apace, they planted them so very thick and close together, that when they had been three or four years grown there was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into the plantation. as for that part which i had planted, the trees were grown as thick as a man's thigh, and among them they had placed so many other short ones, and so thick, that it stood like a palisado a quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible to penetrate it, for a little dog could hardly get between the trees, they stood so close. but this was not all; for they did the same by all the ground to the right hand and to the left, and round even to the side of the hill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves, to come out but by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then lifted up, and placed again from the first stage up to the top: so that when the ladder was taken down, nothing but what had wings or witchcraft to assist it could come at them. this was excellently well contrived: nor was it less than what they afterwards found occasion for, which served to convince me, that as human prudence has the authority of providence to justify it, so it has doubtless the direction of providence to set it to work; and if we listened carefully to the voice of it, i am persuaded we might prevent many of the disasters which our lives are now, by our own negligence, subjected to. they lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and had no more visits from the savages. they had, indeed, an alarm given them one morning, which put them into a great consternation; for some of the spaniards being out early one morning on the west side or end of the island (which was that end where i never went, for fear of being discovered), they were surprised with seeing about twenty canoes of indians just coming on shore. they made the best of their way home in hurry enough; and giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all that day and the next, going out only at night to make their observation: but they had the good luck to be undiscovered, for wherever the savages went, they did not land that time on the island, but pursued some other design. chapter iv--renewed invasion of savages and now they had another broil with the three englishmen; one of whom, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of the three captive slaves, because the fellow had not done something right which he bade him do, and seemed a little untractable in his showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt which he wore by his side, and fell upon the poor savage, not to correct him, but to kill him. one of the spaniards who was by, seeing him give the fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his head, but stuck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the poor creature's arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not to murder the poor man, placed himself between him and the savage, to prevent the mischief. the fellow, being enraged the more at this, struck at the spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he intended to serve the savage; which the spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and with a shovel, which he had in his hand (for they were all working in the field about their corn land), knocked the brute down. another of the englishmen, running up at the same time to help his comrade, knocked the spaniard down; and then two spaniards more came in to help their man, and a third englishman fell in upon them. they had none of them any firearms or any other weapons but hatchets and other tools, except this third englishman; he had one of my rusty cutlasses, with which he made at the two last spaniards, and wounded them both. this fray set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in they took the three englishmen prisoners. the next question was, what should be done with them? they had been so often mutinous, and were so very furious, so desperate, and so idle withal, they knew not what course to take with them, for they were mischievous to the highest degree, and cared not what hurt they did to any man; so that, in short, it was not safe to live with them. the spaniard who was governor told them, in so many words, that if they had been of his own country he would have hanged them; for all laws and all governors were to preserve society, and those who were dangerous to the society ought to be expelled out of it; but as they were englishmen, and that it was to the generous kindness of an englishman that they all owed their preservation and deliverance, he would use them with all possible lenity, and would leave them to the judgment of the other two englishmen, who were their countrymen. one of the two honest englishmen stood up, and said they desired it might not be left to them. "for," says he, "i am sure we ought to sentence them to the gallows;" and with that he gives an account how will atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have all the five englishmen join together and murder all the spaniards when they were in their sleep. when the spanish governor heard this, he calls to will atkins, "how, seignior atkins, would you murder us all? what have you to say to that?" the hardened villain was so far from denying it, that he said it was true, and swore they would do it still before they had done with them. "well, but seignior atkins," says the spaniard, "what have we done to you that you will kill us? what would you get by killing us? and what must we do to prevent you killing us? must we kill you, or you kill us? why will you put us to the necessity of this, seignior atkins?" says the spaniard very calmly, and smiling. seignior atkins was in such a rage at the spaniard's making a jest of it, that, had he not been held by three men, and withal had no weapon near him, it was thought he would have attempted to kill the spaniard in the middle of all the company. this hare-brained carriage obliged them to consider seriously what was to be done. the two englishmen and the spaniard who saved the poor savage were of the opinion that they should hang one of the three for an example to the rest, and that particularly it should be he that had twice attempted to commit murder with his hatchet; indeed, there was some reason to believe he had done it, for the poor savage was in such a miserable condition with the wound he had received that it was thought he could not live. but the governor spaniard still said no; it was an englishman that had saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an englishman to death, though he had murdered half of them; nay, he said if he had been killed himself by an englishman, and had time left to speak, it should be that they should pardon him. this was so positively insisted on by the governor spaniard, that there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels are most apt to prevail where they are so earnestly pressed, so they all came into it. but then it was to be considered what should be done to keep them from doing the mischief they designed; for all agreed, governor and all, that means were to be used for preserving the society from danger. after a long debate, it was agreed that they should be disarmed, and not permitted to have either gun, powder, shot, sword, or any weapon; that they should be turned out of the society, and left to live where they would and how they would, by themselves; but that none of the rest, either spaniards or english, should hold any kind of converse with them, or have anything to do with them; that they should be forbid to come within a certain distance of the place where the rest dwelt; and if they offered to commit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the society, they should die without mercy, and they would shoot them wherever they could find them. the humane governor, musing upon the sentence, considered a little upon it; and turning to the two honest englishmen, said, "hold; you must reflect that it will be long ere they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not starve; we must therefore allow them provisions." so he caused to be added, that they should have a proportion of corn given them to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by which time they might be supposed to raise some of their own; that they should have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids given them, as well for present subsistence as for a store; and that they should have tools given them for their work in the fields, but they should have none of these tools or provisions unless they would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure any of the spaniards with them, or of their fellow-englishmen. thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to shift for themselves. they went away sullen and refractory, as neither content to go away nor to stay: but, as there was no remedy, they went, pretending to go and choose a place where they would settle themselves; and some provisions were given them, but no weapons. about four or five days after, they came again for some victuals, and gave the governor an account where they had pitched their tents, and marked themselves out a habitation and plantation; and it was a very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part of the island, ne., much about the place where i providentially landed in my first voyage, when i was driven out to sea in my foolish attempt to sail round the island. here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrived them in a manner like my first habitation, being close under the side of a hill, having some trees already growing on three sides of it, so that by planting others it would be very easily covered from the sight, unless narrowly searched for. they desired some dried goat-skins for beds and covering, which were given them; and upon giving their words that they would not disturb the rest, or injure any of their plantations, they gave them hatchets, and what other tools they could spare; some peas, barley, and rice, for sowing; and, in a word, anything they wanted, except arms and ammunition. they lived in this separate condition about six months, and had got in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the parcel of land they had planted being but little. indeed, having all their plantation to form, they had a great deal of work upon their hands; and when they came to make boards and pots, and such things, they were quite out of their element, and could make nothing of it; therefore when the rainy season came on, for want of a cave in the earth, they could not keep their grain dry, and it was in great danger of spoiling. this humbled them much: so they came and begged the spaniards to help them, which they very readily did; and in four days worked a great hole in the side of the hill for them, big enough to secure their corn and other things from the rain: but it was a poor place at best compared to mine, and especially as mine was then, for the spaniards had greatly enlarged it, and made several new apartments in it. about three quarters of a year after this separation, a new frolic took these rogues, which, together with the former villainy they had committed, brought mischief enough upon them, and had very near been the ruin of the whole colony. the three new associates began, it seems, to be weary of the laborious life they led, and that without hope of bettering their circumstances: and a whim took them that they would make a voyage to the continent, from whence the savages came, and would try if they could seize upon some prisoners among the natives there, and bring them home, so as to make them do the laborious part of the work for them. the project was not so preposterous, if they had gone no further. but they did nothing, and proposed nothing, but had either mischief in the design, or mischief in the event. and if i may give my opinion, they seemed to be under a blast from heaven: for if we will not allow a visible curse to pursue visible crimes, how shall we reconcile the events of things with the divine justice? it was certainly an apparent vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy that brought them to the state they were in; and they showed not the least remorse for the crime, but added new villanies to it, such as the piece of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor slave because he did not, or perhaps could not, understand to do what he was directed, and to wound him in such a manner as made him a cripple all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicine could be had for his cure; and, what was still worse, the intentional murder, for such to be sure it was, as was afterwards the formed design they all laid to murder the spaniards in cold blood, and in their sleep. the three fellows came down to the spaniards one morning, and in very humble terms desired to be admitted to speak with them. the spaniards very readily heard what they had to say, which was this: that they were tired of living in the manner they did, and that they were not handy enough to make the necessaries they wanted, and that having no help, they found they should be starved; but if the spaniards would give them leave to take one of the canoes which they came over in, and give them arms and ammunition proportioned to their defence, they would go over to the main, and seek their fortunes, and so deliver them from the trouble of supplying them with any other provisions. the spaniards were glad enough to get rid of them, but very honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were running into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell them they would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider of it. the men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work, and they could but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered, there was an end of them; they had no wives or children to cry after them; and, in short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring they would go, whether they gave them any arms or not. the spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if they were resolved to go they should not go like naked men, and be in no condition to defend themselves; and that though they could ill spare firearms, not having enough for themselves, yet they would let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each man a hatchet, which they thought was sufficient for them. in a word, they accepted the offer; and having baked bread enough to serve them a month given them, and as much goats' flesh as they could eat while it was sweet, with a great basket of dried grapes, a pot of fresh water, and a young kid alive, they boldly set out in the canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was at least forty miles broad. the boat, indeed, was a large one, and would very well have carried fifteen or twenty men, and therefore was rather too big for them to manage; but as they had a fair breeze and flood-tide with them, they did well enough. they had made a mast of a long pole, and a sail of four large goat-skins dried, which they had sewed or laced together; and away they went merrily together. the spaniards called after them "_bon voyajo_;" and no man ever thought of seeing them any more. the spaniards were often saying to one another, and to the two honest englishmen who remained behind, how quietly and comfortably they lived, now these three turbulent fellows were gone. as for their coming again, that was the remotest thing from their thoughts that could be imagined; when, behold, after two-and-twenty days' absence, one of the englishmen being abroad upon his planting work, sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, with guns upon their shoulders. away runs the englishman, frightened and amazed, as if he was bewitched, to the governor spaniard, and tells him they were all undone, for there were strangers upon the island, but he could not tell who they were. the spaniard, pausing a while, says to him, "how do you mean--you cannot tell who? they are the savages, to be sure." "no, no," says the englishman, "they are men in clothes, with arms." "nay, then," says the spaniard, "why are you so concerned! if they are not savages they must be friends; for there is no christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than harm." while they were debating thus, came up the three englishmen, and standing without the wood, which was new planted, hallooed to them. they presently knew their voices, and so all the wonder ceased. but now the admiration was turned upon another question--what could be the matter, and what made them come back again? it was not long before they brought the men in, and inquiring where they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave them a full account of their voyage in a few words: that they reached the land in less than two days, but finding the people alarmed at their coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they durst not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they perceived that the land they saw from our island was not the main, but an island: that upon entering that opening of the sea they saw another island on the right hand north, and several more west; and being resolved to land somewhere, they put over to one of the islands which lay west, and went boldly on shore; that they found the people very courteous and friendly to them; and they gave them several roots and some dried fish, and appeared very sociable; and that the women, as well as the men, were very forward to supply them with anything they could get for them to eat, and brought it to them a great way, on their heads. they continued here for four days, and inquired as well as they could of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way, and were told of several fierce and terrible people that lived almost every way, who, as they made known by signs to them, used to eat men; but, as for themselves, they said they never ate men or women, except only such as they took in the wars; and then they owned they made a great feast, and ate their prisoners. the englishmen inquired when they had had a feast of that kind; and they told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon and to two fingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now, which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to make them fat for the next feast. the englishmen seemed mighty desirous of seeing those prisoners; but the others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own eating. so they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify that the next morning at sunrising they would bring some for them; and accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave them to the englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a seaport town to victual a ship. as brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do. to refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the savage gentry that could be offered them, and what to do with them they knew not. however, after some debate, they resolved to accept of them: and, in return, they gave the savages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets; which, though they did not understand their use, they seemed particularly pleased with; and then tying the poor creatures' hands behind them, they dragged the prisoners into the boat for our men. the englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them, or else they that gave them this noble present would certainly have expected that they should have gone to work with them, have killed two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the donors to dinner. but having taken their leave, with all the respect and thanks that could well pass between people, where on either side they understood not one word they could say, they put off with their boat, and came back towards the first island; where, when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too many of them for their occasion. in their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication with their prisoners; but it was impossible to make them understand anything. nothing they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was looked upon as going to murder them. they first of all unbound them; but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; for they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be killed. if they gave them thing to eat, it was the same thing; they then concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and so not be fat enough to kill. if they looked at one of them more particularly, the party presently concluded it was to see whether he or she was fattest, and fittest to kill first; nay, after they had brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly, and treat them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or supper for their new masters. when the three wanderers had give this unaccountable history or journal of their voyage, the spaniard asked them where their new family was; and being told that they had brought them on shore, and put them into one of their huts, and were come up to beg some victuals for them, they (the spaniards) and the other two englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all down to the place and see them; and did so, and friday's father with them. when they came into the hut, there they sat, all bound; for when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands that they might not take the boat and make their escape; there, i say, they sat, all of them stark naked. first, there were three comely fellows, well shaped, with straight limbs, about thirty to thirty-five years of age; and five women, whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more about four or five and twenty; and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden, about seventeen. the women were well-favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would have passed for very handsome women, even in london, having pleasant countenances, and of a very modest behaviour; especially when they came afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though that dress was very indifferent, it must be confessed. the sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our spaniards, who were, to give them a just character, men of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour, that ever i met with: and, in particular, of the utmost modesty: i say, the sight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women, all together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be dragged out and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killed for a dainty. the first thing they did was to cause the old indian, friday's father, to go in, and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he understood any of their speech. as soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women. however, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy them that the men into whose hands they were fallen were christians; that they abhorred eating men or women; and that they might be sure they would not be killed. as soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by such awkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe; for it seems they were of several nations. the woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought them away, to save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate they were willing to work. the governor, who found that the having women among them would presently be attended with some inconvenience, and might occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or as wives? one of the englishmen answered, very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both; to which the governor said: "i am not going to restrain you from it--you are your own masters as to that; but this i think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and i desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of you take any of these women as a wife, he shall take but one; and that having taken one, none else shall touch her; for though we cannot marry any one of you, yet it is but reasonable that, while you stay here, the woman any of you takes shall be maintained by the man that takes her, and should be his wife--i mean," says he, "while he continues here, and that none else shall have anything to do with her." all this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without any difficulty. then the englishmen asked the spaniards if they designed to take any of them? but every one of them answered "no." some of them said they had wives in spain, and the others did not like women that were not christians; and all together declared that they would not touch one of them, which was an instance of such virtue as i have not met with in all my travels. on the other hand, the five englishmen took them every one a wife, that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the spaniards and friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within. the three servants which were taken in the last battle of the savages lived with them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplied all the rest with food, and assisted them in anything as they could, or as they found necessity required. but the wonder of the story was, how five such refractory, ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that some two of them should not choose the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the others; but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves, for they set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first. him that drew to choose first went away by himself to the hut where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it was worth observing, that he that chose first took her that was reckoned the homeliest and oldest of the five, which made mirth enough amongst the rest; and even the spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was application and business they were to expect assistance in, as much as in anything else; and she proved the best wife of all the parcel. when the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, and fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and they firmly believed they were now going to be devoured. accordingly, when the english sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and affection as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world: nor was it possible for the englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, friday's father, who immediately let them know that the five men, who were to fetch them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives. when they had done, and the fright the women were in was a little over, the men went to work, and the spaniards came and helped them: and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. the three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they continued separated as before; and thus my island was peopled in three places, and, as i might say, three towns were begun to be built. and here it is very well worth observing that, as it often happens in the world (what the wise ends in god's providence are, in such a disposition of things, i cannot say), the two honest fellows had the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good nor any one else, had three clever, careful, and ingenious wives; not that the first two were bad wives as to their temper or humour, for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning is, they were not alike capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat. another observation i must make, to the honour of a diligent application on one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, that when i came to the place, and viewed the several improvements, plantings, and management of the several little colonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison. they had, indeed, both of them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted, and the reason was, because, according to my rule, nature dictated that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed, of everything else, was easy to be seen at first view. the two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, so that, when you came to the place, nothing was to be seen but a wood; and though they had twice had their plantation demolished, once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shown in its place, yet they had restored all again, and everything was thriving and flourishing about them; they had grapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves never seen anything of that kind; and by their good ordering their vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the others. they had also found themselves out a retreat in the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as i had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives and children so as they could never be found; they having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood which, as i said, grew so readily, made the grove impassable, except in some places, when they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went on by ways of their own leaving. as to the three reprobates, as i justly call them, though they were much civilised by their settlement compared to what they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was their idleness. it is true, they planted corn and made fences; but solomon's words were never better verified than in them, "i went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it was all overgrown with thorns": for when the spaniards came to view their crop they could not see it in some places for weeds, the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in, to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable-door after the steed was stolen. whereas, when they looked on the colony of the other two, there was the very face of industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified solomon's words in another place, "that the diligent hand maketh rich"; for everything grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversion too. it is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within doors; and having learned the english ways of dressing, and cooking from one of the other englishmen, who, as i said, was a cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands' victuals very nicely and well; whereas the others could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who, as i say, had been cook's mate, did it himself. but as for the husbands of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught fish and birds: in a word, anything but labour; and they fared accordingly. the diligent lived well and comfortably, and the slothful hard and beggarly; and so, i believe, generally speaking, it is all over the world. but i now come to a scene different from all that had happened before, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story was this: early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of indians or savages, call them which you please, and there is no room to doubt they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the spaniards, and to our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it, as i did: but having been made sensible, by their experience, that their only business was to lie concealed, and that if they were not seen by any of the savages they would go off again quietly, when their business was done, having as yet not the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; i say, having been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not show themselves, only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice when the boats went to sea again. this was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all these measures, and made it known among the savages that there were inhabitants there; which was, in the end, the desolation of almost the whole colony. after the canoes with the savages were gone off, the spaniards peeped abroad again; and some of them had the curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. here, to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground. it was supposed they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were fallen asleep, and would not stir when the others went, or they had wandered into the woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in. the spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight and perfectly at a loss what to do. the spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them, and his advice was asked, but he professed he knew not what to do. as for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, there were none of them inclined to do that: the spaniard governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded none of their property, and they thought they had no just quarrel against them, to take away their lives. and here i must, in justice to these spaniards, observe that, let the accounts of spanish cruelty in mexico and peru be what they will, i never met with seventeen men of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humoured, and so courteous, as these spaniards: and as to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions; and yet all of them men of great courage and spirit. their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the insufferable usage of the three englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared now in the case of the savages above. after some consultation they resolved upon this; that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible, these three men might be gone. but then the governor recollected that the three savages had no boat; and if they were left to rove about the island, they would certainly discover that there were inhabitants in it; and so they should be undone that way. upon this, they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep still, and so they resolved to awaken them, and take them prisoners; and they did so. the poor fellows were strangely frightened when they were seized upon and bound; and afraid, like the women, that they should be murdered and eaten: for it seems those people think all the world does as they do, in eating men's flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that, and away they carried them. it was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to the castle, i mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them first to the bower, where was the chief of their country work, such as the keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterward they carried them to the habitation of the two englishmen. here they were set to work, though it was not much they had for them to do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that they thought the fellows could not mend themselves, i know not, but one of them ran away, and, taking to the woods, they could never hear of him any more. they had good reason to believe he got home again soon after in some other boats or canoes of savages who came on shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their revels as usual, went off in two days' time. this thought terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellow came home safe among his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there were people in the island, and also how few and weak they were; for this savage, as observed before, had never been told, and it was very happy he had not, how many there were or where they lived; nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less had they shown him any of their other retired places; such as the cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two englishmen had made, and the like. the first testimony they had that this fellow had given intelligence of them was, that about two months after this six canoes of savages, with about seven, eight, or ten men in a canoe, came rowing along the north side of the island, where they never used to come before, and landed, about an hour after sunrise, at a convenient place, about a mile from the habitation of the two englishmen, where this escaped man had been kept. as the chief spaniard said, had they been all there the damage would not have been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped; but the case differed now very much, for two men to fifty was too much odds. the two men had the happiness to discover them about a league off, so that it was above an hour before they landed; and as they landed a mile from their huts, it was some time before they could come at them. now, having great reason to believe that they were betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the two slaves which were left, and cause two of the three men whom they brought with the women (who, it seems, proved very faithful to them) to lead them, with their two wives, and whatever they could carry away with them, to their retired places in the woods, which i have spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot, till they heard farther. in the next place, seeing the savages were all come on shore, and that they had bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences where the milch cows were kept, and drove them all out; leaving their goats to straggle in the woods, whither they pleased, that the savages might think they were all bred wild; but the rogue who came with them was too cunning for that, and gave them an account of it all, for they went directly to the place. when the two poor frightened men had secured their wives and goods, they sent the other slave they had of the three who came with the women, and who was at their place by accident, away to the spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire speedy help, and, in the meantime, they took their arms and what ammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in the wood where their wives were sent; keeping at a distance, yet so that they might see, if possible, which way the savages took. they had not gone far but that from a rising ground they could see the little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation, and, in a moment more, could see all their huts and household stuff flaming up together, to their great grief and mortification; for this was a great loss to them, irretrievable, indeed, for some time. they kept their station for a while, till they found the savages, like wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place, rummaging every way, and every place they could think of, in search of prey; and in particular for the people, of whom now it plainly appeared they had intelligence. the two englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not secure where they stood, because it was likely some of the wild people might come that way, and they might come too many together, thought it proper to make another retreat about half a mile farther; believing, as it afterwards happened, that the further they strolled, the fewer would be together. their next halt was at the entrance into a very thick-grown part of the woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow and very large; and in this tree they both took their standing, resolving to see there what might offer. they had not stood there long before two of the savages appeared running directly that way, as if they had already had notice where they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and a little way farther they espied three more coming after them, and five more beyond them, all coming the same way; besides which, they saw seven or eight more at a distance, running another way; for in a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen beating for their game. the poor men were now in great perplexity whether they should stand and keep their posture or fly; but after a very short debate with themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the country thus before help came, they might perhaps find their retreat in the woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them there, and if they were too many to deal with, then they would get up to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, though all the savages that were landed, which was near fifty, were to attack them. having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the middle party, by which the two and the five that followed would be separated; at length they resolved to let the first two pass by, unless they should spy them the tree, and come to attack them. the first two savages confirmed them also in this resolution, by turning a little from them towards another part of the wood; but the three, and the five after them, came forward directly to the tree, as if they had known the englishmen were there. seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in a line as they came: and as they resolved to fire but one at a time, perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; for which purpose the man who was to fire put three or four small bullets into his piece; and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss. while they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they plainly saw that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped from them; and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that, if possible, he should not escape, though they should both fire; so the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at the first shot, he should be sure to have a second. but the first was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for as the savages kept near one another, a little behind in a line, he fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost was killed outright, being shot in the head; the second, which was the runaway indian, was shot through the body, and fell, but was not quite dead; and the third had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball that went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully frightened, though not so much hurt, sat down upon the ground, screaming and yelling in a hideous manner. the five that were behind, more frightened with the noise than sensible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made the sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes rattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from all parts, screaming, and every sort making a different noise, according to their kind; just as it was when i fired the first gun that perhaps was ever shot off in the island. however, all being silent again, and they not knowing what the matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place where their companions lay in a condition miserable enough. here the poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach of the same mischief, stood all together over the wounded man, talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came to be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after that thunder from their gods, had killed those two and wounded him. this, i say, is rational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no man near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, nor so much as heard of a gun; neither knew they anything of killing and wounding at a distance with fire and bullets: if they had, one might reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcerned to view the fate of their fellows, without some apprehensions of their own. our two men, as they confessed to me, were grieved to be obliged to kill so many poor creatures, who had no notion of their danger; yet, having them all thus in their power, and the first having loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly both together among them; and singling out, by agreement, which to aim at, they shot together, and killed, or very much wounded, four of them; the fifth, frightened even to death, though not hurt, fell with the rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, thought they had killed them all. the belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns, which was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise when they came to the place, and found no less than four of them alive, and of them two very little hurt, and one not at all. this obliged them to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause of all the mischief, and of another that was hurt in the knee, and put them out of their pain; then the man that was not hurt at all came and kneeled down to them, with his two hands held up, and made piteous moans to them, by gestures and signs, for his life, but could not say one word to them that they could understand. however, they made signs to him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and one of the englishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by great chance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and there they left him; and with what speed they could made after the other two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more of them, should find way to their covered place in the woods, where their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay. they came once in sight of the two men, but it was at a great distance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a valley towards the sea, quite the contrary way from that which led to their retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that, they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner, who, as they supposed, was delivered by his comrades, for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him lay just at the foot of the tree. they were now in as great concern as before, not knowing what course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what number; so they resolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to see if all was well there, and to make them easy. these were in fright enough, to be sure; for though the savages were their own countrymen, yet they were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more for the knowledge they had of them. when they came there, they found the savages had been in the wood, and very near that place, but had not found it; for it was indeed inaccessible, from the trees standing so thick, unless the persons seeking it had been directed by those that knew it, which these did not: they found, therefore, everything very safe, only the women in a terrible fright. while they were here they had the comfort to have seven of the spaniards come to their assistance; the other ten, with their servants, and friday's father, were gone in a body to defend their bower, and the corn and cattle that were kept there, in case the savages should have roved over to that side of the country, but they did not spread so far. with the seven spaniards came one of the three savages, who, as i said, were their prisoners formerly; and with them also came the savage whom the englishmen had left bound hand and foot at the tree; for it seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of the seven men, and unbound the eighth, and brought him along with them; where, however, they were obliged to bind again, as they had the two others who were left when the third ran away. the prisoners now began to be a burden to them; and they were so afraid of their escaping, that they were once resolving to kill them all, believing they were under an absolute necessity to do so for their own preservation. however, the chief of the spaniards would not consent to it, but ordered, for the present, that they should be sent out of the way to my old cave in the valley, and be kept there, with two spaniards to guard them, and have food for their subsistence, which was done; and they were bound there hand and foot for that night. when the spaniards came, the two englishmen were so encouraged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer there; but taking five of the spaniards, and themselves, with four muskets and a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves, away they went in quest of the savages. and first they came to the tree where the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy to see that some more of the savages had been there, for they had attempted to carry their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good way, but had given it over. from thence they advanced to the first rising ground, where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed, and where they had the mortification still to see some of the smoke; but neither could they here see any of the savages. they then resolved, though with all possible caution, to go forward towards their ruined plantation; but, a little before they came thither, coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly the savages all embarked again in their canoes, in order to be gone. they seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them, to give them a parting blow; but, upon the whole, they were very well satisfied to be rid of them. the poor englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their improvements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them to rebuild, and assist them with needful supplies. their three countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclination to do any good, yet as soon as they heard of it (for they, living remote eastward, knew nothing of the matter till all was over), came and offered their help and assistance, and did, very friendly, work for several days to restore their habitation and make necessaries for them. and thus in a little time they were set upon their legs again. about two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of seeing three of the savages' canoes come driving on shore, and, at some distance from them, two drowned men, by which they had reason to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset some of them; for it had blown very hard the night after they went off. however, as some might miscarry, so, on the other hand, enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done as of what had happened to them; and to whet them on to another enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems, resolved to attempt, with sufficient force to carry all before them; for except what the first man had told them of inhabitants, they could say little of it of their own knowledge, for they never saw one man; and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they had no other witness to confirm it to, them. chapter v--a great victory it was five or six months after this before they heard any more of the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had either forgot their former bad luck, or given over hopes of better; when, on a sudden, they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no less than eight-and-twenty canoes, full of savages, armed with bows and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of war; and they brought such numbers with them, that, in short, it put all our people into the utmost consternation. as they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what to do. in the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed was their only safety before and would be much more so now, while the number of their enemies would be so great, they resolved, first of all, to take down the huts which were built for the two englishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave; because they supposed the savages would go directly thither, as soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, though they did not now land within two leagues of it. in the next place, they drove away all the flocks of goats they had at the old bower, as i called it, which belonged to the spaniards; and, in short, left as little appearance of inhabitants anywhere as was possible; and the next morning early they posted themselves, with all their force, at the plantation of the two men, to wait for their coming. as they guessed, so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their canoes at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore, directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, as near as our men could judge. our army was but small indeed; but, that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number. the whole account, it seems, stood thus: first, as to men, seventeen spaniards, five englishmen, old friday, the three slaves taken with the women, who proved very faithful, and three other slaves, who lived with the spaniards. to arm these, they had eleven muskets, five pistols, three fowling-pieces, five muskets or fowling-pieces which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whom i reduced, two swords, and three old halberds. to their slaves they did not give either musket or fusee; but they had each a halberd, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a hatchet; also every one of our men had a hatchet. two of the women could not be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and they had bows and arrows, which the spaniards had taken from the savages when the first action happened, which i have spoken of, where the indians fought with one another; and the women had hatchets too. the chief spaniard, whom i described so often, commanded the whole; and will atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow for wickedness, was a most daring, bold fellow, commanded under him. the savages came forward like lions; and our men, which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage in their situation; only that will atkins, who now proved a most useful fellow, with six men, was planted just behind a small thicket of bushes as an advanced guard, with orders to let the first of them pass by and then fire into the middle of them, and as soon as he had fired, to make his retreat as nimbly as he could round a part of the wood, and so come in behind the spaniards, where they stood, having a thicket of trees before them. when the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way in heaps, out of all manner of order, and will atkins let about fifty of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a very thick throng, he orders three of his men to fire, having loaded their muskets with six or seven bullets apiece, about as big as large pistol-bullets. how many they killed or wounded they knew not, but the consternation and surprise was inexpressible among the savages; they were frightened to the last degree to hear such a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and others hurt, but see nobody that did it; when, in the middle of their fright, will atkins and his other three let fly again among the thickest of them; and in less than a minute the first three, being loaded again, gave them a third volley. had will atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon as they had fired, as they were ordered to do, or had the rest of the body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually, the savages had been effectually routed; for the terror that was among them came principally from this, that they were killed by the gods with thunder and lightning, and could see nobody that hurt them. but will atkins, staying to load again, discovered the cheat: some of the savages who were at a distance spying them, came upon them behind; and though atkins and his men fired at them also, two or three times, and killed above twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded atkins himself, and killed one of his fellow-englishmen with their arrows, as they did afterwards one spaniard, and one of the indian slaves who came with the women. this slave was a most gallant fellow, and fought most desperately, killing five of them with his own hand, having no weapon but one of the armed staves and a hatchet. our men being thus hard laid at, atkins wounded, and two other men killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and the spaniards, after firing three volleys upon them, retreated also; for their number was so great, and they were so desperate, that though above fifty of them were killed, and more than as many wounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of danger, and shot their arrows like a cloud; and it was observed that their wounded men, who were not quite disabled, were made outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen. when our men retreated, they left the spaniard and the englishman that were killed behind them: and the savages, when they came up to them, killed them over again in a wretched manner, breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and wooden swords, like true savages; but finding our men were gone, they did not seem inclined to pursue them, but drew themselves up in a ring, which is, it seems, their custom, and shouted twice, in token of their victory; after which, they had the mortification to see several of their wounded men fall, dying with the mere loss of blood. the spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together upon a rising ground, atkins, though he was wounded, would have had them march and charge again all together at once: but the spaniard replied, "seignior atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; let them alone till morning; all the wounded men will be stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood; and so we shall have the fewer to engage." this advice was good: but will atkins replied merrily, "that is true, seignior, and so shall i too; and that is the reason i would go on while i am warm." "well, seignior atkins," says the spaniard, "you have behaved gallantly, and done your part; we will fight for you if you cannot come on; but i think it best to stay till morning:" so they waited. but as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great noise and hurry among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved to fall upon them in the night, especially if they could come to give them but one volley before they were discovered, which they had a fair opportunity to do; for one of the englishmen in whose quarter it was where the fight began, led them round between the woods and the seaside westward, and then turning short south, they came so near where the thickest of them lay, that before they were seen or heard eight of them fired in among them, and did dreadful execution upon them; in half a minute more eight others fired after them, pouring in their small shot in such a quantity that abundance were killed and wounded; and all this while they were not able to see who hurt them, or which way to fly. the spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and then divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among them all together. they had in each body eight persons, that is to say, twentytwo men and the two women, who, by the way, fought desperately. they divided the firearms equally in each party, as well as the halberds and staves. they would have had the women kept back, but they said they were resolved to die with their husbands. having thus formed their little army, they marched out from among the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loud as they could; the savages stood all together, but were in the utmost confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting from three quarters together. they would have fought if they had seen us; for as soon as we came near enough to be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old friday was wounded, though not dangerously. but our men gave them no time, but running up to them, fired among them three ways, and then fell in with the butt-ends of their muskets, their swords, armed staves, and hatchets, and laid about them so well that, in a word, they set up a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their lives which way soever they could. our men were tired with the execution, and killed or mortally wounded in the two fights about one hundred and eighty of them; the rest, being frightened out of their wits, scoured through the woods and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimble feet could help them to; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to pursue them, they got all together to the seaside, where they landed, and where their canoes lay. but their disaster was not at an end yet; for it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from the sea, so that it was impossible for them to go off; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tide came up their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea so high upon the shore that it required infinite toil to get them off; and some of them were even dashed to pieces against the beach. our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest that night; but having refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved to march to that part of the island where the savages were fled, and see what posture they were in. this necessarily led them over the place where the fight had been, and where they found several of the poor creatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a sight disagreeable enough to generous minds, for a truly great man though obliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takes no delight in his misery. however, there was no need to give any orders in this case; for their own savages, who were their servants, despatched these poor creatures with their hatchets. at length they came in view of the place where the more miserable remains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about a hundred still; their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with their knees up towards their mouth, and the head put between the two hands, leaning down upon the knees. when our men came within two musket-shots of them, the spaniard governor ordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to alarm them; this he did, that by their countenance he might know what to expect, whether they were still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten as to be discouraged, and so he might manage accordingly. this stratagem took: for as soon as the savages heard the first gun, and saw the flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in the greatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly towards them, they all ran screaming and yelling away, with a kind of howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had never heard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the country. at first our men had much rather the weather had been calm, and they had all gone away to sea: but they did not then consider that this might probably have been the occasion of their coming again in such multitudes as not to be resisted, or, at least, to come so many and so often as would quite desolate the island, and starve them. will atkins, therefore, who notwithstanding his wound kept always with them, proved the best counsellor in this case: his advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and step in between them and their boats, and so deprive them of the capacity of ever returning any more to plague the island. they consulted long about this; and some were against it for fear of making the wretches fly to the woods and live there desperate, and so they should have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir out about their business, and have their plantations continually rifled, all their tame goats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of continual distress. will atkins told them they had better have to do with a hundred men than with a hundred nations; that, as they must destroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed themselves. in a word, he showed them the necessity of it so plainly that they all came into it; so they went to work immediately with the boats, and getting some dry wood together from a dead tree, they tried to set some of them on fire, but they were so wet that they would not burn; however, the fire so burned the upper part that it soon made them unfit for use at sea. when the indians saw what they were about, some of them came running out of the woods, and coming as near as they could to our men, kneeled down and cried, "oa, oa, waramokoa," and some other words of their language, which none of the others understood anything of; but as they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy to understand they begged to have their boats spared, and that they would be gone, and never come there again. but our men were now satisfied that they had no way to preserve themselves, or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of these people from ever going home again; depending upon this, that if even so much as one of them got back into their country to tell the story, the colony was undone; so that, letting them know that they should not have any mercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and destroyed every one that the storm had not destroyed before; at the sight of which, the savages raised a hideous cry in the woods, which our people heard plain enough, after which they ran about the island like distracted men, so that, in a word, our men did not really know what at first to do with them. nor did the spaniards, with all their prudence, consider that while they made those people thus desperate, they ought to have kept a good guard at the same time upon their plantations; for though it is true they had driven away their cattle, and the indians did not find out their main retreat, i mean my old castle at the hill, nor the cave in the valley, yet they found out my plantation at the bower, and pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod all the corn under foot, tore up the vines and grapes, being just then almost ripe, and did our men inestimable damage, though to themselves not one farthing's worth of service. though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yet they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; for as they were too nimble of foot for our people when they found them single, so our men durst not go abroad single, for fear of being surrounded with their numbers. the best was they had no weapons; for though they had bows, they had no arrows left, nor any materials to make any; nor had they any edge-tool among them. the extremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and indeed deplorable; but, at the same time, our men were also brought to very bad circumstances by them, for though their retreats were preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled, and what to do, or which way to turn themselves, they knew not. the only refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they had in the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there, and the plantation of the three englishmen. will atkins and his comrades were now reduced to two; one of them being killed by an arrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under the temple, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable that this was the same barbarous fellow that cut the poor savage slave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murdered the spaniards. i looked upon their case to have been worse at this time than mine was at any time, after i first discovered the grains of barley and rice, and got into the manner of planting and raising my corn, and my tame cattle; for now they had, as i may say, a hundred wolves upon the island, which would devour everything they could come at, yet could be hardly come at themselves. when they saw what their circumstances were, the first thing they concluded was, that they would, if possible, drive the savages up to the farther part of the island, south-west, that if any more came on shore they might not find one another; then, that they would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till they had reduced their number; and if they could at last tame them, and bring them to anything, they would give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their daily labour. in order to do this, they so followed them, and so terrified them with their guns, that in a few days, if any of them fired a gun at an indian, if he did not hit him, yet he would fall down for fear. so dreadfully frightened were they that they kept out of sight farther and farther; till at last our men followed them, and almost every day killing or wounding some of them, they kept up in the woods or hollow places so much, that it reduced them to the utmost misery for want of food; and many were afterwards found dead in the woods, without any hurt, absolutely starved to death. when our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity moved them, especially the generous-minded spaniard governor; and he proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive and bring him to understand what they meant, so far as to be able to act as interpreter, and go among them and see if they might be brought to some conditions that might be depended upon, to save their lives and do us no harm. it was some while before any of them could be taken; but being weak and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised and made a prisoner. he was sullen at first, and would neither eat nor drink; but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given to him, and no violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, and came to himself. they often brought old friday to talk to him, who always told him how kind the others would be to them all; that they would not only save their lives, but give them part of the island to live in, provided they would give satisfaction that they would keep in their own bounds, and not come beyond it to injure or prejudice others; and that they should have corn given them to plant and make it grow for their bread, and some bread given them for their present subsistence; and old friday bade the fellow go and talk with the rest of his countrymen, and see what they said to it; assuring them that, if they did not agree immediately, they should be all destroyed. the poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in number to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, and begged to have some food given them; upon which twelve spaniards and two englishmen, well armed, with three indian slaves and old friday, marched to the place where they were. the three indian slaves carried them a large quantity of bread, some rice boiled up to cakes and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and they were ordered to go to the side of a hill, where they sat down, ate their provisions very thankfully, and were the most faithful fellows to their words that could be thought of; for, except when they came to beg victuals and directions, they never came out of their bounds; and there they lived when i came to the island and i went to see them. they had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, breed tame goats, and milk them: they wanted nothing but wives in order for them soon to become a nation. they were confined to a neck of land, surrounded with high rocks behind them, and lying plain towards the sea before them, on the south-east corner of the island. they had land enough, and it was very good and fruitful; about a mile and a half broad, and three or four miles in length. our men taught them to make wooden spades, such as i made for myself, and gave among them twelve hatchets and three or four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected, innocent creatures that ever were heard of. after this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect to the savages, till i came to revisit them, which was about two years after; not but that, now and then, some canoes of savages came on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they were of several nations, and perhaps had never heard of those that came before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have been very hard to have found them out. thus, i think, i have given a full account of all that happened to them till my return, at least that was worth notice. the indians were wonderfully civilised by them, and they frequently went among them; but they forbid, on pain of death, any one of the indians coming to them, because they would not have their settlement betrayed again. one thing was very remarkable, viz. that they taught the savages to make wickerwork, or baskets, but they soon outdid their masters: for they made abundance of ingenious things in wicker-work, particularly baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &c.; as also chairs, stools, beds, couches, being very ingenious at such work when they were once put in the way of it. my coming was a particular relief to these people, because we furnished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, pick-axes, and all things of that kind which they could want. with the help of those tools they were so very handy that they came at last to build up their huts or houses very handsomely, raddling or working it up like basket-work all the way round. this piece of ingenuity, although it looked very odd, was an exceeding good fence, as well against heat as against all sorts of vermin; and our men were so taken with it that they got the indians to come and do the like for them; so that when i came to see the two englishmen's colonies, they looked at a distance as if they all lived like bees in a hive. as for will atkins, who was now become a very industrious, useful, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent of basket-work as i believe was never seen; it was one hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as i measured by my steps; the walls were as close worked as a basket, in panels or squares of thirty-two in number, and very strong, standing about seven feet high; in the middle was another not above twenty-two paces round, but built stronger, being octagon in its form, and in the eight corners stood eight very strong posts; round the top of which he laid strong pieces, knit together with wooden pins, from which he raised a pyramid for a handsome roof of eight rafters, joined together very well, though he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he made himself, too, out of the old iron that i had left there. indeed, this fellow showed abundance of ingenuity in several things which he had no knowledge of: he made him a forge, with a pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; he made himself charcoal for his work; and he formed out of the iron crows a middling good anvil to hammer upon: in this manner he made many things, but especially hooks, staples, and spikes, bolts and hinges. but to return to the house: after he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked it up between the rafters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched that over again so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or slated. he owned, indeed, that the savages had made the basket-work for him. the outer circuit was covered as a lean-to all round this inner apartment, and long rafters lay from the thirty-two angles to the top posts of the inner house, being about twenty feet distant, so that there was a space like a walk within the outer wicker-wall, and without the inner, near twenty feet wide. the inner place he partitioned off with the same wickerwork, but much fairer, and divided into six apartments, so that he had six rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a door: first into the entry, or coming into the main tent, another door into the main tent, and another door into the space or walk that was round it; so that walk was also divided into six equal parts, which served not only for a retreat, but to store up any necessaries which the family had occasion for. these six spaces not taking up the whole circumference, what other apartments the outer circle had were thus ordered: as soon as you were in at the door of the outer circle you had a short passage straight before you to the door of the inner house; but on either side was a wicker partition and a door in it, by which you went first into a large room or storehouse, twenty feet wide and about thirty feet long, and through that into another not quite so long; so that in the outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were only to be come at through the apartments of the inner tent, and served as closets or retiring rooms to the respective chambers of the inner circle; and four large warehouses, or barns, or what you please to call them, which went through one another, two on either hand of the passage, that led through the outer door to the inner tent. such a piece of basket-work, i believe, was never seen in the world, nor a house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built. in this great bee-hive lived the three families, that is to say, will atkins and his companion; the third was killed, but his wife remained with three children, and the other two were not at all backward to give the widow her full share of everything, i mean as to their corn, milk, grapes, &c., and when they killed a kid, or found a turtle on the shore; so that they all lived well enough; though it was true they were not so industrious as the other two, as has been observed already. one thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that as for religion, i do not know that there was anything of that kind among them; they often, indeed, put one another in mind that there was a god, by the very common method of seamen, swearing by his name: nor were their poor ignorant savage wives much better for having been married to christians, as we must call them; for as they knew very little of god themselves, so they were utterly incapable of entering into any discourse with their wives about a god, or to talk anything to them concerning religion. the utmost of all the improvement which i can say the wives had made from them was, that they had taught them to speak english pretty well; and most of their children, who were near twenty in all, were taught to speak english too, from their first learning to speak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, like their mothers. none of these children were above six years old when i came thither, for it was not much above seven years since they had fetched these five savage ladies over; they had all children, more or less: the mothers were all a good sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to one another, mighty observant, and subject to their masters (i cannot call them husbands), and lacked nothing but to be well instructed in the christian religion, and to be legally married; both of which were happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least in consequence of my coming among them. chapter vi--the french clergyman's counsel having thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty much of my runagate englishmen, i must say something of the spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable enough. i had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances when they were among the savages. they told me readily that they had no instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that country; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of people; that even if means had been put into their hands, yet they had so abandoned themselves to despair, and were so sunk under the weight of their misfortune, that they thought of nothing but starving. one of them, a grave and sensible man, told me he was convinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the part of wise men to give themselves up to their misery, but always to take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well for present support as for future deliverance: he told me that grief was the most senseless, insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded only things past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or to be remedied, but had no views of things to come, and had no share in anything that looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated a spanish proverb, which, though i cannot repeat in the same words that he spoke it in, yet i remember i made it into an english proverb of my own, thus:- "in trouble to be troubled, is to have your trouble doubled." he then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements i had made in my solitude: my unwearied application, as he called it; and how i had made a condition, which in its circumstances was at first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs was, even now when they were all together. he told me it was remarkable that englishmen had a greater presence of mind in their distress than any people that ever he met with; that their unhappy nation and the portuguese were the worst men in the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers, after the common efforts were over, was to despair, lie down under it, and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape. i told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or present sustenance till they could provide for it; that, it was true, i had this further disadvantage and discomfort, that i was alone; but then the supplies i had providentially thrown into my hands, by the unexpected driving of the ship on the shore, was such a help as would have encouraged any creature in the world to have applied himself as i had done. "seignior," says the spaniard, "had we poor spaniards been in your case, we should never have got half those things out of the ship, as you did: nay," says he, "we should never have found means to have got a raft to carry them, or to have got the raft on shore without boat or sail: and how much less should we have done if any of us had been alone!" well, i desired him to abate his compliments, and go on with the history of their coming on shore, where they landed. he told me they unhappily landed at a place where there were people without provisions; whereas, had they had the common sense to put off to sea again, and gone to another island a little further, they had found provisions, though without people: there being an island that way, as they had been told, where there were provisions, though no people--that is to say, that the spaniards of trinidad had frequently been there, and had filled the island with goats and hogs at several times, where they had bred in such multitudes, and where turtle and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have been in no want of flesh, though they had found no bread; whereas, here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they understood not, and which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave them sparingly enough; and they could treat them no better, unless they would turn cannibals and eat men's flesh. they gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilise the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in the ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted upon them as unjust that they who came there for assistance and support should attempt to set up for instructors to those that gave them food; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for the instructors of others but those who could live without them. they gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven to; how sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived more indolent, and for that reason were less supplied with the necessaries of life, than they had reason to believe others were in the same part of the world; and yet they found that these savages were less ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies of food. also, they added, they could not but see with what demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of god directs the events of things in this world, which, they said, appeared in their circumstances: for if, pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barrenness of the country where they were, they had searched after a better to live in, they had then been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by my means. they then gave me an account how the savages whom they lived amongst expected them to go out with them into their wars; and, it was true, that as they had firearms with them, had they not had the disaster to lose their ammunition, they could have been serviceable not only to their friends, but have made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies; but being without powder and shot, and yet in a condition that they could not in reason decline to go out with their landlords to their wars; so when they came into the field of battle they were in a worse condition than the savages themselves, for they had neither bows nor arrows, nor could they use those the savages gave them. so they could do nothing but stand still and be wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth of the enemy; and then, indeed, the three halberds they had were of use to them; and they would often drive a whole little army before them with those halberds, and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets. but for all this they were sometimes surrounded with multitudes, and in great danger from their arrows, till at last they found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which they covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered them from the arrows of the savages: that, notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger; and five of them were once knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner--that is to say, the spaniard whom i relieved. at first they thought he had been killed; but when they afterwards heard he was taken prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him. they told me that when they were so knocked down, the rest of their company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were come to themselves, all but him whom they thought had been dead; and then they made their way with their halberds and pieces, standing close together in a line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating down all that came in their way, got the victory over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend, whom the other party finding alive, carried off with some others, as i gave an account before. they described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind--wild men; and yet, how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave them of his errand, and that there was a christian in any place near, much more one that was able, and had humanity enough, to contribute to their deliverance. they described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief i sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread--things they had not seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossed it and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also the other things i had sent for their supply; and, after all, they would have told me something of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots, to carry them away to the person and place from whence all these new comforts came. but it was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive joy naturally driving them to unbecoming extravagances, they had no way to describe them but by telling me they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passions suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it worked one way and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise of joy, would burst into tears, others be stark mad, and others immediately faint. this discourse extremely affected me, and called to my mind friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor people's ecstasy when i took them up at sea after their ship was on fire; the joy of the mate of the ship when he found himself delivered in the place where he expected to perish; and my own joy, when, after twentyeight years' captivity, i found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country. all these things made me more sensible of the relation of these poor men, and more affected with it. having thus given a view of the state of things as i found them, i must relate the heads of what i did for these people, and the condition in which i left them. it was their opinion, and mine too, that they would be troubled no more with the savages, or if they were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before; so they had no concern about that. then i entered into a serious discourse with the spaniard, whom i call governor, about their stay in the island; for as i was not come to carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off some and leave others, who, perhaps, would be unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished. on the other hand, i told them i came to establish them there, not to remove them; and then i let them know that i had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that i had been at a great charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and that i had such and such particular persons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to, being artificers, to assist them in those things in which at present they were in want. they were all together when i talked thus to them; and before i delivered to them the stores i had brought, i asked them, one by one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had been among them, and would shake hands with one another, and engage in a strict friendship and union of interest, that so there might be no more misunderstandings and jealousies. will atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said they had met with affliction enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends; that, for his part, he would live and die with them, and was so far from designing anything against the spaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what his own mad humour made necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps worse, in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if i desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to them, and was very willing and desirous of living in terms of entire friendship and union with them, and would do anything that lay in his power to convince them of it; and as for going to england, he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years. the spaniards said they had, indeed, at first disarmed and excluded will atkins and his two countrymen for their ill conduct, as they had let me know, and they appealed to me for the necessity they were under to do so; but that will atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with the savages, and on several occasions since, and had showed himself so faithful to, and concerned for, the general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms and supplied with necessaries as any of them; that they had testified their satisfaction in him by committing the command to him next to the governor himself; and as they had entire confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to be valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never have any interest separate from one another. upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the next day to dine all together; and, indeed, we made a splendid feast. i caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. we brought on shore six pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork, out of the ship's provisions, with our punch-bowl and materials to fill it; and in particular i gave them ten bottles of french claret, and ten bottles of english beer; things that neither the spaniards nor the english had tasted for many years, and which it may be supposed they were very glad of. the spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board the ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with their salt meat from on board. after this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, i brought my cargo of goods; wherein, that there might be no dispute about dividing, i showed them that there was a sufficiency for them all, desiring that they might all take an equal quantity, when made up, of the goods that were for wearing. as, first, i distributed linen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts, and, at the spaniard's request, afterwards made them up six; these were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what they had long since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them. i allotted the thin english stuffs, which i mentioned before, to make every one a light coat, like a frock, which i judged fittest for the heat of the season, cool and loose; and ordered that whenever they decayed, they should make more, as they thought fit; the like for pumps, shoes, stockings, hats, &c. i cannot express what pleasure sat upon the countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care i had taken of them, and how well i had furnished them. they told me i was a father to them; and that having such a correspondent as i was in so remote a part of the world, it would make them forget that they were left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the place without my consent. then i presented to them the people i had brought with me, particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them most necessary people; but, above all, my general artificer, than whom they could not name anything that was more useful to them; and the tailor, to show his concern for them, went to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them every one a shirt, the first thing he did; and, what was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their husbands, and for all the rest. as to the carpenters, i scarce need mention how useful they were; for they took to pieces all my clumsy, unhandy things, and made clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and everything they wanted of that kind. but to let them see how nature made artificers at first, i carried the carpenters to see will atkins' baskethouse, as i called it; and they both owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, nor anything so regular and so handily built, at least of its kind; and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while, turning about to me, "i am sure," says he, "that man has no need of us; you need do nothing but give him tools." then i brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a digging-spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no barrows or ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broad axe, and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any were broken or worn out, they should be supplied without grudging out of the general stores that i left behind. nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of ironwork, they had without reserve, as they required; for no man would take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil them on any account whatever; and for the use of the smith i left two tons of unwrought iron for a supply. my magazine of powder and arms which i brought them was such, even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now they could march as i used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if there was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if they had but some little advantages of situation, which also they could not miss, if they had occasion. i carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved to death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated, religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively that every one gave her a good word; she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in the ship but herself, but she bore it with patience. after a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in so fine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in the east indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage, both of them came to me and desired i would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among my family, as they called it. i agreed to this readily; and they had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoed like atkins's, adjoining to his plantation. their tents were contrived so that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in, and a middle tent like a great storehouse to lay their goods in, and to eat and to drink in. and now the other two englishmen removed their habitation to the same place; and so the island was divided into three colonies, and no more--viz. the spaniards, with old friday and the first servants, at my habitation under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the outside of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, in any part of the world; for i verify believe that a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and, if they had not known there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not have found it. indeed the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew so fast woven one into another, that nothing but cutting them down first could discover the place, except the only two narrow entrances where they went in and out could be found, which was not very easy; one of them was close down at the water's edge, on the side of the creek, and it was afterwards above two hundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice, as i have already described it; and they had also a large wood, thickly planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre, which grew apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there, with only one narrow place between two trees, not easily to be discovered, to enter on that side. the other colony was that of will atkins, where there were four families of englishmen, i mean those i had left there, with their wives and children; three savages that were slaves, the widow and children of the englishman that was killed, the young man and the maid, and, by the way, we made a wife of her before we went away. there were besides the two carpenters and the tailor, whom i brought with me for them: also the smith, who was a very necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith, to take care of their arms; and my other man, whom i called jack-of-all-trades, who was in himself as good almost as twenty men; for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow, and before i went away we married him to the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship i mentioned before. and now i speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say something of the french ecclesiastic that i had brought with me out of the ship's crew whom i took up at sea. it is true this man was a roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter if i leave anything extraordinary upon record of a man whom, before i begin, i must (to set him out in just colours) represent in terms very much to his disadvantage, in the account of protestants; as, first, that he was a papist; secondly, a popish priest; and thirdly, a french popish priest. but justice demands of me to give him a due character; and i must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person; exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost everything he did. what then can any one say against being very sensible of the value of such a man, notwithstanding his profession? though it may be my opinion perhaps, as well as the opinion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken. the first hour that i began to converse with him after he had agreed to go with me to the east indies, i found reason to delight exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me about religion in the most obliging manner imaginable. "sir," says he, "you have not only under god" (and at that he crossed his breast) "saved my life, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging civility have taken me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free conversation. now, sir, you see by my habit what my profession is, and i guess by your nation what yours is; i may think it is my duty, and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost endeavours, on all occasions, to bring all the souls i can to the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace the catholic doctrine; but as i am here under your permission, and in your family, i am bound, in justice to your kindness as well as in decency and good manners, to be under your government; and therefore i shall not, without your leave, enter into any debate on the points of religion in which we may not agree, further than you shall give me leave." i told him his carriage was so modest that i could not but acknowledge it; that it was true we were such people as they call heretics, but that he was not the first catholic i had conversed with without falling into inconveniences, or carrying the questions to any height in debate; that he should not find himself the worse used for being of a different opinion from us, and if we did not converse without any dislike on either side, it should be his fault, not ours. he replied that he thought all our conversation might be easily separated from disputes; that it was not his business to cap principles with every man he conversed with; and that he rather desired me to converse with him as a gentleman than as a religionist; and that, if i would give him leave at any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he would readily comply with it, and that he did not doubt but i would allow him also to defend his own opinions as well as he could; but that without my leave he would not break in upon me with any such thing. he told me further, that he would not cease to do all that became him, in his office as a priest, as well as a private christian, to procure the good of the ship, and the safety of all that was in her; and though, perhaps, we would not join with him, and he could not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which he would do upon all occasions. in this manner we conversed; and as he was of the most obliging, gentlemanlike behaviour, so he was, if i may be allowed to say so, a man of good sense, and, as i believe, of great learning. he gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of the many extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which had befallen him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world; and particularly, it was very remarkable, that in the voyage he was now engaged in he had had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped, and never to go to the place whither any of the ships he was in were at first designed. that his first intent was to have gone to martinico, and that he went on board a ship bound thither at st. malo; but being forced into lisbon by bad weather, the ship received some damage by running aground in the mouth of the river tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there; but finding a portuguese ship there bound for the madeiras, and ready to sail, and supposing he should meet with a ship there bound to martinico, he went on board, in order to sail to the madeiras; but the master of the portuguese ship being but an indifferent mariner, had been out of his reckoning, and they drove to fayal; where, however, he happened to find a very good market for his cargo, which was corn, and therefore resolved not to go to the madeiras, but to load salt at the isle of may, and to go away to newfoundland. he had no remedy in this exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty good voyage as far as the banks (so they call the place where they catch the fish), where, meeting with a french ship bound from france to quebec, and from thence to martinico, to carry provisions, he thought he should have an opportunity to complete his first design, but when he came to quebec, the master of the ship died, and the vessel proceeded no further; so the next voyage he shipped himself for france, in the ship that was burned when we took them up at sea, and then shipped with us for the east indies, as i have already said. thus he had been disappointed in five voyages; all, as i may call it, in one voyage, besides what i shall have occasion to mention further of him. but i shall not make digression into other men's stories which have no relation to my own; so i return to what concerns our affair in the island. he came to me one morning (for he lodged among us all the while we were upon the island), and it happened to be just when i was going to visit the englishmen's colony, at the furthest part of the island; i say, he came to me, and told me, with a very grave countenance, that he had for two or three days desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped would not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might in some measure correspond with my general design, which was the prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps might put it, at least more than he yet thought it was, in the way of god's blessing. i looked a little surprised at the last of his discourse, and turning a little short, "how, sir," said i, "can it be said that we are not in the way of god's blessing, after such visible assistances and deliverances as we have seen here, and of which i have given you a large account?" "if you had pleased, sir," said he, with a world of modesty, and yet great readiness, "to have heard me, you would have found no room to have been displeased, much less to think so hard of me, that i should suggest that you have not had wonderful assistances and deliverances; and i hope, on your behalf, that you are in the way of god's blessing, and your design is exceeding good, and will prosper. but, sir, though it were more so than is even possible to you, yet there may be some among you that are not equally right in their actions: and you know that in the story of the children of israel, one achan in the camp removed god's blessing from them, and turned his hand so against them, that six-and-thirty of them, though not concerned in the crime, were the objects of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of that punishment." i was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his inference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and was really so religious in its own nature, that i was very sorry i had interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and, in the meantime, because it seemed that what we had both to say might take up some time, i told him i was going to the englishmen's plantations, and asked him to go with me, and we might discourse of it by the way. he told me he would the more willingly wait on me thither, because there partly the thing was acted which he desired to speak to me about; so we walked on, and i pressed him to be free and plain with me in what he had to say. "why, then, sir," said he, "be pleased to give me leave to lay down a few propositions, as the foundation of what i have to say, that we may not differ in the general principles, though we may be of some differing opinions in the practice of particulars. first, sir, though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion (and it is very unhappy it is so, especially in the case before us, as i shall show afterwards), yet there are some general principles in which we both agree--that there is a god; and that this god having given us some stated general rules for our service and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him, either by neglecting to do what he has commanded, or by doing what he has expressly forbidden. and let our different religions be what they will, this general principle is readily owned by us all, that the blessing of god does not ordinarily follow presumptuous sinning against his command; and every good christian will be affectionately concerned to prevent any that are under his care living in a total neglect of god and his commands. it is not your men being protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such, that discharges me from being concerned for their souls, and from endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as little distance from enmity with their maker as possible, especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit." i could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him i granted all he had said, and thanked him that he would so far concern himself for us: and begged he would explain the particulars of what he had observed, that like joshua, to take his own parable, i might put away the accursed thing from us. "why, then, sir," says he, "i will take the liberty you give me; and there are three things, which, if i am right, must stand in the way of god's blessing upon your endeavours here, and which i should rejoice, for your sake and their own, to see removed. and, sir, i promise myself that you will fully agree with me in them all, as soon as i name them; especially because i shall convince you, that every one of them may, with great ease, and very much to your satisfaction, be remedied. first, sir," says he, "you have here four englishmen, who have fetched women from among the savages, and have taken them as their wives, and have had many children by them all, and yet are not married to them after any stated legal manner, as the laws of god and man require. to this, sir, i know, you will object that there was no clergyman or priest of any kind to perform the ceremony; nor any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a contract of marriage, and have it signed between them. and i know also, sir, what the spaniard governor has told you, i mean of the agreement that he obliged them to make when they took those women, viz. that they should choose them out by consent, and keep separately to them; which, by the way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement with the women as wives, but only an agreement among themselves, to keep them from quarrelling. but, sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony" (so he called it, being a roman) "consists not only in the mutual consent of the parties to take one another as man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation that there is in the contract to compel the man and woman, at all times, to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the man to abstain from all other women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist; and, on all occasions, as ability allows, to provide honestly for them and their children; and to oblige the women to the same or like conditions, on their side. now, sir," says he, "these men may, when they please, or when occasion presents, abandon these women, disown their children, leave them to perish, and take other women, and marry them while these are living;" and here he added, with some warmth, "how, sir, is god honoured in this unlawful liberty? and how shall a blessing succeed your endeavours in this place, however good in themselves, and however sincere in your design, while these men, who at present are your subjects, under your absolute government and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open adultery?" i confess i was struck with the thing itself, but much more with the convincing arguments he supported it with; but i thought to have got off my young priest by telling him that all that part was done when i was not there: and that they had lived so many years with them now, that if it was adultery, it was past remedy; nothing could be done in it now. "sir," says he, "asking your pardon for such freedom, you are right in this, that, it being done in your absence, you could not be charged with that part of the crime; but, i beseech you, flatter not yourself that you are not, therefore, under an obligation to do your utmost now to put an end to it. you should legally and effectually marry them; and as, sir, my way of marrying may not be easy to reconcile them to, though it will be effectual, even by your own laws, so your way may be as well before god, and as valid among men. i mean by a written contract signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws of europe would decree to be valid." i was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse as to his own party or church, and such true warmth for preserving people that he had no knowledge of or relation to from transgressing the laws of god. but recollecting what he had said of marrying them by a written contract, which i knew he would stand to, i returned it back upon him, and told him i granted all that he had said to be just, and on his part very kind; that i would discourse with the men upon the point now, when i came to them; and i knew no reason why they should scruple to let him marry them all, which i knew well enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in england as if they were married by one of our own clergymen. i then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint which he had to make, acknowledging that i was very much his debtor for the first, and thanking him heartily for it. he told me he would use the same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped i would take it as well; and this was, that notwithstanding these english subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived with these women almost seven years, had taught them to speak english, and even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived, women of tolerable understanding, and capable of instruction, yet they had not, to this hour, taught them anything of the christian religion--no, not so much as to know there was a god, or a worship, or in what manner god was to be served, or that their own idolatry, and worshipping they knew not whom, was false and absurd. this he said was an unaccountable neglect, and what god would certainly call them to account for, and perhaps at last take the work out of their hands. he spoke this very affectionately and warmly. "i am persuaded," says he, "had those men lived in the savage country whence their wives came, the savages would have taken more pains to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship the devil, than any of these men, so far as i can see, have taken with them to teach the knowledge of the true god. now, sir," said he, "though i do not acknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet we would be glad to see the devil's servants and the subjects of his kingdom taught to know religion; and that they might, at least, hear of god and a redeemer, and the resurrection, and of a future state--things which we all believe; that they might, at least, be so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true church than they are now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-worship." i could hold no longer: i took him in my arms and embraced him eagerly. "how far," said i to him, "have i been from understanding the most essential part of a christian, viz. to love the interest of the christian church, and the good of other men's souls! i scarce have known what belongs to the being a christian."--"oh, sir! do not say so," replied he; "this thing is not your fault."--"no," said i; "but why did i never lay it to heart as well as you?"--"it is not too late yet," said he; "be not too forward to condemn yourself."--"but what can be done now?" said i: "you see i am going away."--"will you give me leave to talk with these poor men about it?"--"yes, with all my heart," said i: "and oblige them to give heed to what you say too."--"as to that," said he, "we must leave them to the mercy of christ; but it is your business to assist them, encourage them, and instruct them; and if you give me leave, and god his blessing, i do not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought home to the great circle of christianity, if not into the particular faith we all embrace, and that even while you stay here." upon this i said, "i shall not only give you leave, but give you a thousand thanks for it." i now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame. "why, really," says he, "it is of the same nature. it is about your poor savages, who are, as i may say, your conquered subjects. it is a maxim, sir, that is or ought to be received among all christians, of what church or pretended church soever, that the christian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible means and on all possible occasions. it is on this principle that our church sends missionaries into persia, india, and china; and that our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the most hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence amongst murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true god, and to bring them over to embrace the christian faith. now, sir, you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven and thirty poor savages brought over from a state of idolatry to the knowledge of god, their maker and redeemer, that i wonder how you can pass such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth the expense of a man's whole life." i was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to say. i had here the spirit of true christian zeal for god and religion before me. as for me, i had not so much as entertained a thought of this in my heart before, and i believe i should not have thought of it; for i looked upon these savages as slaves, and people whom, had we not had any work for them to do, we would have used as such, or would have been glad to have transported them to any part of the world; for our business was to get rid of them, and we would all have been satisfied if they had been sent to any country, so they had never seen their own. i was confounded at his discourse, and knew not what answer to make him. he looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion. "sir," says he, "i shall be very sorry if what i have said gives you any offence."--"no, no," said i, "i am offended with nobody but myself; but i am perfectly confounded, not only to think that i should never take any notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice i am able to take of it now. you know, sir," said i, "what circumstances i am in; i am bound to the east indies in a ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferable piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying all this while at victuals and wages on the owners' account. it is true, i agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if i stay more, i must pay three pounds sterling _per diem_ demurrage; nor can i stay upon demurrage above eight days more, and i have been here thirteen already; so that i am perfectly unable to engage in this work unless i would suffer myself to be left behind here again; in which case, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of her voyage, i should be just in the same condition that i was left in here at first, and from which i have been so wonderfully delivered." he owned the case was very hard upon me as to my voyage; but laid it home upon my conscience whether the blessing of saving thirty-seven souls was not worth venturing all i had in the world for. i was not so sensible of that as he was. i replied to him thus: "why, sir, it is a valuable thing, indeed, to be an instrument in god's hand to convert thirty-seven heathens to the knowledge of christ: but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given over to the work, so it seems so naturally to fall in the way of your profession; how is it, then, that you do not rather offer yourself to undertake it than to press me to do it?" upon this he faced about just before me, as he walked along, and putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow. "i most heartily thank god and you, sir," said he, "for giving me so evident a call to so blessed a work; and if you think yourself discharged from it, and desire me to undertake it, i will most readily do it, and think it a happy reward for all the hazards and difficulties of such a broken, disappointed voyage as i have met with, that i am dropped at last into so glorious a work." i discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this to me; his eyes sparkled like fire; his face glowed, and his colour came and went; in a word, he was fired with the joy of being embarked in such a work. i paused a considerable while before i could tell what to say to him; for i was really surprised to find a man of such sincerity, and who seemed possessed of a zeal beyond the ordinary rate of men. but after i had considered it a while, i asked him seriously if he was in earnest, and that he would venture, on the single consideration of an attempt to convert those poor people, to be locked up in an unplanted island for perhaps his life, and at last might not know whether he should be able to do them good or not? he turned short upon me, and asked me what i called a venture? "pray, sir," said he, "what do you think i consented to go in your ship to the east indies for?"--"ay," said i, "that i know not, unless it was to preach to the indians."--"doubtless it was," said he; "and do you think, if i can convert these thirty-seven men to the faith of jesus christ, it is not worth my time, though i should never be fetched off the island again?--nay, is it not infinitely of more worth to save so many souls than my life is, or the life of twenty more of the same profession? yes, sir," says he, "i would give god thanks all my days if i could be made the happy instrument of saving the souls of those poor men, though i were never to get my foot off this island or see my native country any more. but since you will honour me with putting me into this work, for which i will pray for you all the days of my life, i have one humble petition to you besides."--"what is that?" said i.--"why," says he, "it is, that you will leave your man friday with me, to be my interpreter to them, and to assist me; for without some help i cannot speak to them, or they to me." i was sensibly touched at his requesting friday, because i could not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons: he had been the companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me, but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and i had resolved to do something considerable for him if he out-lived me, as it was probable he would. then i knew that, as i had bred friday up to be a protestant, it would quite confound him to bring him to embrace another religion; and he would never, while his eyes were open, believe that his old master was a heretic, and would be damned; and this might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and so turn him back again to his first idolatry. however, a sudden thought relieved me in this strait, and it was this: i told him i could not say that i was willing to part with friday on any account whatever, though a work that to him was of more value than his life ought to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with a servant. on the other hand, i was persuaded that friday would by no means agree to part with me; and i could not force him to it without his consent, without manifest injustice; because i had promised i would never send him away, and he had promised and engaged that he would never leave me, unless i sent him away. he seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rational access to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word of their language, nor they one of his. to remove this difficulty, i told him friday's father had learned spanish, which i found he also understood, and he should serve him as an interpreter. so he was much better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he would stay and endeavour to convert them; but providence gave another very happy turn to all this. i come back now to the first part of his objections. when we came to the englishmen, i sent for them all together, and after some account given them of what i had done for them, viz. what necessary things i had provided for them, and how they were distributed, which they were very sensible of, and very thankful for, i began to talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full account of the notice the clergyman had taken of it; and arguing how unchristian and irreligious a life it was, i first asked them if they were married men or bachelors? they soon explained their condition to me, and showed that two of them were widowers, and the other three were single men, or bachelors. i asked them with what conscience they could take these women, and call them their wives, and have so many children by them, and not be lawfully married to them? they all gave me the answer i expected, viz. that there was nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep them as their wives, and to maintain them and own them as their wives; and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as legally married as if they had been married by a parson and with all the formalities in the world. i told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of god, and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that the laws of men being otherwise, they might desert the poor women and children hereafter; and that their wives, being poor desolate women, friendless and moneyless, would have no way to help themselves. i therefore told them that unless i was assured of their honest intent, i could do nothing for them, but would take care that what i did should be for the women and children without them; and that, unless they would give me some assurances that they would marry the women, i could not think it was convenient they should continue together as man and wife; for that it was both scandalous to men and offensive to god, who they could not think would bless them if they went on thus. all this went on as i expected; and they told me, especially will atkins, who now seemed to speak for the rest, that they loved their wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country, and would not leave them on any account whatever; and they did verily believe that their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and did, to the utmost of their skill, as much for them and for their children, as any woman could possibly do: and they would not part with them on any account. will atkins, for his own particular, added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him home to england, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her now with all his heart. this was just as i would have it. the priest was not with me at that moment, but he was not far off; so to try him further, i told him i had a clergyman with me, and, if he was sincere, i would have him married next morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk with the rest. he said, as for himself, he need not consider of it at all, for he was very ready to do it, and was glad i had a minister with me, and he believed they would be all willing also. i then told him that my friend, the minister, was a frenchman, and could not speak english, but i would act the clerk between them. he never so much as asked me whether he was a papist or protestant, which was, indeed, what i was afraid of. we then parted, and i went back to my clergyman, and will atkins went in to talk with his companions. i desired the french gentleman not to say anything to them till the business was thoroughly ripe; and i told him what answer the men had given me. before i went from their quarter they all came to me and told me they had been considering what i had said; that they were glad to hear i had a clergyman in my company, and they were very willing to give me the satisfaction i desired, and to be formally married as soon as i pleased; for they were far from desiring to part with their wives, and that they meant nothing but what was very honest when they chose them. so i appointed them to meet me the next morning; and, in the meantime, they should let their wives know the meaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not forsake them, whatever might happen. the women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing, and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they had reason to be: so they failed not to attend all together at my apartment next morning, where i brought out my clergyman; and though he had not on a minister's gown, after the manner of england, or the habit of a priest, after the manner of france, yet having a black vest something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for his language, i was his interpreter. but the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the scruples he made of marrying the women, because they were not baptized and professed christians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his person; and there was no need, after that, to inquire whether he was a clergyman or not. indeed, i was afraid his scruples would have been carried so far as that he would not have married them at all; nay, notwithstanding all i was able to say to him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very steadily, and at last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked with the men and the women too; and though at first i was a little backward to it, yet at last i agreed to it with a good will, perceiving the sincerity of his design. when he came to them he let them know that i had acquainted him with their circumstances, and with the present design; that he was very willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them, as i had desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the liberty to talk with them. he told them that in the sight of all indifferent men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had lived all this while in a state of sin; and that it was true that nothing but the consenting to marry, or effectually separating them from one another, could now put an end to it; but there was a difficulty in it, too, with respect to the laws of christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, that of marrying one that is a professed christian to a savage, an idolater, and a heathen--one that is not baptized; and yet that he did not see that there was time left to endeavour to persuade the women to be baptized, or to profess the name of christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing of, and without which they could not be baptized. he told them he doubted they were but indifferent christians themselves; that they had but little knowledge of god or of his ways, and, therefore, he could not expect that they had said much to their wives on that head yet; but that unless they would promise him to use their endeavours with their wives to persuade them to become christians, and would, as well as they could, instruct them in the knowledge and belief of god that made them, and to worship jesus christ that redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he would have no hand in joining christians with savages, nor was it consistent with the principles of the christian religion, and was, indeed, expressly forbidden in god's law. they heard all this very attentively, and i delivered it very faithfully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as i could; only sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them how just it was, and that i was of his mind; and i always very carefully distinguished between what i said from myself and what were the clergyman's words. they told me it was very true what the gentleman said, that they were very indifferent christians themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives about religion. "lord, sir," says will atkins, "how should we teach them religion? why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said he, "should we talk to them of god and jesus christ, and heaven and hell, it would make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe ourselves. and if we should tell them that we believe all the things we speak of to them, such as of good people going to heaven, and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us where we intend to go ourselves, that believe all this, and are such wicked fellows as we indeed are? why, sir; 'tis enough to give them a surfeit of religion at first hearing; folks must have some religion themselves before they begin to teach other people."--"will atkins," said i to him, "though i am afraid that what you say has too much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wife she is in the wrong; that there is a god and a religion better than her own; that her gods are idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great being that made all things, and that can destroy all that he has made; that he rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that we are to be judged by him at last for all we do here? you are not so ignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and i am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself."--"that is true, sir," said atkins; "but with what face can i say anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it cannot be true?"--"not true!" said i; "what do you mean by that?"--"why, sir," said he, "she will tell me it cannot be true that this god i shall tell her of can be just, or can punish or reward, since i am not punished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked creature as she knows i have been, even to her, and to everybody else; and that i should be suffered to live, that have been always acting so contrary to what i must tell her is good, and to what i ought to have done."--"why, truly, atkins," said i, "i am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and with that i informed the clergyman of what atkins had said, for he was impatient to know. "oh," said the priest, "tell him there is one thing will make him the best minister in the world to his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true penitents. he wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then be able to tell her that there is not only a god, and that he is the just rewarder of good and evil, but that he is a merciful being, and with infinite goodness and long-suffering forbears to punish those that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; and even reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that it is a clear evidence of god and of a future state that righteous men receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they come into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment. let him but repent himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentance to his wife." i repeated all this to atkins, who looked very serious all the while, and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily affected with it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make an end, "i know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more; but i have not the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when god and my conscience know, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that i have lived as if i had never heard of a god or future state, or anything about it; and to talk of my repenting, alas!" (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and i could see that the tears stood in his eyes) "'tis past all that with me."--"past it, atkins?" said i: "what dost thou mean by that?"--"i know well enough what i mean," says he; "i mean 'tis too late, and that is too true." i told the clergyman, word for word, what he said, and this affectionate man could not refrain from tears; but, recovering himself, said to me, "ask him but one question. is he easy that it is too late; or is he troubled, and wishes it were not so?" i put the question fairly to atkins; and he answered with a great deal of passion, "how could any man be easy in a condition that must certainly end in eternal destruction? that he was far from being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time or other ruin him."--"what do you mean by that?" said i.--"why," he said, "he believed he should one time or other cut his throat, to put an end to the terror of it." the clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, when i told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "if that be his case, we may assure him it is not too late; christ will give him repentance. but pray," says he, "explain this to him: that as no man is saved but by christ, and the merit of his passion procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man to receive mercy? does he think he is able to sin beyond the power or reach of divine mercy? pray tell him there may be a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when god may refuse to hear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we, that are christ's servants, are commanded to preach mercy at all times, in the name of jesus christ, to all those that sincerely repent: so that it is never too late to repent." i told atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest, for he said to me he would go and have some talk with his wife; so he went out a while, and we talked to the rest. i perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion, as much as i was when i went rambling away from my father; yet there were none of them backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do their endeavours to persuade them to turn christians. the clergyman smiled upon me when i reported what answer they gave, but said nothing a good while; but at last, shaking his head, "we that are christ's servants," says he, "can go no further than to exhort and instruct: and when men comply, submit to the reproof, and promise what we ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept their good words; but believe me, sir," said he, "whatever you may have known of the life of that man you call will atkin's, i believe he is the only sincere convert among them: i will not despair of the rest; but that man is apparently struck with the sense of his past life, and i doubt not, when he comes to talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it: for attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves. if that poor atkins begins but once to talk seriously of jesus christ to his wife, he will assuredly talk himself into a thorough convert, make himself a penitent, and who knows what may follow." upon this discourse, however, and their promising, as above, to endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace christianity, he married the two other couple; but will atkins and his wife were not yet come in. after this, my clergyman, waiting a while, was curious to know where atkins was gone, and turning to me, said, "i entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look; i daresay we shall find this poor man somewhere or other talking seriously to his wife, and teaching her already something of religion." i began to be of the same mind; so we went out together, and i carried him a way which none knew but myself, and where the trees were so very thick that it was not easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see out: when, coming to the edge of the wood, i saw atkins and his tawny wife sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse: i stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and then having showed him where they were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while. we observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens, and then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "now," says the clergyman, "you see my words are made good, the man preaches to her; mark him now, he is telling her that our god has made him, her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees, &c."--"i believe he is," said i. immediately we perceived will atkins start upon his feet, fall down on his knees, and lift up both his hands. we supposed he said something, but we could not hear him; it was too far for that. he did not continue kneeling half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks to her again; we perceived then the woman very attentive, but whether she said anything to him we could not tell. while the poor fellow was upon his knees i could see the tears run plentifully down my clergyman's cheeks, and i could hardly forbear myself; but it was a great affliction to us both that we were not near enough to hear anything that passed between them. well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of disturbing them: so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice. he sat down again, as i have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see him embrace her most passionately; another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again with a kind of transport very unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden jump up again, and lend her his hand to help her up, when immediately leading her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes. my friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "st. paul! st. paul! behold he prayeth." i was afraid atkins would hear him, therefore i entreated him to withhold himself a while, that we might see an end of the scene, which to me, i must confess, was the most affecting that ever i saw in my life. well, he strove with himself for a while, but was in such raptures to think that the poor heathen woman was become a christian, that he was not able to contain himself; he wept several times, then throwing up his hands and crossing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and by the way of giving god thanks for so miraculous a testimony of the success of our endeavours. some he spoke softly, and i could not well hear others; some things he said in latin, some in french; then two or three times the tears would interrupt him, that he could not speak at all; but i begged that he would contain himself, and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, which he did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for after the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, we observed he stood talking still eagerly to her, and we observed her motion, that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequently lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as express the greatest seriousness and attention; this continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away, so we could see no more of them in that situation. i took this interval to say to the clergyman, first, that i was glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to; that, though i was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that i began to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his wife, however ignorant they might both be, and i hoped such a beginning would yet have a more happy end. "but, my friend," added i, "will you give me leave to start one difficulty here? i cannot tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate concern which you show for the turning of the poor people from their paganism to the christian religion; but how does this comfort you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of the catholic church, without which you believe there is no salvation? so that you esteem these but heretics, as effectually lost as the pagans themselves." to this he answered, with abundance of candour, thus: "sir, i am a catholic of the roman church, and a priest of the order of st. benedict, and i embrace all the principles of the roman faith; but yet, if you will believe me, and that i do not speak in compliment to you, or in respect to my circumstances and your civilities; i say nevertheless, i do not look upon you, who call yourselves reformed, without some charity. i dare not say (though i know it is our opinion in general) that you cannot be saved; i will by no means limit the mercy of christ so far as think that he cannot receive you into the bosom of his church, in a manner to us unperceivable; and i hope you have the same charity for us: i pray daily for you being all restored to christ's church, by whatsoever method he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. in the meantime, surely you will allow it consists with me as a roman to distinguish far between a protestant and a pagan; between one that calls on jesus christ, though in a way which i do not think is according to the true faith, and a savage or a barbarian, that knows no god, no christ, no redeemer; and if you are not within the pale of the catholic church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than those who know nothing of god or of his church: and i rejoice, therefore, when i see this poor man, who you say has been a profligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to jesus christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened; believing that god, from whom every such work proceeds, will sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge of that truth in his own time; and if god shall influence this poor man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, i can never believe that he shall be cast away himself. and have i not reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the knowledge of christ, though they may not be brought quite home into the bosom of the catholic church just at the time when i desire it, leaving it to the goodness of christ to perfect his work in his own time, and in his own way? certainly, i would rejoice if all the savages in america were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to god, though they were all to be protestants at first, rather than they should continue pagans or heathens; firmly believing, that he that had bestowed the first light on them would farther illuminate them with a beam of his heavenly grace, and bring them into the pale of his church when he should see good." chapter vii--conversation betwixt will atkins and his wife i was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious papist, as much as i was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and it presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was universal, we might be all catholic christians, whatever church or particular profession we joined in; that a spirit of charity would soon work us all up into right principles; and as he thought that the like charity would make us all catholics, so i told him i believed, had all the members of his church the like moderation, they would soon all be protestants. and there we left that part; for we never disputed at all. however, i talked to him another way, and taking him by the hand, "my friend," says i, "i wish all the clergy of the romish church were blessed with such moderation, and had an equal share of your charity. i am entirely of your opinion; but i must tell you that if you should preach such doctrine in spain or italy, they would put you into the inquisition."--"it may be so," said he; "i know not what they would do in spain or italy; but i will not say they would be the better christians for that severity; for i am sure there is no heresy in abounding with charity." well, as will atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found them waiting to be called in. observing this, i asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and i began by asking him some particulars about his parentage and education. he told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would have taught him well, but that he, will atkins, despised all instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the thread of all his father's comforts and shortened his days, for that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave. in what he said there seemed so much sincerity of repentance, that it painfully affected me. i could not but reflect that i, too, had shortened the life of a good, tender father by my bad conduct and obstinate self-will. i was, indeed, so surprised with what he had told me, that i thought, instead of my going about to teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me in a most unexpected manner. i laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly affected with it, and said to me, "did i not say, sir, that when this man was converted he would preach to us all? i tell you, sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, there will be no need of me; he will make christians of all in the island."--but having a little composed myself, i renewed my discourse with will atkins. "but, will," said i, "how comes the sense of this matter to touch you just now?" _w.a._--sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart though my very soul; i have been talking about god and religion to my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a christian of her, and she has preached such a sermon to me as i shall never forget while i live. _r.c._--no, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; but when you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung them back upon you. _w.a._--ay, sir, with such force as is not to be resisted. _r.c._--pray, will, let us know what passed between you and your wife; for i know something of it already. _w.a._--sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it; i am too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it; but let her have said what she will, though i cannot give you an account of it, this i can tell you, that i have resolved to amend and reform my life. _r.c._--but tell us some of it: how did you begin, will? for this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain. she has preached a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you. _w.a._--why, i first told her the nature of our laws about marriage, and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent. _r.c._--you talk like a civilian, will. could you make her understand what you meant by inheritance and families? they know no such things among the savages, but marry anyhow, without regard to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as i have been told, even the father and the daughter, and the son and the mother. _w.a._--i believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife assures me of the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps, for any further relations, they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me never in the near relationship you speak of. _r.c._--well, what did she say to what you told her? _w.a._--she said she liked it very well, as it was much better than in her country. _r.c._--but did you tell her what marriage was? _w.a._--ay, ay, there began our dialogue. i asked her if she would be married to me our way. she asked me what way that was; i told her marriage was appointed by god; and here we had a strange talk together, indeed, as ever man and wife had, i believe. n.b.--this dialogue between will atkins and his wife, which i took down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:-_wife_.--appointed by your god!--why, have you a god in your country? _w.a._--yes, my dear, god is in every country. _wife_.--no your god in my country; my country have the great old benamuckee god. _w.a._--child, i am very unfit to show you who god is; god is in heaven and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. _wife_.--no makee de earth; no you god makee all earth; no makee my country. [will atkins laughed a little at her expression of god not making her country.] _wife_.--no laugh; why laugh me? this no ting to laugh. [he was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious than he at first.] _w.a._--that's true, indeed; i will not laugh any more, my dear. _wife_.--why you say you god makee all? _w.a._--yes, child, our god made the whole world, and you, and me, and all things; for he is the only true god, and there is no god but him. he lives for ever in heaven. _wife_.--why you no tell me long ago? _w.a._--that's true, indeed; but i have been a wicked wretch, and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with anything before, but have lived without god in the world myself. _wife_.--what, have you a great god in your country, you no know him? no say o to him? no do good ting for him? that no possible. _w.a._--it is true; though, for all that, we live as if there was no god in heaven, or that he had no power on earth. _wife_.--but why god let you do so? why he no makee you good live? _w.a._--it is all our own fault. _wife_.--but you say me he is great, much great, have much great power; can makee kill when he will: why he no makee kill when you no serve him? no say o to him? no be good mans? _w.a._--that is true, he might strike me dead; and i ought to expect it, for i have been a wicked wretch, that is true; but god is merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve. _wife_.--but then do you not tell god thankee for that too? _w. a._--no, indeed, i have not thanked god for his mercy, any more than i have feared god from his power. _wife_.--then you god no god; me no think, believe he be such one, great much power, strong: no makee kill you, though you make him much angry. _w.a._--what, will my wicked life hinder you from believing in god? what a dreadful creature am i! and what a sad truth is it, that the horrid lives of christians hinder the conversion of heathens! _wife_.--how me tink you have great much god up there [she points up to heaven], and yet no do well, no do good ting? can he tell? sure he no tell what you do? _w.a._--yes, yes, he knows and sees all things; he hears us speak, sees what we do, knows what we think though we do not speak. _wife_.--what! he no hear you curse, swear, speak de great damn? _w.a._--yes, yes, he hears it all. _wife_.--where be then the much great power strong? _w.a._--he is merciful, that is all we can say for it; and this proves him to be the true god; he is god, and not man, and therefore we are not consumed. [here will atkins told us he was struck with horror to think how he could tell his wife so clearly that god sees, and hears, and knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and all that we do, and yet that he had dared to do all the vile things he had done.] _wife_.--merciful! what you call dat? _w.a._--he is our father and maker, and he pities and spares us. _wife_.--so then he never makee kill, never angry when you do wicked; then he no good himself, or no great able. _w.a._--yes, yes, my dear, he is infinitely good and infinitely great, and able to punish too; and sometimes, to show his justice and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to destroy sinners and make examples; many are cut off in their sins. _wife_.--but no makee kill you yet; then he tell you, maybe, that he no makee you kill: so you makee the bargain with him, you do bad thing, he no be angry at you when he be angry at other mans. _w.a._--no, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon his goodness; and he would be infinitely just if he destroyed me, as he has done other men. _wife_.--well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead: what you say to him for that? you no tell him thankee for all that too? _w.a._--i am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true. _wife_.--why he no makee you much good better? you say he makee you. _w.a._--he made me as he made all the world: it is i have deformed myself and abused his goodness, and made myself an abominable wretch. _wife_.--i wish you makee god know me. i no makee him angry--i no do bad wicked thing. [here will atkins said his heart sunk within him to hear a poor untaught creature desire to be taught to know god, and he such a wicked wretch, that he could not say one word to her about god, but what the reproach of his own carriage would make most irrational to her to believe; nay, that already she had told him that she could not believe in god, because he, that was so wicked, was not destroyed.] _w.a._--my dear, you mean, you wish i could teach you to know god, not god to know you; for he knows you already, and every thought in your heart. _wife_.--why, then, he know what i say to you now: he know me wish to know him. how shall me know who makee me? _w.a._--poor creature, he must teach thee: i cannot teach thee. i will pray to him to teach thee to know him, and forgive me, that am unworthy to teach thee. [the poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him to make her know god, and her wishing to know him, that he said he fell down on his knees before her, and prayed to god to enlighten her mind with the saving knowledge of jesus christ, and to pardon his sins, and accept of his being the unworthy instrument of instructing her in the principles of religion: after which he sat down by her again, and their dialogue went on. this was the time when we saw him kneel down and hold up his hands.] _wife_.--what you put down the knee for? what you hold up the hand for? what you say? who you speak to? what is all that? _w.a._--my dear, i bow my knees in token of my submission to him that made me: i said o to him, as you call it, and as your old men do to their idol benamuckee; that is, i prayed to him. _wife_.--what say you o to him for? _w.a._--i prayed to him to open your eyes and your understanding, that you may know him, and be accepted by him. _wife_.--can he do that too? _w.a._--yes, he can: he can do all things. _wife_.--but now he hear what you say? _w.a._--yes, he has bid us pray to him, and promised to hear us. _wife_.--bid you pray? when he bid you? how he bid you? what you hear him speak? _w.a._--no, we do not hear him speak; but he has revealed himself many ways to us. [here he was at a great loss to make her understand that god has revealed himself to us by his word, and what his word was; but at last he told it to her thus.] _w.a._--god has spoken to some good men in former days, even from heaven, by plain words; and god has inspired good men by his spirit; and they have written all his laws down in a book. _wife_.--me no understand that; where is book? _w.a._--alas! my poor creature, i have not this book; but i hope i shall one time or other get it for you, and help you to read it. [here he embraced her with great affection, but with inexpressible grief that he had not a bible.] _wife_.--but how you makee me know that god teachee them to write that book? _w.a._--by the same rule that we know him to be god. _wife_.--what rule? what way you know him? _w.a._--because he teaches and commands nothing but what is good, righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as well as perfectly happy; and because he forbids and commands us to avoid all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its consequence. _wife_.--that me would understand, that me fain see; if he teachee all good thing, he makee all good thing, he give all thing, he hear me when i say o to him, as you do just now; he makee me good if i wish to be good; he spare me, no makee kill me, when i no be good: all this you say he do, yet he be great god; me take, think, believe him to be great god; me say o to him with you, my dear. here the poor man could forbear no longer, but raised her up, made her kneel by him, and he prayed to god aloud to instruct her in the knowledge of himself, by his spirit; and that by some good providence, if possible, she might, some time or other, come to have a bible, that she might read the word of god, and be taught by it to know him. this was the time that we saw him lift her up by the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above. they had several other discourses, it seems, after this; and particularly she made him promise that, since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocations against god, that he would reform it, and not make god angry any more, lest he should make him dead, as she called it, and then she would be left alone, and never be taught to know this god better; and lest he should be miserable, as he had told her wicked men would be after death. this was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfully surprised with it, but under the greatest affliction imaginable that he could not talk to her, that he could not speak english to make her understand him; and as she spoke but very broken english, he could not understand her; however, he turned himself to me, and told me that he believed that there must be more to do with this woman than to marry her. i did not understand him at first; but at length he explained himself, viz. that she ought to be baptized. i agreed with him in that part readily, and wished it to be done presently. "no, no; hold, sir," says he; "though i would have her be baptized, by all means, for i must observe that will atkins, her husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to be willing to embrace a religious life, and has given her just ideas of the being of a god; of his power, justice, and mercy: yet i desire to know of him if he has said anything to her of jesus christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in him, and redemption by him; of the holy spirit, the resurrection, the last judgment, and the future state." i called will atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her of all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life, that he trembled at the apprehensions that her knowledge of him should lessen the attention she should give to those things, and make her rather contemn religion than receive it; but he was assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due impressions of all those things, and that if i would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that my labour would not be lost upon her. accordingly i called her in, and placing myself as interpreter between my religious priest and the woman, i entreated him to begin with her; but sure such a sermon was never preached by a popish priest in these latter ages of the world; and as i told him, i thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity of a christian, without the error of a roman catholic; and that i took him to be such a clergyman as the roman bishops were before the church of rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the consciences of men. in a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the knowledge of christ, and of redemption by him, not with wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions of a god, but with joy and faith; with an affection, and a surprising degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, much less to be expressed; and, at her own request, she was baptized. when he was preparing to baptize her, i entreated him that he would perform that office with some caution, that the man might not perceive he was of the roman church, if possible, because of other ill consequences which might attend a difference among us in that very religion which we were instructing the other in. he told me that as he had no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the office, i should see he would do it in a manner that i should not know by it that he was a roman catholic myself, if i had not known it before; and so he did; for saying only some words over to himself in latin, which i could not understand, he poured a whole dishful of water upon the woman's head, pronouncing in french, very loud, "mary" (which was the name her husband desired me to give her, for i was her godfather), "i baptize thee in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost;" so that none could know anything by it what religion he was of. he gave the benediction afterwards in latin, but either will atkins did not know but it was french, or else did not take notice of it at that time. as soon as this was over we married them; and after the marriage was over, he turned to will atkins, and in a very affectionate manner exhorted him, not only to persevere in that good disposition he was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a resolution to reform his life: told him it was in vain to say he repented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him how god had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to the knowledge of the christian religion, and that he should be careful he did not dishonour the grace of god; and that if he did, he would see the heathen a better christian than himself; the savage converted, and the instrument cast away. he said a great many good things to them both; and then, recommending them to god's goodness, gave them the benediction again, i repeating everything to them in english; and thus ended the ceremony. i think it was the most pleasant and agreeable day to me that ever i passed in my whole life. but my clergyman had not done yet: his thoughts hung continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain be would have stayed upon the island to have undertaken it; but i convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable in itself; and, secondly, that perhaps i would put it into a way of being done in his absence to his satisfaction. having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrow compass, i was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man i had taken out of the famished ship's company came to me, and told me he understood i had a clergyman with me, and that i had caused the englishmen to be married to the savages; that he had a match too, which he desired might be finished before i went, between two christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me. i knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's servant, for there was no other christian woman on the island: so i began to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly, or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. i represented to him that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good friends, as i understood by himself, and the maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she being six or seven and twenty years old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again; and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be disadvantageous to both. i was going to say more, but he interrupted me, smiling, and told me, with a great deal of modesty, that i mistook in my guesses--that he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts; and he was very glad to hear that i had an intent of putting them in a way to see their own country again; and nothing should have made him think of staying there, but that the voyage i was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of me but that i would settle him in some little property in the island where he was, give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever i returned to england, i would redeem him. he hoped i would not be unmindful of him when i came to england: that he would give me some letters to his friends in london, to let them know how good i had been to him, and in what part of the world and what circumstances i had left him in: and he promised me that whenever i redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be wholly mine. his discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth, and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the match was not for himself. i gave him all possible assurances that if i lived to come safe to england, i would deliver his letters, and do his business effectually; and that he might depend i should never forget the circumstances i had left him in. but still i was impatient to know who was the person to be married; upon which he told me it was my jack-of-alltrades and his maid susan. i was most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for, indeed, i thought it very suitable. the character of that man i have given already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, and religious young woman: had a very good share of sense, was agreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely and to the purpose, always with decency and good manners, and was neither too backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forward when it was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and an excellent manager; fit, indeed, to have been governess to the whole island; and she knew very well how to behave in every respect. the match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same day; and as i was father at the altar, and gave her away, so i gave her a portion; for i appointed her and her husband a handsome large space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and the proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small property in the island, put me upon parcelling it out amongst them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation. this sharing out the land to them i left to will atkins, who was now grown a sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed, exceedingly pious and religious; and, as far as i may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, i verily believe he was a true penitent. he divided things so justly, and so much to every one's satisfaction, that they only desired one general writing under my hand for the whole, which i caused to be drawn up, and signed and sealed, setting out the bounds and situation of every man's plantation, and testifying that i gave them thereby severally a right to the whole possession and inheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them and their heirs, reserving all the rest of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for every particular plantation after eleven years, if i, or any one from me, or in my name, came to demand it, producing an attested copy of the same writing. as to the government and laws among them, i told them i was not capable of giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; only i made them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood with one another; and so i prepared to leave them. one thing i must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in hand, it was odd to have seven-and-thirty indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and, indeed, unemployed; for except the providing themselves food, which they had difficulty enough to do sometimes, they had no manner of business or property to manage. i proposed, therefore, to the governor spaniard that he should go to them, with friday's father, and propose to them to remove, and either plant for themselves, or be taken into their several families as servants to be maintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves; for i would not permit them to make them slaves by force, by any means; because they had their liberty given them by capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which they ought not to break. they most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very cheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land and plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employed as servants in the several families we had settled. thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: the spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their plantations all along the side of the brook, which made the creek that i have so often described, as far as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always eastward. the english lived in the north-east part, where will atkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the spaniards; and every plantation had a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, so that they need not jostle one another for want of room. all the east end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the savages should come on shore there only for their customary barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody, nobody would disturb them: and no doubt but they were often ashore, and went away again; for i never heard that the planters were ever attacked or disturbed any more. chapter viii--sails from the island for the brazils it now came into my thoughts that i had hinted to my friend the clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and i told him that now i thought that it was put in a fair way; for the savages, being thus divided among the christians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those which came under their hands, i hoped it might have a very good effect. he agreed presently in that, if they did their part. "but how," says he, "shall we obtain that of them?" i told him we would call them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them, one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it--he to speak to the spaniards, who were all papists, and i to speak to the english, who were all protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of papist or protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true god, and of their saviour jesus christ; and they likewise promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes one with another about religion. when i came to will atkins's house, i found that the young woman i have mentioned above, and will atkins's wife, were become intimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected the work will atkins had begun; and though it was not above four days after what i have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman was made such a christian as i have seldom heard of in all my observation or conversation in the world. it came next into my mind, in the morning before i went to them, that amongst all the needful things i had to leave with them i had not left them a bible, in which i showed myself less considering for them than my good friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a hundred pounds from lisbon, where she packed up three bibles and a prayer-book. however, the good woman's charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them than i had done. i took one of the bibles in my pocket, and when i came to will atkins's tent, or house, and found the young woman and atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together--for will atkins told it me with a great deal of joy--i asked if they were together now, and he said, "yes"; so i went into the house, and he with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse. "oh, sir," says will atkins, "when god has sinners to reconcile to himself, and aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger; my wife has got a new instructor: i knew i was unworthy, as i was incapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither from heaven--she is enough to convert a whole island of savages." the young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but i desired her to sit-still; i told her she had a good work upon her hands, and i hoped god would bless her in it. we talked a little, and i did not perceive that they had any book among them, though i did not ask; but i put my hand into my pocket, and pulled out my bible. "here," said i to atkins, "i have brought you an assistant that perhaps you had not before." the man was so confounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but, recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning to his wife, "here, my dear," says he, "did not i tell you our god, though he lives above, could hear what we have said? here's the book i prayed for when you and i kneeled down under the bush; now god has heard us and sent it." when he had said so, the man fell into such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it, and giving god thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a child that was crying. the woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed god had sent the book upon her husband's petition. it is true that providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent sense; but i believe it would have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that individual book. but it was too serious a matter to suffer any delusion to take place, so i turned to the young woman, and told her we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her first and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain to her that god may be very properly said to answer our petitions, when, in the course of his providence, such things are in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we did not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular manner, and it is a mercy that it is not so. this the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there was no priestcraft used here; and i should have thought it one of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so. but the effect upon will atkins is really not to be expressed; and there, we may be sure, was no delusion. sure no man was ever more thankful in the world for anything of its kind than he was for the bible, nor, i believe, never any man was glad of a bible from a better principle; and though he had been a most profligate creature, headstrong, furious, and desperately wicked, yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well instructing children, viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, nor ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children be ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction; for if ever god in his providence touches the conscience of such, the force of their education turns upon them, and the early instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit of it. thus it was with this poor man: however ignorant he was of religion and christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with now more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of the instruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of use to him. among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to insist so much on the inexpressible value of the bible, and the privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the written oracle for his assistance. the young woman was glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship among their goods, which were not yet brought on shore. and now, having said so many things of this young woman, i cannot omit telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in it very instructive and remarkable. i have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board that unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was reduced to the last extremity. the gentlewoman, and her son, and this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and starved--that is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger. one day, being discoursing with her on the extremities they suffered, i asked her if she could describe, by what she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared? she said she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctly thus:-"first, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and suffered very great hunger; but at last we were wholly without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine and water. the first day after i had received no food at all, i found myself towards evening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer night much inclined to yawning and sleep. i lay down on the couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when i lay down; after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in the morning, i found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and lay down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus i continued all the second day with a strange variety--first hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit. the second night, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than a draught of fresh water, and being asleep, i dreamed i was at barbadoes, and that the market was mightily stocked with provisions; that i bought some for my mistress, and went and dined very heartily. i thought my stomach was full after this, as it would have been after a good dinner; but when i awaked i was exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of family. the last glass of wine we had i drank, and put sugar in it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon, i found the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and i lay, as they told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for some time. the third day, in the morning, after a night of strange, confused, and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, i awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and i question, had not my understanding returned and conquered it, whether if i had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe or not. this lasted about three hours, during which time i was twice raging mad as any creature in bedlam, as my young master told me, and as he can now inform you. "in one of these fits of lunacy or distraction i fell down and struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which my mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose; and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, i sat down and bled into it a great deal; and as the blood came from me i came to myself, and the violence of the flame or fever i was in abated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger. then i grew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for i had nothing in my stomach to bring up. after i had bled some time i swooned, and they all believed i was dead; but i came to myself soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described--not like the colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food; and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food. i took another draught of water with sugar in it; but my stomach loathed the sugar and brought it all up again; then i took a draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me; and i laid me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would please god to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, i slumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, being light with vapours from an empty stomach. i recommended my soul then to god, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the into the sea. "all this while my mistress lay by me, just, as i thought, expiring, but she bore it with much more patience than i, and gave the last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it; and i believe it saved his life. towards the morning i slept again, and when i awoke i fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger. i got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition; and once or twice i was going to bite my own arm. at last i saw the basin in which was the blood i had bled at my nose the day before: i ran to it, and swallowed it with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if i wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. after it was down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and i took another draught of water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours after. this was the fourth day; and this i kept up till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, i had all the several circumstances over again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, and my strength wasted exceedingly; at night i lay me down, having no comfort but in the hope that i should die before morning. "all this night i had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned into a disease; and i had a terrible colic and griping, by wind instead of food having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition i lay till morning, when i was surprised by the cries and lamentations of my young master, who called out to me that his mother was dead. i lifted myself up a little, for i had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life. i had then such convulsions in my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as i cannot describe; with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and in this condition i was when i heard the seamen above cry out, 'a sail! a sail!' and halloo and jump about as if they were distracted. i was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was so sick that i thought he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such confusion; nor had we had any conversation with the ship's company for twelve days, they having told us that they had not a mouthful of anything to eat in the ship; and this they told us afterwards--they thought we had been dead. it was this dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us, sir, you know as well as i, and better too." this was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to death, as, i confess, i never met with, and was exceeding instructive to me. i am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a good part of it; though i must own, not so distinct and so feeling as the maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose constitution was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless she might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something longer than she parted with any to relieve her maid. no question, as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not so providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all their lives. i now return to my disposition of things among the people. and, first, it is to be observed here, that for many reasons i did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop i had framed, and which i thought of setting up among them; for i found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among them, that i saw plainly, had i set up the sloop, and left it among them, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, and gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people, as i intended it; nor did i leave the two pieces of brass cannon that i had on board, or the extra two quarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason. i thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war against any that should invade them, but not to set them up for an offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. i reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as i shall observe in its place. having now done with the island, i left them all in good circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship again on the 6th of may, having been about twenty-five days among them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till i came to remove them, i promised to send them further relief from the brazils, if i could possibly find an opportunity. i particularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep, hogs, and cows: as to the two cows and calves which i brought from england, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them. the next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set sail, and arrived at the bay of all saints in the brazils in about twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this: that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed, and the current setting strong to the ene., running, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, "land to the eastward!" but whether it was the continent or islands we could not tell by any means. but the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were covered towards the land with something very black; not being able to discover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going up the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried out it was an army. i could not imagine what he meant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily. "nay, sir," says he, "don't be angry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too: for i believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle along, for they are coming towards us apace." i was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times, we should all be devoured. i must confess, considering we were becalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, i liked it the worse; however, i bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we must engage them. the weather continued calm, and they came on apace towards us, so i gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our sails; as for the savages, i told them they had nothing to fear but fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this i did, that the men in the boats might he ready with sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix to the outside of the ship. in this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by christians; though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred and twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six or seven. when they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know what to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to let them come too near them. this very order brought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it; for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. however, i called to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if they should shoot again. about half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell their design; and i easily found they were some of my old friends, the same sort of savages that i had been used to engage with. in a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, i ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; but being so near as to be within hearing, i made friday go out upon the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what they meant. whether they understood him or not, that i knew not; but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the foremost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and stooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere contempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately friday cried out they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my inexpressible grief, killed poor friday, no other man being in their sight. the poor fellow was shot with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky marksmen they were! i was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and companion, that i immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as they had never heard in their lives before. they were not above half a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only. the ill manners of turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neither did i know for certain whether that which would pass for the greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not; therefore, in return, i had only resolved to have fired four or five guns at them with powder only, which i knew would frighten them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor friday, whom i so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it, i thought myself not only justifiable before god and man, but would have been very glad if i could have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one of them. i can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming: the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot; so i suppose that many of them were lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life, above an hour after they were all gone. the small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that in three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set sail for the brazils. we had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he would neither cat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve himself to death. but i took a way to cure him: for i had made them take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him. then he followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however at last they took him in again, and then he began to be more tractable: nor did i ever design they should drown him. we were now under sail again, but i was the most disconsolate creature alive for want of my man friday, and would have been very glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so we went on. we had one prisoner, as i have said, and it was a long time before we could make him understand anything; but in time our men taught him some english, and he began to be a little tractable. afterwards, we inquired what country he came from; but could make nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we could never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language as well if they were gagged as otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat. he told us, however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little english, that they were going with their kings to fight a great battle. when he said kings, we asked him how many kings? he said they were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural 's), and that they all joined to go against two nation. we asked him what made them come up to us? he said, "to makee te great wonder look." here it is to be observed that all those natives, as also those of africa when they learn english, always add two e's at the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent upon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, i could hardly make friday leave it off, though at last he did. and now i name the poor fellow once more, i must take my last leave of him. poor honest friday! we buried him with all the decency and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing him into the sea; and i caused them to fire eleven guns for him. so ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had. we went now away with a fair wind for brazil; and in about twelve days' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of america. we kept on s. by e., in sight of the shore four days, when we made cape st. augustine, and in three days came to an anchor off the bay of all saints, the old place of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil fate. never ship came to this port that had less business than i had, and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least correspondence on shore: not my partner himself, who was alive, and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees, not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain me that favour. my partner, however, remembering that i had given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the augustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to the governor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and one more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this upon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should not offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person away without licence. they were so strict with us as to landing any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that i got on shore three bales of english goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and some linen, which i had brought for a present to my partner. he was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, like me, with little at first. though he knew not that i had the least design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirty moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals of gold: but i was even with him in my present, which, as i have said, consisted of fine broadcloth, english stuffs, lace, and fine holland; also, i delivered him about the value of one hundred pounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses; and i obliged him to set up the sloop, which i had brought with me from england, as i have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the refreshments i intended to my plantation. accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few days, for she was already framed; and i gave the master of her such instructions that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as i had an account from my partner afterwards. i got him soon loaded with the small cargo i sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settle there, upon my letter to the governor spaniard to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood, having been an old planter at maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain. i encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired; and, as an addition, i gave him the savage whom we had taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governor spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the rest. when we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was a certain very honest fellow, a brazil planter of his acquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure of the church. "i know not what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, i think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to conceal himself for fear of the inquisition." he then told me that he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two daughters; and if i would let them go to my island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small stock to begin with--for the officers of the inquisition had seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though i hate his principles, yet i would not have him fall into their hands, for he will be assuredly burned alive if he does." i granted this presently, and joined my englishman with them; and we concealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, till the sloop put out to go to sea; and then having put all their goods on board some time before, we put them on board the sloop after she was got out of the bay. our seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, rich in tools, in preparations, and a farm--but nothing to begin with, except as above: however, they carried over with them what was worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes, with some plants of canes, which he, i mean the brazil planter, understood very well. among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, i sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; about twenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-horse. for my spaniards, according to my promise, i engaged three brazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, and use them kindly. i could have procured more women, but i remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and that there were but five of the spaniards that wanted partners; the rest had wives of their own, though in another country. all this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a great many. i found letters at london from them all, by way of lisbon, when i came back to england. i have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about it: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years' miseries and disappointments--not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond example. chapter ix--dreadful occurrences in madagascar i had no more business to go to the east indies than a man at full liberty has to go to the turnkey at newgate, and desire him to lock him up among the prisoners there, and starve him. had i taken a small vessel from england and gone directly to the island; had i loaded her, as i did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for the plantation and for my people; taken a patent from the government here to have secured my property, in subjection only to that of england; had i carried over cannon and ammunition, servants and people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name of england, and increased it with people, as i might easily have done; had i then settled myself there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as i might also have done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to have fitted her out again for our supply--had i done this, and stayed there myself, i had at least acted like a man of common sense. but i was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages: i pleased myself with being the patron of the people i placed there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if i had been father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation. but i never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one nation more than another; nay, i never so much as gave the place a name, but left it as i found it, belonging to nobody, and the people under no discipline or government but my own, who, though i had influence over them as a father and benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or other, further than voluntary consent moved them to comply. yet even this, had i stayed there, would have done well enough; but as i rambled from them, and came there no more, the last letters i had from any of them were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent another sloop to the place, and who sent me word, though i had not the letter till i got to london, several years after it was written, that they went on but poorly; were discontented with their long stay there; that will atkins was dead; that five of the spaniards were come away; and though they had not been much molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with them; and that they begged of him to write to me to think of the promise i had made to fetch them away, that they might see their country again before they died. but i was gone a wildgoose chase indeed, and they that will have any more of me must be content to follow me into a new variety of follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein the justice of providence may be duly observed; and we may see how easily heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those very things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be allowed to possess. whether i had business or no business, away i went: it is no time now to enlarge upon the reason or absurdity of my own conduct, but to come to the history--i was embarked for the voyage, and the voyage i went. i shall only add a word or two concerning my honest popish clergyman, for let their opinion of us, and all other heretics in general, as they call us, be as uncharitable as it may, i verily believe this man was very sincere, and wished the good of all men: yet i believe he used reserve in many of his expressions, to prevent giving me offence; for i scarce heard him once call on the blessed virgin, or mention st. jago, or his guardian angel, though so common with the rest of them. however, i say i had not the least doubt of his sincerity and pious intentions; and i am firmly of opinion, if the rest of the popish missionaries were like him, they would strive to visit even the poor tartars and laplanders, where they have nothing to give them, as well as covet to flock to india, persia, china, &c., the most wealthy of the heathen countries; for if they expected to bring no gains to their church by it, it may well be admired how they came to admit the chinese confucius into the calendar of the christian saints. a ship being ready to sail for lisbon, my pious priest asked me leave to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to finish any voyage he began. how happy it had been for me if i had gone with him. but it was too late now; all things heaven appoints for the best: had i gone with him i had never had so many things to be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the second part of the travels and adventures of robinson crusoe: so i must here leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. from the brazils we made directly over the atlantic sea to the cape of good hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generally south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but my disasters at sea were at an end--my future rubs and cross events were to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as well prepared to be our scourge as the sea. our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the cape, only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to. this was none of my business, neither did i meddle with it; my nephew, the captain, and the supercargo adjusting all those things between them as they thought fit. we stayed at the cape no longer than was needful to take in-fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of coromandel. we were, indeed, informed that a french man-of-war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were gone for the indies; and as i knew we were at war with france, i had some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we heard no more of them. i shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places, journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes, trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one to another. we touched first at the island of madagascar, where, though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well with them a while. they treated us very civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, of a middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use. we were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished ourselves with provisions; and i, who was always too curious to look into every nook of the world wherever i came, went on shore as often as i could. it was on the east side of the island that we went on shore one evening: and the people, who, by the way, are very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a distance. as we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country not only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other side set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that they accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards them, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you; so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market for free converse, traffic, and commerce. when you go there you must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them, and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles, and lay hold of their weapons, and the truce is at an end. it happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater number of their people came down than usual, but all very friendly and civil; and they brought several kinds of provisions, for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had; the women also brought us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs or trees, and lay on shore all night. i know not what was the occasion, but i was not so well satisfied to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat riding at an anchor at about a stone's cast from the land, with two men in her to take care of her, i made one of them come on shore; and getting some boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, i spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and lay under the cover of the branches of the trees all night in the boat. about two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men making a terrible noise on the shore, calling out, for god's sake, to bring the boat in and come and help them, for they were all like to be murdered; and at the same time i heard the fire of five muskets, which was the number of guns they had, and that three times over; for it seems the natives here were not so easily frightened with guns as the savages were in america, where i had to do with them. all this while, i knew not what was the matter, but rousing immediately from sleep with the noise, i caused the boat to be thrust in, and resolved with three fusees we had on board to land and assist our men. we got the boat soon to the shore, but our men were in too much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged into the water, to get to the boat with all the expedition they could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men. our men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees with them; the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were of small use to them. we took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too, three of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse was, that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricade the side of the boat up with the benches, and two or three loose boards which, to our great satisfaction, we had by mere accident in the boat. and yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they would have been sure of us. we had, by the light of the moon, a little sight of them, as they stood pelting us from the shore with darts and arrows; and having got ready our firearms, we gave them a volley that we could hear, by the cries of some of them, had wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, which we supposed was that they might see the better to take their aim at us. in this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a tree with small shot. we made signals of distress to the ship, and though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her, to assist us. we called to them not to come too near, telling them what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us, and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the boat: upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the while lying close behind the barricade we had made. as soon as we were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a terrible havoc among them. when we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. at length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her, who also brought us some roots or herbs; and while the old woman (whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great noise: however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being almost dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose, made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice, raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was great odds but we had all been destroyed. one of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great while. we lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail up shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the loss had been less. i could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore once more, to try if i could learn anything of him or them; it was the third night after the action that i had a great mind to learn, if i could by any means, what mischief we had done, and how the game stood on the indians' side. i was careful to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again: but i ought indeed to have been sure that the men i went with had been under my command, before i engaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous as i was brought into by it, without design. we took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight, at the same place where the indians stood drawn up in the evening before. i landed here, because my design, as i have said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and i thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man again, by way of exchange. we landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies, whereof the boatswain commanded one and i the other. we neither saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed: and we marched up, one body at a distance from another, to the place. at first we could see nothing, it being very dark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. this made them halt a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were at the place where the indians had stood, they waited for my coming up there. we concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern the havoc we had made among them. we told thirty-two bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead; some had an arm and some a leg shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded, we supposed, they had carried away. when we had made, as i thought, a full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, i resolved on going on board; but the boatswain and his party sent me word that they were resolved to make a visit to the indian town, where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along with them; and if they could find them, as they still fancied they should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it might be they might find tom jeffry there: that was the man's name we had lost. had they sent to ask my leave to go, i knew well enough what answer to have given them; for i should have commanded them instantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a ship and shiploading in our charge, and a voyage to make which depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to go along with them, i positively refused it, and rose up, for i was sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat. one or two of the men began to importune me to go; and when i refused, began to grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go. "come, jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me? i'll go for one." jack said he would--and then another--and, in a word, they all left me but one, whom i persuaded to stay, and a boy left in the boat. so the supercargo and i, with the third man, went back to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and take care to take in as many of them as should be left; for i told them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of them would have the fate of tom jeffry. they told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come off again, and they would take care, &c.; so away they went. i entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their lives were not their own, and that they were entrusted with the voyage, in some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be lost for want of their help, and that they could not answer for it to god or man. but i might as well have talked to the mainmast of the ship: they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good words, and begged i would not be angry; that they did not doubt but they would be back again in about an hour at furthest; for the indian town, they said, was not above half-a mile off, though they found it above two miles before they got to it. well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them their due, they went about it as warily as boldly; they were gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a bayonet, and a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of them had hangers, and the boatswain and two more had poleaxes; besides all which they had among them thirteen hand grenadoes. bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked work in the world. when they went out their chief design was plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance which none of them were aware of set them on fire with revenge, and made devils of them all. when they came to the few indian houses which they thought had been the town, which was not above half a mile off, they were under great disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses, and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. they consulted, therefore, what to do, and were some time before they could resolve; for if they fell upon these, they must cut all their throats; and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he would run and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them; on the other hand, if they went away and left those untouched, for the people were all asleep, they could not tell which way to look for the town; however, the last was the best advice, so they resolved to leave them, and look for the town as well as they could. they went on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree; this, they presently concluded, would be a good guide to them; for, they said, the cow certainly belonged to the town before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied her, they should see which way she went: if she went back, they had nothing to say to her; but if she went forward, they would follow her. so they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went on before them, directly to the town; which, as they reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in some of these they found several families living together. here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could make them: and first, they called another council, to consider what they had to do; and presently resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them (if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then), and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder: but they resolved to march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it was of, and if they might venture upon it or no. they did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them: but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them, who were a little before the rest, called out aloud to them, and told them that they had found--tom jeffry: they all ran up to the place, where they found the poor fellow hanging up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. there was an indian house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their number. the sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and that not an indian that came into their hands should have any quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as might be expected from the rage and fury they were in. their first care was to get something that would soon take fire, but, after a little search, they found that would be to no purpose; for most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags and rushes, of which the country is full; so they presently made some wildfire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm of their hands, and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five places, and particularly that house where the indians were not gone to bed. as soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt; and especially at the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his poleaxe. the house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for a hand grenado, and threw it among them, which at first frightened them, but, when it burst, made such havoc among them that they cried out in a hideous manner. in short, most of the indians who were in the open part of the house were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets on the muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their way; but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince or king, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these were kept in till the house, which was by this time all in a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered together. all this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them. their business was to follow the fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one to another to remember tom jeffry. while this was doing, i must confess i was very uneasy, and especially when i saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to be close by me. my nephew, the captain, who was roused by his men seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger i was in, especially hearing the guns too, for by this time they began to use their firearms; a thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the supercargo, what would become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence we might be in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came ashore to me. he was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no more than two men; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing; for the noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity to know what had happened, or their concern for the safety of the men: in a word, the captain told me he would go and help his men, let what would come. i argued with him, as i did before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of the voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, &c., and told him i and the two men would go, and only see if we could at a distance learn what was likely to be the event, and come back and tell him. it was in vain to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest before; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want of help: he had rather lose the ship, the voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went. i was no more able to stay behind now than i was to persuade them not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the ship: for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought this mischief on. being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on; and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to the place of the flame. if the noise of the guns was surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another nature, and filled us with horror. i must confess i was never at the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. i had heard of oliver cromwell taking drogheda, in ireland, and killing man, woman, and child; and i had read of count tilly sacking the city of magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all sexes; but i never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our minds at hearing it. however, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. the first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before it, plainly now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances of rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it; or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be every one of them put to the worst of deaths. but this was not all: we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. we advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment, three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of our english butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot fell down in our sight. when the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies, and that we would murder them as well as those that pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women; and two of them fell down, as if already dead, with the fright. my very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, when i saw this; and, i believe, had the three english sailors that pursued them come on, i had made our men kill them all; however, we took some means to let the poor flying creatures know that we would not hurt them; and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to save them, which we let them know we would: whereupon they crept all together in a huddle close behind us, as for protection. i left my men drawn up together, and, charging them to hurt nobody, but, if possible, to get at some of our people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intended to do, and to command them off; assuring them that if they stayed till daylight they would have a hundred thousand men about their ears: i say i left them, and went among those flying people, taking only two of our men with me; and there was, indeed, a piteous spectacle among them. some of them had their feet terribly burned with trampling and running through the fire; others their hands burned; one of the women had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned before she could get out again; and two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shot through the body and died while i was there. i would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but i could not understand one word they said; though, by signs, i perceived some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves. i was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt that i could not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to go into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever might be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would; accordingly, as i came back to my men, i told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, came four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, roving over heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo; and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us. as soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without waiting to hear me, "captain," says he, "noble captain! i am glad you are come; we have not half done yet. villainous hell-hound dogs! i'll kill as many of them as poor tom has hairs upon his head: we have sworn to spare none of them; we'll root out the very nation of them from the earth;" and thus he ran on, out of breath, too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word. at last, raising my voice that i might silence him a little, "barbarous dog!" said i, "what are you doing! i won't have one creature touched more, upon pain of death; i charge you, upon your life, to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute."--"why, sir," says he, "do you know what you do, or what they have done? if you want a reason for what we have done, come hither;" and with that he showed me the poor fellow hanging, with his throat cut. i confess i was urged then myself, and at another time would have been forward enough; but i thought they had carried their rage too far, and remembered jacob's words to his sons simeon and levi: "cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel." but i had now a new task upon my hands; for when the men i had carried with me saw the sight, as i had done, i had as much to do to restrain them as i should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; and as to the people, he thought not one of them ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. upon these words, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his crew, to complete their bloody work; and i, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for i could not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands. i got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, and with these walked back to the boat. it was a very great piece of folly in me, i confess, to venture back, as it were, alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and boughs at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood, mentioned before: but by accident i missed the place, and came directly to the seaside, and by the time i got to the seaside it was broad day: immediately i took the pinnace and went on board, and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen. i observed, about the time that i came to the boat-side, that the fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half-an-hour after i got on board, i heard a volley of our men's firearms, and saw a great smoke. this, as i understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the men, who, as i said, stood at the few houses on the way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all the houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or children. by the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men began to appear; they came dropping in, not in two bodies as they went, but straggling here and there in such a manner, that a small force of resolute men might have cut them all off. but the dread of them was upon the whole country; and the men were surprised, and so frightened, that i believe a hundred of them would have fled at the sight of but five of our men. nor in all this terrible action was there a man that made any considerable defence: they were so surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again by another, so that they were everywhere knocked down; nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except one that sprained his foot, and another that had one of his hands burned. chapter x--he is left on shore i was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed with all the men, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so out of his duty as a commander of the ship, and having the charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting, rather than cooling, the rage of his blind men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise. my nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in so cruel and barbarous a manner, he was not master of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship; but as he was a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it. as for the rest of the men, they were not subject to me at all, and they knew it well enough; so they took no notice of my dislike. the next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. our men differed in the account of the number they had killed; but according to the best of their accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about one hundred and fifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town. as for the poor fellow tom jeffry, as he was quite dead (for his throat was so cut that his head was half off), it would do him no service to bring him away; so they only took him down from the tree, where he was hanging by one hand. however just our men thought this action, i was against them in it, and i always, after that time, told them god would blast the voyage; for i looked upon all the blood they shed that night to be murder in them. for though it is true that they had killed tom jeffry, yet jeffry was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had ill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down to them innocently, and on the faith of the public capitulation. the boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on board. he said it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but really had not; and that the war was begun the night before by the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them now, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poor man had taken a little liberty with the girl, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such a villainous manner: and that they did nothing but what was just and what the laws of god allowed to be done to murderers. one would think this should have been enough to have warned us against going on shore amongst the heathens and barbarians; but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own expense, and their experience seems to be always of most use to them when it is dearest bought. we were now bound to the gulf of persia, and from thence to the coast of coromandel, only to touch at surat; but the chief of the supercargo's design lay at the bay of bengal, where, if he missed his business outwardbound, he was to go out to china, and return to the coast as he came home. the first disaster that befell us was in the gulf of persia, where five of our men, venturing on shore on the arabian side of the gulf, were surrounded by the arabians, and either all killed or carried away into slavery; the rest of the boat's crew were not able to rescue them, and had but just time to get off their boat. i began to upbraid them with the just retribution of heaven in this case; but the boatswain very warmly told me, he thought i went further in my censures than i could show any warrant for in scripture; and referred to luke xiii. 4, where our saviour intimates that those men on whom the tower of siloam fell were not sinners above all the galileans; but that which put me to silence in the case was, that not one of these five men who were now lost were of those who went on shore to the massacre of madagascar, so i always called it, though our men could not bear to hear the word _massacre_ with any patience. but my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences than i expected; and the boatswain, who had been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found that i brought that affair continually upon the stage; that i made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and himself in particular; that as i was but a passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know but i might have some ill-design in my head, and perhaps to call them to an account for it when they came to england; and that, therefore, unless i would resolve to have done with it, and also not to concern myself any further with him, or any of his affairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it safe to sail with me among them. i heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him that i confessed i had all along opposed the massacre of madagascar, and that i had, on all occasions, spoken my mind freely about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as to having no command in the ship, that was true; nor did i exercise any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things which publicly concerned us all; and what concern i had in the voyage was none of his business; that i was a considerable owner in the ship. in that claim i conceived i had a right to speak even further than i had done, and would not be accountable to him or any one else, and began to be a little warm with him. he made but little reply to me at that time, and i thought the affair had been over. we were at this time in the road at bengal; and being willing to see the place, i went on shore with the supercargo in the ship's boat to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he would not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board any more. any one may guess what a surprise i was in at so insolent a message; and i asked the man who bade him deliver that message to me? he told me the coxswain. i immediately found out the supercargo, and told him the story, adding that i foresaw there would be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately on board and acquaint the captain of it. but i might have spared this intelligence, for before i had spoken to him on shore the matter was effected on board. the boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and all the inferior officers, as soon as i was gone off in the boat, came up, and desired to speak with the captain; and then the boatswain, making a long harangue, and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain that as i was now gone peaceably on shore, they were loath to use any violence with me, which, if i had not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone. they therefore thought fit to tell him that as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it well and faithfully; but if i would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no further with him; and at that word _all_ he turned his face towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, a signal agreed on, when the seamen, being got together there, cried out, "_one and all_! _one and all_!" my nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence of mind; and though he was surprised, yet he told them calmly that he would consider of the matter, but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it. he used some arguments with them, to show them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round before his face, that they would all go on shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come any more on board the ship. this was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and did not know how i might take it. so he began to talk smartly to them; told them that i was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that if ever they came to england again it would cost them very dear; that the ship was mine, and that he could not put me out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much: so they might do as they pleased. however, he would go on shore and talk with me, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter with me. but they all rejected the proposal, and said they would have nothing to do with me any more; and if i came on board they would all go on shore. "well," said the captain, "if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore and talk with him." so away he came to me with this account, a little after the message had been brought to me from the coxswain. i was very glad to see my nephew, i must confess; for i was not without apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set sail, and run away with the ship; and then i had been stripped naked in a remote country, having nothing to help myself; in short, i had been in a worse case than when i was alone in the island. but they had not come to that length, it seems, to my satisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how they had sworn and shook hands that they would, one and all, leave the ship if i was suffered to come on board, i told him he should not be concerned at it at all, for i would stay on shore. i only desired he would take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and i would find my way to england as well as i could. this was a heavy piece of news to my nephew, but there was no way to help it but to comply; so, in short, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship; so that the matter was over in a few hours, the men returned to their duty, and i began to consider what course i should steer. i was now alone in a most remote part of the world, for i was near three thousand leagues by sea farther off from england than i was at my island; only, it is true, i might travel here by land over the great mogul's country to surat, might go from thence to bassora by sea, up the gulf of persia, and take the way of the caravans, over the desert of arabia, to aleppo and scanderoon; from thence by sea again to italy, and so overland into france. i had another way before me, which was to wait for some english ships, which were coming to bengal from achin, on the island of sumatra, and get passage on board them from england. but as i came hither without any concern with the east indian company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of the captains of the ships, or the company's factors: and to both i was an utter stranger. here i had the mortification to see the ship set sail without me; however, my nephew left me two servants, or rather one companion and one servant; the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me, and the other was his own servant. i then took a good lodging in the house of an englishwoman, where several merchants lodged, some french, two italians, or rather jews, and one englishman. here i stayed above nine months, considering what course to take. i had some english goods with me of value, and a considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more if i had occasion, that i might not be straitened, whatever might happen. i quickly disposed of my goods to advantage; and, as i originally intended, i bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all other things, were the most proper for me in my present circumstances, because i could always carry my whole estate about me. during my stay here many proposals were made for my return to england, but none falling out to my mind, the english merchant who lodged with me, and whom i had contracted an intimate acquaintance with, came to me one morning, saying: "countryman, i have a project to communicate, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for aught i know, suit with yours also, when you shall have thoroughly considered it. here we are posted, you by accident and i by my own choice, in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it is in a country where, by us who understand trade and business, a great deal of money is to be got. if you will put one thousand pounds to my one thousand pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds. you shall be captain, i'll be merchant, and we'll go a trading voyage to china; for what should we stand still for? the whole world is in motion; why should we be idle?" i liked this proposal very well; and the more so because it seemed to be expressed with so much goodwill. in my loose, unhinged circumstances, i was the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, or indeed anything else. i might perhaps say with some truth, that if trade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeing any part of the world which i had never seen before could possibly come amiss to me. it was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our minds, and when we had got a vessel, it was not easy to get english sailors--that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage and manage the sailors which we should pick up there. after some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, english; a dutch carpenter, and three foremast men. with these we found we could do well enough, having indian seamen, such as they were, to make up. when all was ready we set sail for achin, in the island of sumatra, and from thence to siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium and some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price among the chinese, and which at that time was much wanted there. then we went up to saskan, were eight months out, and on our return to bengal i was very well satisfied with my adventure. our people in england often admire how officers, which the company send into india, and the merchants which generally stay there, get such very great estates as they do, and sometimes come home worth sixty or seventy thousand pounds at a time; but it is little matter for wonder, when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a free commerce; indeed, at the ports where the english ships come there is such great and constant demands for the growth of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the returns, as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out. i got so much money by my first adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting more, that had i been twenty years younger, i should have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther for making my fortune; but what was all this to a man upwards of threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the world than a covetous desire of gaining by it? a restless desire it really was, for when i was at home i was restless to go abroad; and when i was abroad i was restless to be at home. i say, what was this gain to me? i was rich enough already, nor had i any uneasy desires about getting more money; therefore the profit of the voyage to me was of no great force for the prompting me forward to further undertakings. hence, i thought that by this voyage i had made no progress at all, because i was come back, as i might call it, to the place from whence i came, as to a home: whereas, my eye, like that which solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing. i was come into a part of the world which i was never in before, and that part, in particular, which i heard much of, and was resolved to see as much of it as i could: and then i thought i might say i had seen all the world that was worth seeing. but my fellow-traveller and i had different notions: i acknowledge his were the more suited to the end of a merchant's life: who, when he is abroad upon adventures, is wise to stick to that, as the best thing for him, which he is likely to get the most money by. on the other hand, mine was the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that never cares to see a thing twice over. but this was not all: i had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet an unsettled resolution which way to go. in the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the search for business, proposed another voyage among the spice islands, to bring home a loading of cloves from the manillas, or thereabouts. we were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty was in bringing me to come into it. however, at last, nothing else offering, and as sitting still, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of life, i resolved on this voyage too, which we made very successfully, touching at borneo and several other islands, and came home in about five months, when we sold our spices, with very great profit, to the persian merchants, who carried them away to the gulf. my friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: "well, now," said he, with a sort of friendly rebuke on my indolent temper, "is not this better than walking about here, like a man with nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorance of the pagans?"--"why, truly," said i, "my friend, i think it is, and i begin to be a convert to the principles of merchandising; but i must tell you, by the way, you do not know what i am doing; for if i once conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, old as i am, i shall harass you up and down the world till i tire you; for i shall pursue it so eagerly, i shall never let you lie still." chapter xi--warned of danger by a countryman a little while after this there came in a dutch ship from batavia; she was a coaster, not an european trader, of about two hundred tons burden; the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly that the captain had not hands enough to go to sea with, so he lay by at bengal; and having, it seems, got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to go for europe, he gave public notice he would sell his ship. this came to my ears before my new partner heard of it, and i had a great mind to buy it; so i went to him and told him of it. he considered a while, for he was no rash man neither; and at last replied, "she is a little too big--however, we will have her." accordingly, we bought the ship, and agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession. when we had done so we resolved to engage the men, if we could, to join with those we had, for the pursuing our business; but, on a sudden, they having received not their wages, but their share of the money, as we afterwards learned, not one of them was to be found; we inquired much about them, and at length were told that they were all gone together by land to agra, the great city of the mogul's residence, to proceed from thence to surat, and then go by sea to the gulf of persia. nothing had so much troubled me a good while as that i should miss the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, i thought, and in such company as would both have guarded and diverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design; and i should have both seen the world and gone homeward too. but i was much better satisfied a few days after, when i came to know what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which they had been attacked on shore by some of the malays, who had killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was killed, these men, eleven in number, having resolved to run away with the ship, brought her to bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore. well, let them get the ship how they would, we came honestly by her, as we thought, though we did not, i confess, examine into things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired anything of the seamen, who would certainly have faltered in their account, and contradicted one another. somehow or other we should have had reason to have suspected, them; but the man showed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one emanuel clostershoven, or some such name, for i suppose it was all a forgery, and called himself by that name, and we could not contradict him: and withal, having no suspicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain. we picked up some more english sailors here after this, and some dutch, and now we resolved on a second voyage to the south-east for cloves, &c.--that is to say, among the philippine and malacca isles. in short, not to fill up this part of my story with trifles when what is to come is so remarkable, i spent, from first to last, six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with very good success, and was now the last year with my new partner, going in the ship above mentioned, on a voyage to china, but designing first to go to siam to buy rice. in this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a great while in the straits of malacca and among the islands, we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas than we found our ship had sprung a leak, but could not discover where it was. this forced us to make some port; and my partner, who knew the country better than i did, directed the captain to put into the river of cambodia; for i had made the english mate, one mr. thompson, captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself. this river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes up to siam. while we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there comes to me one day an englishman, a gunner's mate on board an english east india ship, then riding in the same river. "sir," says he, addressing me, "you are a stranger to me, and i to you; but i have something to tell you that very nearly concerns you. i am moved by the imminent danger you are in, and, for aught i see, you have no knowledge of it."--"i know no danger i am in," said i, "but that my ship is leaky, and i cannot find it out; but i intend to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if i can find it."--"but, sir," says he, "leaky or not leaky, you will be wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow when you hear what i have to say to you. do you know, sir," said he, "the town of cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up the river; and there are two large english ships about five leagues on this side, and three dutch?"--"well," said i, "and what is that to me?"--"why, sir," said be, "is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are there, and whether he is able to deal with them? i suppose you do not think you are a match for them?" i could not conceive what he meant; and i turned short upon him, and said: "i wish you would explain yourself; i cannot imagine what reason i have to be afraid of any of the company's ships, or dutch ships. i am no interloper. what can they have to say to me?"--"well, sir," says he, with a smile, "if you think yourself secure you must take your chance; but take my advice, if you do not put to sea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by five longboats full of men, and perhaps if you are taken you will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined afterwards. i thought, sir," added he, "i should have met with a better reception than this for doing you a piece of service of such importance."--"i can never be ungrateful," said i, "for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehension what they should have such a design upon me for: however, since you say there is no time to be lost, and that there is some villainous design on hand against me, i will go on board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the leak; but, sir," said i, "shall i go away ignorant of the cause of all this? can you give me no further light into it?" "i can tell you but part of the story, sir," says he; "but i have a dutch seaman here with me, and i believe i could persuade him to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it. but the short of the story is this--the first part of which i suppose you know well enough--that you were with this ship at sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the malays, with three of his men; and that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned pirates. this is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized as pirates, i can assure you, and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant ships show but little law to pirates if they get them into their power."--"now you speak plain english," said i, "and i thank you; and though i know nothing that we have done like what you talk of, for i am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such a work is doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, i will be upon my guard."--"nay, sir," says he, "do not talk of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of danger. if you have any regard for your life and the lives of all your men, put to sea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high-water, and as they have twenty miles to come, you will get near two hours of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows."--"well," said i, "you have been very kind in this: what shall i do to make you amends?"--"sir," says he, "you may not be willing to make me any amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it. i will make an offer to you: i have nineteen months' pay due to me on board the ship ---, which i came out of england in; and the dutchman that is with me has seven months' pay due to him. if you will make good our pay to us we will go along with you; if you find nothing more in it we will desire no more; but if we do convince you that we have saved your lives, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you." i consented to this readily, and went immediately on board, and the two men with me. as soon as i came to the ship's side, my partner, who was on board, came out on the quarter-deck, and called to me, with a great deal of joy, "we have stopped the leak--we have stopped the leak!"--"say you so?" said i; "thank god; but weigh anchor, then, immediately."--"weigh!" says he; "what do you mean by that? what is the matter?"--"ask no questions," said i; "but set all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute." he was surprised; however, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite down, yet a little land-breeze blowing, we stood out to sea. then i called him into the cabin, and told him the story; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it; but as it took up a great deal of time, before we had done a seaman comes to the cabin door, and called out to us that the captain bade him tell us we were chased by five sloops, or boats, full of men. "very well," said i, "then it is apparent there is something in it." i then ordered all our men to be called up, and told them there was a design to seize the ship, and take us for pirates, and asked them if they would stand by us, and by one another; the men answered cheerfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us. then i asked the captain what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist them i was resolved we would, and that to the last drop. he said readily, that the way was to keep them off with our great shot as long as we could, and then to use our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we would retire to our close quarters, for perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulkheads, or get in upon us. the gunner had in the meantime orders to bring two guns, to bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them with musketbullets, and small pieces of old iron, and what came next to hand. thus we made ready for fight; but all this while we kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being five large longboats, following us with all the sail they could make. two of those boats (which by our glasses we could see were english) outsailed the rest, were near two leagues ahead of them, and gained upon us considerably, so that we found they would come up with us; upon which we fired a gun without ball, to intimate that they should bring to: and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley: but they came crowding after us till within shot, when we took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it, and hung out a red flag, and fired at them with a shot. notwithstanding this, they came on till they were near enough to call to them with a speaking-trumpet, bidding them keep off at their peril. it was all one; they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come under our stern, so as to board us on our quarter; upon which, seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that followed them, i ordered to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon our broadside; when immediately we fired five guns at them, one of which had been levelled so true as to carry away the stern of the hindermost boat, and we then forced them to take down their sail, and to run all to the head of the boat, to keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost boat crowd on after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular. while this was doing one of the three boats that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve her, and we could see her take out the men. we then called again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parley again, and to know what her business was with us; but had no answer, only she crowded close under our stern. upon this, our gunner who was a very dexterous fellow ran out his two caseguns, and fired again at her, but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on. the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a second time, one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see did a great deal of mischief among them. we now wore the ship again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three guns more, we found the boat was almost split to pieces; in particular, her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot quite away; so they handed her sail immediately, and were in great disorder. to complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some of the men already in the water: upon this, i immediately manned out our pinnace, with orders to pick up some of the men if they could, and save them from drowning, and immediately come on board ship with them, because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. our men in the pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men, one of whom was just drowning, and it was a good while before we could recover him. as soon as they were on board we crowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to the sea; and we found that when the other boats came up to the first, they gave over their chase. being thus delivered from a danger which, though i knew not the reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than i apprehended, i resolved that we should change our course, and not let any one know whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of all european ships, whether they were bound to china or anywhere else, within the commerce of the european nations. when we were at sea we began to consult with the two seamen, and inquire what the meaning of all this should be; and the dutchman confirmed the gunner's story about the false sale of the ship and of the murder of the captain, and also how that he, this dutchman, and four more got into the woods, where they wandered about a great while, till at length he made his escape, and swam off to a dutch ship, which was sailing near the shore in its way from china. he then told us that he went to batavia, where two of the seamen belonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the rest in their travels, and gave an account that the fellow who had run away with the ship, sold her at bengal to a set of pirates, who were gone a-cruising in her, and that they had already taken an english ship and two dutch ships very richly laden. this latter part we found to concern us directly, though we knew it to be false; yet, as my partner said, very justly, if we had fallen into their hands, and they had had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any good quarter at their hands; especially considering that our accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and an ungoverned passion have executed. therefore it was his opinion we should go directly back to bengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever--because where we could give a good account of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship put in, of whom we bought her, and the like; and what was more than all the rest, if we were put upon the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice, and not to be hanged first and judged afterwards. i was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more serious thinking, i told him i thought it was a very great hazard for us to attempt returning to bengal, for that we were on the wrong side of the straits of malacca, and that if the alarm was given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side--that if we should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. i also asked the english sailor's opinion, who said he was of my mind, and that we certainly should be taken. this danger a little startled my partner and all the ship's company, and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of tonquin, and so on to the coast of china--and pursuing the first design as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels of the country such as we could get. this was approved of as the best method for our security, and accordingly we steered away nne., keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward. this, however, put us to some inconvenience: for, first, the winds, when we came that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call it, from the e. and ene., so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and what was still worse, there was some danger that those english and dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, might have got in before us, and if not, some other ship bound to china might have information of us from them, and pursue us with the same vigour. i must confess i was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including the late escape from the longboats, to have been in the most dangerous condition that ever i was in through my past life; for whatever ill circumstances i had been in, i was never pursued for a thief before; nor had i ever done anything that merited the name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. i had chiefly been my own enemy, or, as i may rightly say, i had been nobody's enemy but my own; but now i was woefully embarrassed: for though i was perfectly innocent, i was in no condition to make that innocence appear; and if i had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt of the worst kind. this made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it i knew not, or what port or place we could go to. my partner endeavoured to encourage me by describing the several ports of that coast, and told me he would put in on the coast of cochin china, or the bay of tonquin, intending afterwards to go to macao, where a great many european families resided, and particularly the missionary priests, who usually went thither in order to their going forward to china. hither then we resolved to go; and, accordingly, though after a tedious course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon reflection on the past circumstances of danger we were in, we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland or by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port thereabouts. this happy step was, indeed, our deliverance: for though we did not immediately see any european ships in the bay of tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two dutch ships; and a third without any colours spread out, but which we believed to be a dutchman, passed by at about two leagues' distance, steering for the coast of china; and in the afternoon went by two english ships steering the same course; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies both one way and the other. the place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people thieves by occupation; and though it is true we had not much to seek of them, and, except getting a few provisions, cared not how little we had to do with them, yet it was with much difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways. we were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of its utmost limits northward; and by our boat we coasted northeast to the point of land which opens the great bay of tonquin; and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered we were surrounded with enemies. the people we were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; and among other customs they have this one: that if any vessel has the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they make the men all prisoners or slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of their kindness this way, on the occasion following. i have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that we could not find it out; and it happened that, as i have said, it was stopped unexpectedly, on the eve of our being pursued by the dutch and english ships in the bay of siam; yet, as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved while we were at this place to lay her on shore, and clean her bottom, and, if possible, to find out where the leaks were. accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns and other movables to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we might come at her bottom; but, on second thoughts, we did not care to lay her on dry ground, neither could we find out a proper place for it. chapter xii--the carpenter's whimsical contrivance the inhabitants came wondering down the shore to look at us; and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling in towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages, and with their boats on the off-side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay fast on the ground. on this supposition they came about us in two or three hours' time with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plundered the ship, and if they found us there, to have carried us away for slaves. when they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they discovered us all hard at work on the outside of the ship's bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring man knows how. they stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work, to defend themselves with if there should be occasion. and it was no more than need: for in less than a quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck, and that we were all at work endeavouring to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the boat, they concluded, by that act, that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. upon this, they took it for granted we all belonged to them, and away they came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line-of-battle. our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frightened, for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what they should do. i immediately called to the men that worked upon the stages to slip them down, and get up the side into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board. the few who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights; however, neither the men upon the stages nor those in the boats could do as they were ordered before the cochin chinese were upon them, when two of their boats boarded our longboat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners. the first man they laid hold of was an english seaman, a stout, strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as i thought; but he understood his business better than i could teach him, for he grappled the pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head so against the boat's gunnel that the fellow died in his hands. in the meantime, a dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attempted to enter the boat. but this was doing little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the longboat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but the following accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a complete victory. our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat, one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with the hot stuff. two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow stood in the foresheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladle full of the stuff, boiling hot which so burned and scalded them, being half-naked that they roared out like bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. the carpenter saw it, and cried out, "well done, jack! give them some more of it!" and stepping forward himself, takes one of the mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully that, in short, of all the men in the three boats, there was not one that escaped being scalded in a most frightful manner, and made such a howling and crying that i never heard a worse noise. i was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the seaman killed with his naked hands, and which i was very much concerned at. although it maybe a just thing, because necessary (for there is no necessary wickedness in nature), yet i thought it was a sad sort of life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, i think so still; and i would even now suffer a great deal rather than i would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me; and i believe all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it. all the while this was doing, my partner and i, who managed the rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity brought the ship almost to rights, and having got the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among them. i called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; but bid him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on broad, took care of. however, the enemy was so terrified with what they had met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected. thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having got some rice and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs, on board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our pitchkettle would dispose of for us. we therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail: in the meantime, lying at anchor at some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. the next day, having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. we would have gone into the bay of tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on ne. towards the island of formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a dutch or english merchant ship as a dutch or english merchant ship in the mediterranean is of an algerine man-of-war. when we were thus got to sea, we kept on ne., as if we would go to the manillas or the philippine islands; and this we did that we might not fall into the way of any of the european ships; and then we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 30 seconds, by which means we made the island of formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains. this is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of christianity which was once planted here by a dutch missionary of protestants, and it is a testimony of what i have often observed, viz. that the christian religion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no. from thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of china at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of china where our european ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined. being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and standing in for the shore, a boat came of two leagues to us with an old portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an european ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back. i thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that i began to talk to him about carrying us to the gulf of nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast of china. the old man said he knew the gulf of nankin very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there? i told him we would sell our cargo and purchase china wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c.; and so we would return by the same course we came. he told us our best port would have been to put in at macao, where we could not have failed of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might for our money have purchased all sorts of china goods as cheap as we could at nankin. not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very opinionated or conceited, i told him we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of china. "why, then," says the old man, "you should go to ningpo, where, by the river which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal. this canal is a navigable stream, which goes through the heart of that vast empire of china, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues."--"well," said i, "seignior portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city of nankin, from whence we can travel to pekin afterwards?" he said he could do so very well, and that there was a great dutch ship gone up that way just before. this gave me a little shock, for a dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if he had not come in too frightful a figure; and we depended upon it that a dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we were. the old man found me a little confused, and under some concern when he named a dutch ship, and said to me, "sir, you need be under no apprehensions of the dutch; i suppose they are not now at war with your nation?"--"no," said i, "that's true; but i know not what liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws of their own country."--"why," says he, "you are no pirates; what need you fear? they will not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure." these words put me into the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but the old man easily perceived it. "sir," says he, "i find you are in some disorder in your thoughts at my talk: pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and depend upon it, i'll do you all the service i can." upon this we fell into further discourse, in which, to my alarm and amazement, he spoke of the villainous doings of a certain pirate ship that had long been the talk of mariners in those seas; no other, in a word, than the very ship he was now on board of, and which we had so unluckily purchased. i presently saw there was no help for it but to tell him the plain truth, and explain all the danger and trouble we had suffered through this misadventure, and, in particular, our earnest wish to be speedily quit of the ship altogether; for which reason we had resolved to carry her up to nankin. the old man was amazed at this relation, and told us we were in the right to go away to the north; and that, if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in china, which we might well do, and buy, or build another in the country; adding that i should meet with customers enough for the ship at nankin, that a chinese junk would serve me very well to go back again, and that he would procure me people both to buy one and sell the other. "well, but, seignior," said i, "as you say they know the ship so well, i may, perhaps, if i follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some honest, innocent men into a terrible broil; for wherever they find the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this was the ship."--"why," says the old man, "i'll find out a way to prevent that; for as i know all those commanders you speak of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, i will be sure to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates; and that, in particular, these were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; and i am persuaded they will so far believe me as at least to act more cautiously for the time to come." in about thirteen days' sail we came to an anchor, at the south-west point of the great gulf of nankin; where i learned by accident that two dutch ships were gone the length before me, and that i should certainly fall into their hands. i consulted my partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as i was. i then asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour which i might put into and pursue my business with the chinese privately, and be in no danger of the enemy. he told me if i would sail to the southward about forty-two leagues, there was a little port called quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from macao, on their progress to teach the christian religion to the chinese, and where no european ships ever put in; and if i thought to put in there, i might consider what further course to take when i was on shore. he confessed, he said, it was not a place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants from japan came over thither to buy chinese merchandises. the name of the port i may perhaps spell wrong, having lost this, together with the names of many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was spoiled by the water by an accident; but this i remember, that the chinese merchants we corresponded with called it by a different name from that which our portuguese pilot gave it, who pronounced it quinchang. as we were unanimous in our resolution to go to this place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore where we were, to get fresh water; on both which occasions the people of the country were very civil, and brought abundance of provisions to sell to us; but nothing without money. we did not come to the other port (the wind being contrary) for five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and i was thankful when i set my foot on shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, though not profitably, we would never more set foot on board that unhappy vessel. indeed, i must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that ever i had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in constant fear. well does the scripture say, "the fear of man brings a snare"; it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely oppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief. nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heightening every danger; representing the english and dutch captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or of distinguishing between honest men and rogues; or between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true, genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, and design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable creatures that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board, the course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into such and such ports; and even our very manner, the force we had, the number of men, the few arms, the little ammunition, short provisions; all these would have served to convince any men that we were no pirates. the opium and other goods we had on board would make it appear the ship had been at bengal. the dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of english, portuguese, and indians, and but two dutchmen on board. these, and many other particular circumstances, might have made it evident to the understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates. but fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, and threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set the imagination at work to form a thousand terrible things that perhaps might never happen. we first supposed, as indeed everybody had related to us, that the seamen on board the english and dutch ships, but especially the dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats and escaping, that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we were pirates or no, but would execute us offhand, without giving us any room for a defence. we reflected that there really was so much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire after any more; as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the river of cambodia that they were coming down to examine us, we fought their boats and fled. therefore we made no doubt but they were as fully satisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied of the contrary; and, as i often said, i know not but i should have been apt to have taken those circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and my case was theirs; and have made no scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their defence. but let that be how it will, these were our apprehensions; and both my partner and i scarce slept a night without dreaming of halters and yardarms; of fighting, and being taken; of killing, and being killed: and one night i was in such a fury in my dream, fancying the dutchmen had boarded us, and i was knocking one of their seamen down, that i struck my doubled fist against the side of the cabin i lay in with such a force as wounded my hand grievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, so that it awaked me out of my sleep. another apprehension i had was, the cruel usage we might meet with from them if we fell into their hands; then the story of amboyna came into my head, and how the dutch might perhaps torture us, as they did our countrymen there, and make some of our men, by extremity of torture, confess to crimes they never were guilty of, or own themselves and all of us to be pirates, and so they would put us to death with a formal appearance of justice; and that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and cargo, worth altogether four or five thousand pounds. we did not consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act thus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it when they came to their country. however, if they were to act thus with us, what advantage would it be to us that they should be called to an account for it?--or if we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to have them punished when they came home? i cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections i now had upon the vast variety of my particular circumstances; how hard i thought it that i, who had spent forty years in a life of continual difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, to the port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows by my own unhappy choice, and that i, who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime which i was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of. after these thoughts something of religion would come in; and i would be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate providence, and i ought to look upon it and submit to it as such. for, although i was innocent as to men, i was far from being innocent as to my maker; and i ought to look in and examine what other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and thus i ought to submit to this, just as i would to a shipwreck, if it had pleased god to have brought such a disaster upon me. in its turn natural courage would sometimes take its place, and then i would be talking myself up to vigorous resolutions; that i would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of merciless wretches in cold blood; that it were much better to have fallen into the hands of the savages, though i were sure they would feast upon me when they had taken me, than those who would perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and barbarities; that in the case of the savages, i always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp, and why should i not do so now? whenever these thoughts prevailed, i was sure to put myself into a kind of fever with the agitation of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle, as if i was engaged, and i always resolved to take no quarter at their hands; but even at last, if i could resist no longer, i would blow up the ship and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to boast of. chapter xiii--arrival in china the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of these things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to stand longer under it; but that the portuguese pilot came and took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him appearing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; they were all like men who had a load taken off their backs. for my part i had a weight taken off from my heart that it was not able any longer to bear; and as i said above we resolved to go no more to sea in that ship. when we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, together with a warehouse for our goods; it was a little hut, with a larger house adjoining to it, built and also palisadoed round with canes, to keep out pilferers, of which there were not a few in that country: however, the magistrates allowed us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of half-pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice and a piece of money about the value of three-pence per day, so that our goods were kept very safe. the fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over some time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two ships from japan, with goods which they had bought in china, and were not gone away, having some japanese merchants on shore. the first thing our old portuguese pilot did for us was to get us acquainted with three missionary romish priests who were in the town, and who had been there some time converting the people to christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and made them but sorry christians when they had done. one of these was a frenchman, whom they called father simon; another was a portuguese; and a third a genoese. father simon was courteous, and very agreeable company; but the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants wherever they had opportunity. we often ate and drank with those men; and though i must confess the conversion, as they call it, of the chinese to christianity is so far from the true conversion required to bring heathen people to the faith of christ, that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the name of christ, and say some prayers to the virgin mary and her son, in a tongue which they understood not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that the religionists, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that these people will be saved, and that they are the instruments of it; and on this account they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and the hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself, and the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work. father simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go up to pekin, and waited only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from macao, to go along with him. we scarce ever met together but he was inviting me to go that journey; telling me how he would show me all the glorious things of that mighty empire, and, among the rest, pekin, the greatest city in the world: "a city," said he, "that your london and our paris put together cannot be equal to." but as i looked on those things with different eyes from other men, so i shall give my opinion of them in a few words, when i come in the course of my travels to speak more particularly of them. dining with father simon one day, and being very merry together, i showed some little inclination to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very hard to consent. "why, father," says my partner, "should you desire our company so much? you know we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor cannot keep us company with any pleasure."--"oh," says he, "you may perhaps be good catholics in time; my business here is to convert heathens, and who knows but i may convert you too?"--"very well, father," said i, "so you will preach to us all the way?"--"i will not be troublesome to you," says he; "our religion does not divest us of good manners; besides, we are here like countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place we are in; and if you are huguenots, and i a catholic, we may all be christians at last; at least, we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so, without being uneasy to one another." i liked this part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that i had left in the brazils; but father simon did not come up to his character by a great deal; for though this friar had no appearance of a criminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund of christian zeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion that my other good ecclesiastic had. but to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor solicited us to go with him; we had something else before us at first, for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of, and we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in a place of very little business. once i was about to venture to sail for the river of kilam, and the city of nankin; but providence seemed now more visibly, as i thought, than ever to concern itself in our affairs; and i was encouraged, from this very time, to think i should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance, and be brought home to my own country again, though i had not the least view of the manner. providence, i say, began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our old portuguese pilot brought a japan merchant to us, who inquired what goods we had: and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten or twelves ounces each. while we were dealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might perhaps deal for the ship too, and i ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. he shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me, which was this: he had bought a great quantity of our goods, when he had no thoughts of proposals made to him of buying the ship; and that, therefore, he had not money to pay for the ship: but if i would let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to japan; and would send them from thence to the philippine islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from japan: and that at their return he would buy the ship. i began to listen to his proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon rambling, that i could not but begin to entertain a notion of going myself with him, and so to set sail from the philippine islands away to the south seas; accordingly, i asked the japanese merchant if he would not hire us to the philippine islands and discharge us there. he said no, he could not do that, for then he could not have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in japan, at the ship's return. well, still i was for taking him at that proposal, and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas as of the japanese, who are a false, cruel, and treacherous people; likewise those of the spaniards at the philippines, more false, cruel, and treacherous than they. but to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion; the first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the ship, and with his men, and know if they were willing to go to japan. while i was doing this, the young man whom my nephew had left with me as my companion came up, and told me that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if i undertook it; but that if i would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a merchant, or as i pleased to order him; that if ever he came to england, and i was there and alive, he would render me a faithful account of his success, which should be as much mine as i pleased. i was loath to part with him; but considering the prospect of advantage, which really was considerable, and that he was a young fellow likely to do well in it, i inclined to let him go; but i told him i would consult my partner, and give him an answer the next day. i discoursed about it with my partner, who thereupon made a most generous offer: "you know it has been an unlucky ship," said he, "and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again; if your steward" (so he called my man) "will venture the voyage, i will leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best of it; and if we live to meet in england, and he meets with success abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's freight to us; the other shall be his own." if my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him such an offer, i could not do less than offer him the same; and all the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made over half the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging him to account for the other, and away he went to japan. the japan merchant proved a very punctual, honest man to him: protected him at japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the europeans in general have not lately obtained. he paid him his freight very punctually; sent him to the philippines loaded with japan and china wares, and a supercargo of their own, who, trafficking with the spaniards, brought back european goods again, and a great quantity of spices; and there he was not only paid his freight very well, and at a very good price, but not being willing to sell the ship, then the merchant furnished him goods on his own account; and with some money, and some spices of his own which he brought with him, he went back to the manillas, where he sold his cargo very well. here, having made a good acquaintance at manilla, he got his ship made a free ship, and the governor of manilla hired him to go to acapulco, on the coast of america, and gave him a licence to land there, and to travel to mexico, and to pass in any spanish ship to europe with all his men. he made the voyage to acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship: and having there also obtained allowance to travel by land to porto bello, he found means to get to jamaica, with all his treasure, and about eight years after came to england exceeding rich. but to return to our particular affairs, being now to part with the ship and ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the design against us in the river cambodia. the truth was, they had done us a very considerable service, and deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple of rogues, too; for, as they believed the story of our being pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pirates. one of them confessed afterwards that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing brought him to do it: however, the service they did us was not the less, and therefore, as i had promised to be grateful to them, i first ordered the money to be paid them which they said was due to them on board their respective ships: over and above that, i gave each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them very well. i then made the englishman gunner in the ship, the gunner being now made second mate and purser; the dutchman i made boatswain; so they were both very well pleased, and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows. we were now on shore in china; if i thought myself banished, and remote from my own country at bengal, where i had many ways to get home for my money, what could i think of myself now, when i was about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and destitute of all manner of prospect of return? all we had for it was this: that in about four months' time there was to be another fair at the place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase various manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some chinese junks from tonquin for sail, that would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. this i liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any english or dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in india nearer home. upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into the country. first, we went ten days' journey to nankin, a city well worth seeing; they say it has a million of people in it: it is regularly built, and the streets are all straight, and cross one another in direct lines. but when i come to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, as some call it, i must confess that i scarcely think it worth my while to mention them here. we wonder at the grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the commerce, and conduct of these people; not that there is really any matter for wonder, but because, having a true notion of the barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there, we do not expect to find any such thing so far off. otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings of europe? what their trade to the universal commerce of england, holland, france, and spain? what are their cities to ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and infinite variety? what are their ports, supplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchant fleets, our large and powerful navies? our city of london has more trade than half their mighty empire: one english, dutch, or french man-of-war of eighty guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging to china: but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of their government, and the strength of their armies, may be a little surprising to us, because, as i have said, considering them as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such things among them. but all the forces of their empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number; nay, i do not boast if i say that thirty thousand german or english foot, and ten thousand horse, well managed, could defeat all the forces of china. nor is there a fortified town in china that could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an european army. they have firearms, it is true, but they are awkward and uncertain in their going off; and their powder has but little strength. their armies are badly disciplined, and want skill to attack, or temper to retreat; and therefore, i must confess, it seemed strange to me, when i came home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power, glory, magnificence, and trade of the chinese; because, as far as i saw, they appeared to be a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people; and were not its distance inconceivably, great from muscovy, and that empire in a manner as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the czar of muscovy might with ease drive them all out of their country, and conquer them in one campaign; and had the czar (who is now a growing prince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike swedes, and equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say he has done; and if none of the powers of europe had envied or interrupted him, he might by this time have been emperor of china, instead of being beaten by the king of sweden at narva, when the latter was not one to six in number. as their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation, commerce, and husbandry are very imperfect, compared to the same things in europe; also, in their knowledge, their learning, and in their skill in the sciences, they are either very awkward or defective, though they have globes or spheres, and a smattering of the mathematics, and think they know more than all the world besides. but they know little of the motions of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant are their common people, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think a great dragon has assaulted it, and is going to run away with it; and they fall a clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees! as this is the only excursion of the kind which i have made in all the accounts i have given of my travels, so i shall make no more such. it is none of my business, nor any part of my design; but to give an account of my own adventures through a life of inimitable wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, few that come after me will have heard the like of: i shall, therefore, say very little of all the mighty places, desert countries, and numerous people i have yet to pass through, more than relates to my own story, and which my concern among them will make necessary. i was now, as near as i can compute, in the heart of china, about thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from nankin. i had indeed a mind to see the city of pekin, which i had heard so much of, and father simon importuned me daily to do it. at length his time of going away being set, and the other missionary who was to go with him being arrived from macao, it was necessary that we should resolve either to go or not; so i referred it to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice, who at length resolved it in the affirmative, and we prepared for our journey. we set out with very good advantage as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, being obliged to furnish provisions for them and all their attendants in their journeys. i particularly observed in our travelling with his baggage, that though we received sufficient provisions both for ourselves and our horses from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for everything we had, after the market price of the country, and the mandarin's steward collected it duly from us. thus our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a great act of kindness, was not such a mighty favour to us, but was a great advantage to him, considering there were above thirty other people travelled in the same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing to him, and yet he took our money for them. we were twenty-five days travelling to pekin, through a country exceeding populous, but i think badly cultivated; the husbandry, the economy, and the way of living miserable, though they boast so much of the industry of the people: i say miserable, if compared with our own, but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other. the pride of the poor people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their poverty, in some parts, which adds to that which i call their misery; and i must needs think the savages of america live much more happy than the poorer sort of these, because as they have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and insolent and in the main are in many parts mere beggars and drudges. their ostentation is inexpressible; and, if they can, they love to keep multitudes of servants or slaves, which is to the last degree ridiculous, as well as their contempt of all the world but themselves. i must confess i travelled more pleasantly afterwards in the deserts and vast wildernesses of grand tartary than here, and yet the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers; but nothing was more awkward to me than to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance; and my friend father simon and i used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see their beggarly pride. for example, coming by the house of a country gentleman, as father simon called him, about ten leagues off the city of nankin, we had first of all the honour to ride with the master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect don quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty. his habit was very proper for a merry-andrew, being a dirty calico, with hanging sleeves, tassels, and cuts and slashes almost on every side: it covered a taffety vest, so greasy as to testify that his honour must be a most exquisite sloven. his horse was a poor, starved, hobbling creature, and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poor creature along; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going from the city to his country seat, about half a league before us. we travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country seat of this great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating a repast. it was a kind of garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given to understand that the more we looked at him the better he would be pleased. he sat under a tree, something like the palmetto, which effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but under the tree was placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough. he sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulent man, and had his meat brought him by two women slaves. he had two more, one of whom fed the squire with a spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taffety vest. leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him, as if we admired his idle pomp, we pursued our journey. father simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the country justice had to feed on in all his state, which he had the honour to taste of, and which was, i think, a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlic in it, and a little bag filled with green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something like our ginger, but smelling like musk, and tasting like mustard; all this was put together, and a small piece of lean mutton boiled in it, and this was his worship's repast. four or five servants more attended at a distance, who we supposed were to eat of the same after their master. as for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected as a king, surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that i saw little of him but at a distance. i observed that there was not a horse in his retinue but that our carrier's packhorses in england seemed to me to look much better; though it was hard to judge rightly, for they were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, &c., that we could scarce see anything but their feet and their heads as they went along. i was now light-hearted, and all my late trouble and perplexity being over, i had no anxious thoughts about me, which made this journey the pleasanter to me; in which no ill accident attended me, only in passing or fording a small river, my horse fell and made me free of the country, as they call it--that is to say, threw me in. the place was not deep, but it wetted me all over. i mention it because it spoiled my pocketbook, wherein i had set down the names of several people and places which i had occasion to remember, and which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never after to be read. at length we arrived at pekin. i had nobody with me but the youth whom my nephew had given me to attend me as a servant and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. as for the portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we bore his charges for his company, and for our use of him as an interpreter, for he understood the language of the country, and spoke good french and a little english. indeed, this old man was most useful to us everywhere; for we had not been above a week at pekin, when he came laughing. "ah, seignior inglese," says he, "i have something to tell will make your heart glad."--"my heart glad," says i; "what can that be? i don't know anything in this country can either give me joy or grief to any great degree."--"yes, yes," said the old man, in broken english, "make you glad, me sorry."--"why," said i, "will it make you sorry?"--"because," said he, "you have brought me here twenty-five days' journey, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall i get to my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, without _pecune_?" so he called money, being his broken latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with. in short, he told us there was a great caravan of muscovite and polish merchants in the city, preparing to set out on their journey by land to muscovy, within four or five weeks; and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind, to go back alone. i confess i was greatly surprised with this good news, and had scarce power to speak to him for some time; but at last i said to him, "how do you know this? are you sure it is true?"--"yes," says he; "i met this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an armenian, who is among them. he came last from astrakhan, and was designed to go to tonquin, where i formerly knew him, but has altered his mind, and is now resolved to go with the caravan to moscow, and so down the river volga to astrakhan."--"well, seignior," says i, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this be a method for my return to england, it shall be your fault if you go back to macao at all." we then went to consult together what was to be done; and i asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news, and whether it would suit with his affairs? he told me he would do just as i would; for he had settled all his affairs so well at bengal, and left his effects in such good hands, that as we had made a good voyage, if he could invest it in china silks, wrought and raw, he would be content to go to england, and then make a voyage back to bengal by the company's ships. having resolved upon this, we agreed that if our portuguese pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to moscow, or to england, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-generous in that either, if we had not rewarded him further, the service he had done us being really worth more than that; for he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been like a broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us a japan merchant was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets. so, being willing to gratify him, which was but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as i computed it, was worth one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling, between us, and to bear all his charges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry his goods. having settled this between ourselves, we called him to let him know what we had resolved. i told him he had complained of our being willing to let him go back alone, and i was now about to tell him we designed he should not go back at all. that as we had resolved to go to europe with the caravan, we were very willing he should go with us; and that we called him to know his mind. he shook his head and said it was a long journey, and that he had no _pecune_ to carry him thither, or to subsist himself when he came there. we told him we believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do something for him that should let him see how sensible we were of the service he had done us, and also how agreeable he was to us: and then i told him what we had resolved to give him here, which he might lay out as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go with us we would set him safe on shore (life and casualties excepted), either in muscovy or england, as he would choose, at our own charge, except only the carriage of his goods. he received the proposal like a man transported, and told us he would go with us over all the whole world; and so we all prepared for our journey. however, as it was with us, so it was with the other merchants: they had many things to do, and instead of being ready in five weeks, it was four months and some days before all things were got together. chapter xiv--attacked by tartars it was the beginning of february, new style, when we set out from pekin. my partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which we had left there; and i, with a chinese merchant whom i had some knowledge of at nankin, and who came to pekin on his own affairs, went to nankin, where i bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of other very fine silk of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to pekin against my partner's return. besides this, we bought a large quantity of raw silk, and some other goods, our cargo amounting, in these goods only, to about three thousand five hundred pounds sterling; which, together with tea and some fine calicoes, and three camels' loads of nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, besides those we rode upon; these, with two or three spare horses, and two horses loaded with provisions, made together twenty-six camels and horses in our retinue. the company was very great, and, as near as i can remember, made between three and four hundred horses, and upwards of one hundred and twenty men, very well armed and provided for all events; for as the eastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the arabs, so are these by the tartars. the company consisted of people of several nations, but there were above sixty of them merchants or inhabitants of moscow, though of them some were livonians; and to our particular satisfaction, five of them were scots, who appeared also to be men of great experience in business, and of very good substance. when we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were five in number, called all the passengers, except the servants, to a great council, as they called it. at this council every one deposited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on the way, where it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses, and the like. here, too, they constituted the journey, as they call it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up, and give the word of command, in case of an attack, and give every one their turn of command; nor was this forming us into order any more than what we afterwards found needful on the way. the road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is full of potters and earth-makers--that is to say, people, that temper the earth for the china ware. as i was coming along, our portuguese pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, told me he would show me the greatest rarity in all the country, and that i should have this to say of china, after all the ill-humoured things that i had said of it, that i had seen one thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside. i was very importunate to know what it was; at last he told me it was a gentleman's house built with china ware. "well," says i, "are not the materials of their buildings the products of their own country, and so it is all china ware, is it not?"--"no, no," says he, "i mean it is a house all made of china ware, such as you call it in england, or as it is called in our country, porcelain."--"well," says i, "such a thing may be; how big is it? can we carry it in a box upon a camel? if we can we will buy it."--"upon a camel!" says the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is a family of thirty people lives in it." i was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when i came to it, it was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, as we call it in england, with lath and plaster, but all this plastering was really china ware--that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that makes china ware. the outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as the large china ware in england is painted, and hard as if it had been burnt. as to the inside, all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened and painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call galleytiles in england, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially, the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see where the tiles met. the floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of england; as hard as stone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile; the ceiling and all the plastering work in the whole house were of the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of a deep shining black. this was a china warehouse indeed, truly and literally to be called so, and had i not been upon the journey, i could have stayed some days to see and examine the particulars of it. they told me there were fountains and fishponds in the garden, all paved on the bottom and sides with the same; and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth, burnt whole. as this is one of the singularities of china, so they may be allowed to excel in it; but i am very sure they excel in their accounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their performance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that i care not to relate, as knowing it could not be true. they told me, in particular, of one workman that made a ship with all its tackle and masts and sails in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. if they had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to japan in it, i might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, i knew the whole of the story, which was, in short, that the fellow lied: so i smiled, and said nothing to it. this odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which the leader of it for the day fined me about the value of three shillings; and told me if it had been three days' journey without the wall, as it was three days' within, he must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardon the next council-day. i promised to be more orderly; and, indeed, i found afterwards the orders made for keeping all together were absolutely necessary for our common safety. in two days more we passed the great china wall, made for a fortification against the tartars: and a very great work it is, going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter, or indeed climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder them. they tell us its length is near a thousand english miles, but that the country is five hundred in a straight measured line, which the wall bounds without measuring the windings and turnings it takes; it is about four fathoms high, and as many thick in some places. i stood still an hour or thereabouts without trespassing on our orders (for so long the caravan was in passing the gate), to look at it on every side, near and far off; i mean what was within my view: and the guide, who had been extolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it. i told him it was a most excellent thing to keep out the tartars; which he happened not to understand as i meant it and so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed! "oh, seignior inglese," says he, "you speak in colours."--"in colours!" said i; "what do you mean by that?"--"why, you speak what looks white this way and black that way--gay one way and dull another. you tell him it is a good wall to keep out tartars; you tell me by that it is good for nothing but to keep out tartars. i understand you, seignior inglese, i understand you; but seignior chinese understood you his own way."--"well," says i, "do you think it would stand out an army of our country people, with a good train of artillery; or our engineers, with two companies of miners? would not they batter it down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia; or blow it up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign of it left?"--"ay, ay," says he, "i know that." the chinese wanted mightily to know what i said to the pilot, and i gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for we were then almost out of their country, and he was to leave us a little time after this; but when he knew what i said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no more of his fine story of the chinese power and greatness while he stayed. after we passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something like the picts' walls so famous in northumberland, built by the romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people rather confined to live in fortified towns, as being subject to the inroads and depredations of the tartars, who rob in great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of an open country. and here i began to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan as we travelled, for we saw several troops of tartars roving about; but when i came to see them distinctly, i wondered more that the chinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows; for they are a mere horde of wild fellows, keeping no order and understanding no discipline or manner of it. their horses are poor lean creatures, taught nothing, and fit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which was after we entered the wilder part of the country. our leader for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting as they call it; and what was this but a hunting of sheep!--however, it may be called hunting too, for these creatures are the wildest and swiftest of foot that ever i saw of their kind! only they will not run a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the chase, for they appear generally thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together when they fly. in pursuit of this odd sort of game it was our hap to meet with about forty tartars: whether they were hunting mutton, as we were, or whether they looked for another kind of prey, we know not; but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a hideous blast on a kind of horn. this was to call their friends about them, and in less than ten minutes a troop of forty or fifty more appeared, at about a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it happened. one of the scots merchants of moscow happened to be amongst us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us that we had nothing to do but to charge them without loss of time; and drawing us up in a line, he asked if we were resolved. we told him we were ready to follow him; so he rode directly towards them. they stood gazing at us like a mere crowd, drawn up in no sort of order at all; but as soon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows, which missed us, very happily. not that they mistook their aim, but their distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but with so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer we must have had several men wounded, if not killed. immediately we halted, and though it was at a great distance, we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword in hand--for so our bold scot that led us directed. he was, indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with such vigour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such cool courage too, that i never saw any man in action fitter for command. as soon as we came up to them we fired our pistols in their faces and then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable. the only stand any of them made was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging to their backs. our brave commander, without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them, and with his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away. thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, that all our mutton we had in chase got away. we had not a man killed or hurt; as for the tartars, there were about five of them killed--how many were wounded we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party were so frightened with the noise of our guns that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us. we were all this while in the chinese dominions, and therefore the tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days we entered a vast wild desert, which held us three days' and nights' march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leathern bottles, and to encamp all night, just as i have heard they do in the desert of arabia. i asked our guides whose dominion this was in, and they told me this was a kind of border that might be called no man's land, being a part of great karakathy, or grand tartary: that, however, it was all reckoned as belonging to china, but that there was no care taken here to preserve it from the inroads of thieves, and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert in the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger. in passing this frightful wilderness we saw, two or three times, little parties of the tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them: we let them go. once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and gaze at us. whether it was to consider if they should attack us or not, we knew not; but when we had passed at some distance by them, we made a rear-guard of forty men, and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile or thereabouts before us. after a while they marched off, but they saluted us with five arrows at their parting, which wounded a horse so that it disabled him, and we left him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. we saw no more arrows or tartars that time. we travelled near a month after this, the ways not being so good as at first, though still in the dominions of the emperor of china, but lay for the most part in the villages, some of which were fortified, because of the incursions of the tartars. when we were come to one of these towns (about two days and a half's journey before we came to the city of naum), i wanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and horses also, such as they are, because, so many caravans coming that way, they are often wanted. the person that i spoke to to get me a camel would have gone and fetched one for me; but i, like a fool, must be officious, and go myself along with him; the place was about two miles out of the village, where it seems they kept the camels and horses feeding under a guard. i walked it on foot, with my old pilot and a chinese, being very desirous of a little variety. when we came to the place it was a low, marshy ground, walled round with stones, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among them, like a park, with a little guard of chinese soldiers at the door. having bought a camel, and agreed for the price, i came away, and the chinese that went with me led the camel, when on a sudden came up five tartars on horseback. two of them seized the fellow and took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to me and my old pilot, seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for i had no weapon about me but my sword, which could but ill defend me against three horsemen. the first that came up stopped short upon my drawing my sword, for they are arrant cowards; but a second, coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, which i never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when i came to myself, what was the matter, and where i was, for he laid me flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the portuguese, had a pistol in his pocket, which i knew nothing of, nor the tartars either: if they had, i suppose they would not have attacked us, for cowards are always boldest when there is no danger. the old man seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him, with the other shot him into the head, and laid him dead upon the spot. he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as i said, and before he could come forward again, made a blow at him with a scimitar, which he always wore, but missing the man, struck his horse in the side of his head, cut one of the ears off by the root, and a great slice down by the side of his face. the poor beast, enraged with the wound, was no more to be governed by his rider, though the fellow sat well enough too, but away he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down the tartar, and fell upon him. in this interval the poor chinese came in who had lost the camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the tartar down, and his horse fallen upon him, away he runs to him, and seizing upon an ugly weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his tartarian brains out with it. but my old man had the third tartar to deal with still; and seeing he did not fly, as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still, the old man stood still too, and fell to work with his tackle to charge his pistol again: but as soon as the tartar saw the pistol away he scoured, and left my pilot, my champion i called him afterwards, a complete victory. by this time i was a little recovered. i thought, when i first began to wake, that i had been in a sweet sleep; but, as i said above, i wondered where i was, how i came upon the ground, and what was the matter. a few moments after, as sense returned, i felt pain, though i did not know where; so i clapped my hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then i felt my head ache: and in a moment memory returned, and everything was present to me again. i jumped upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword, but no enemies were in view: i found a tartar lying dead, and his horse standing very quietly by him; and, looking further, i saw my deliverer, who had been to see what the chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in his hand. the old man, seeing me on my feet, came running to me, and joyfully embraced me, being afraid before that i had been killed. seeing me bloody, he would see how i was hurt; but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did i afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, for it was well again in two or three days. we made no great gain, however, by this victory, for we lost a camel and gained a horse. i paid for the lost camel, and sent for another; but i did not go to fetch it myself: i had had enough of that. the city of naum, which we were approaching, is a frontier of the chinese empire, and is fortified in their fashion. we wanted, as i have said, above two days' journey of this city when messengers were sent express to every part of the road to tell all travellers and caravans to halt till they had a guard sent for them; for that an unusual body of tartars, making ten thousand in all, had appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city. this was very bad news to travellers: however, it was carefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have a guard. accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of the chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the city of naum, and with these we advanced boldly. the three hundred soldiers from naum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our camels, with our baggage and the whole caravan in the centre; in this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand mogul tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quite another thing. chapter xv--description of an idol, which they destroy early in the morning, when marching from a little town called changu, we had a river to pass, which we were obliged to ferry; and, had the tartars had any intelligence, then had been the time to have attacked us, when the caravan being over, the rear-guard was behind; but they did not appear there. about three hours after, when we were entered upon a desert of about fifteen or sixteen miles over, we knew by a cloud of dust they raised, that the enemy was at hand, and presently they came on upon the spur. our chinese guards in the front, who had talked so big the day before, began to stagger; and the soldiers frequently looked behind them, a certain sign in a soldier that he is just ready to run away. my old pilot was of my mind; and being near me, called out, "seignior inglese, these fellows must be encouraged, or they will ruin us all; for if the tartars come on they will never stand it."--"if am of your mind," said i; "but what must be done?"--"done?" says he, "let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each wing, and encourage them. they will fight like brave fellows in brave company; but without this they will every man turn his back." immediately i rode up to our leader and told him, who was exactly of our mind; accordingly, fifty of us marched to the right wing, and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line of rescue; and so we marched, leaving the last two hundred men to make a body of themselves, and to guard the camels; only that, if need were, they should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty. at last the tartars came on, and an innumerable company they were; how many we could not tell, but ten thousand, we thought, at the least. a party of them came on first, and viewed our posture, traversing the ground in the front of our line; and, as we found them within gunshot, our leader ordered the two wings to advance swiftly, and give them a salvo on each wing with their shot, which was done. they then went off, i suppose to give an account of the reception they were like to meet with; indeed, that salute cloyed their stomachs, for they immediately halted, stood a while to consider of it, and wheeling off to the left, they gave over their design for that time, which was very agreeable to our circumstances. two days after we came to the city of naun, or naum; we thanked the governor for his care of us, and collected to the value of a hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers sent to guard us; and here we rested one day. this is a garrison indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers kept here; but the reason of it was, that formerly the muscovite frontiers lay nearer to them than they now do, the muscovites having abandoned that part of the country, which lies from this city west for about two hundred miles, as desolate and unfit for use; and more especially being so very remote, and so difficult to send troops thither for its defence; for we were yet above two thousand miles from muscovy properly so called. after this we passed several great rivers, and two dreadful deserts; one of which we were sixteen days passing over; and on the 13th of april we came to the frontiers of the muscovite dominions. i think the first town or fortress, whichever it may he called, that belonged to the czar, was called arguna, being on the west side of the river arguna. i could not but feel great satisfaction that i was arrived in a country governed by christians; for though the muscovites do, in my opinion, but just deserve the name of christians, yet such they pretend to be, and are very devout in their way. it would certainly occur to any reflecting man who travels the world as i have done, what a blessing it is to be brought into the world where the name of god and a redeemer is known, adored, and worshipped; and not where the people, given up to strong delusions, worship the devil, and prostrate themselves to monsters, elements, horridshaped animals, and monstrous images. not a town or city we passed through but had their pagodas, their idols, and their temples, and ignorant people worshipping even the works of their own hands. now we came where, at least, a face of the christian worship appeared; where the knee was bowed to jesus: and whether ignorantly or not, yet the christian religion was owned, and the name of the true god was called upon and adored; and it made my soul rejoice to see it. i saluted the brave scots merchant with my first acknowledgment of this; and taking him by the hand, i said to him, "blessed be god, we are once again amongst christians." he smiled, and answered, "do not rejoice too soon, countryman; these muscovites are but an odd sort of christians; and but for the name of it you may see very little of the substance for some months further of our journey."--"well," says i, "but still it is better than paganism, and worshipping of devils."--"why, i will tell you," says he; "except the russian soldiers in the garrisons, and a few of the inhabitants of the cities upon the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thousand miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most ignorant of pagans." and so, indeed, we found it. we now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that is to be found in any part of the world; we had, at least, twelve thousand miles to the sea eastward; two thousand to the bottom of the baltic sea westward; and above three thousand, if we left that sea, and went on west, to the british and french channels: we had full five thousand miles to the indian or persian sea south; and about eight hundred to the frozen sea north. we advanced from the river arguna by easy and moderate journeys, and were very visibly obliged to the care the czar has taken to have cities and towns built in as many places as it is possible to place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, something like the stationary soldiers placed by the romans in the remotest countries of their empire; some of which i had read of were placed in britain, for the security of commerce, and for the lodging of travellers. thus it was here; for wherever we came, though at these towns and stations the garrisons and governors were russians, and professed christians, yet the inhabitants were mere pagans, sacrificing to idols, and worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans that ever i met with, the most barbarous, except only that they did not eat men's flesh. some instances of this we met with in the country between arguna, where we enter the muscovite dominions, and a city of tartars and russians together, called nortziousky, in which is a continued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over. in a village near the last of these places i had the curiosity to go and see their way of living, which is most brutish and unsufferable. they had, i suppose, a great sacrifice that day; for there stood out, upon an old stump of a tree, a diabolical kind of idol made of wood; it was dressed up, too, in the most filthy manner; its upper garment was of sheepskins, with the wool outward; a great tartar bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it; it was about eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, nor any other proportion of parts. this scarecrow was set up at the outer side of the village; and when i came near to it there were sixteen or seventeen creatures all lying flat upon the ground round this hideous block of wood; i saw no motion among them, any more than if they had been all logs, like the idol, and at first i really thought they had been so; but, when i came a little nearer, they started up upon their feet, and raised a howl, as if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, and walked away, as if they were displeased at our disturbing them. a little way off from the idol, and at the door of a hut, made of sheep and cow skins dried, stood three men with long knives in their hands; and in the middle of the tent appeared three sheep killed, and one young bullock. these, it seems, were sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol; the three men were priests belonging to it, and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who brought the offering, and were offering their prayers to that stock. i confess i was more moved at their stupidity and brutish worship of a hobgoblin than ever i was at anything in my life, and, overcome with rage, i rode up to the hideous idol, and with my sword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, and cut it in two; and one of our men that was with me, taking hold of the sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a most hideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundred people came about my ears, so that i was glad to scour for it, for some had bows and arrows; but i resolved from that moment to visit them again. our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was about four miles off, in order to provide some horses which they wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the long march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to put my design in execution. i communicated it to the scots merchant, of whose courage i had sufficient testimony; i told him what i had seen, and with what indignation i had since thought that human nature could be so degenerate; i told him if i could get but four or five men well armed to go with me, i was resolved to go and destroy that vile, abominable idol, and let them see that it had no power to help itself, and consequently could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed to, much less help them that offered sacrifices to it. he at first objected to my plan as useless, seeing that, owing to the gross ignorance of the people, they could not be brought to profit by the lesson i meant to teach them; and added that, from his knowledge of the country and its customs, he feared we should fall into great peril by giving offence to these brutal idol worshippers. this somewhat stayed my purpose, but i was still uneasy all that day to put my project in execution; and that evening, meeting the scots merchant in our walk about the town, i again called upon him to aid me in it. when he found me resolute he said that, on further thoughts, he could not but applaud the design, and told me i should not go alone, but he would go with me; but he would go first and bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also with us; "and one," said he, "as famous for his zeal as you can desire any one to be against such devilish things as these." so we agreed to go, only we three and my man-servant, and resolved to put it in execution the following night about midnight, with all possible secrecy. we thought it better to delay it till the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the morning, we suppose the governor could not pretend to give them any satisfaction upon us when we were out of his power. the scots merchant, as steady in his resolution for the enterprise as bold in executing, brought me a tartar's robe or gown of sheepskins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the same for himself and his countryman, that the people, if they saw us, should not determine who we were. all the first night we spent in mixing up some combustible matter, with aqua vitae, gunpowder, and such other materials as we could get; and having a good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour after night we set out upon our expedition. we came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and found that the people had not the least suspicion of danger attending their idol. the night was cloudy: yet the moon gave us light enough to see that the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before. the people seemed to be all at their rest; only that in the great hut, where we saw the three priests, we saw a light, and going up close to the door, we heard people talking as if there were five or six of them; we concluded, therefore, that if we set wildfire to the idol, those men would come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from destruction; and what to do with them we knew not. once we thought of carrying it away, and setting fire to it at a distance; but when we came to handle it, we found it too bulky for our carriage, so we were at a loss again. the second scotsman was for setting fire to the hut, and knocking the creatures that were there on the head when they came out; but i could not join with that; i was against killing them, if it were possible to avoid it. "well, then," said the scots merchant, "i will tell you what we will do: we will try to make them prisoners, tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol destroyed." as it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which we used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolved to attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could. the first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol, where we gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feet also together, and left him on the ground. two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would come out to see what the matter was; but we waited so long till the third man came back to us; and then nobody coming out, we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more, and we served them just in the same manner, but were obliged to go all with them, and lay them down by the idol some distance from one another; when, going back, we found two more were come out of the door, and a third stood behind them within the door. we seized the two, and immediately tied them, when the third, stepping back and crying out, my scots merchant went in after them, and taking out a composition we had made that would only smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it in among them. by that time the other scotsman and my man, taking charge of the two men already bound, and tied together also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there, to see if their idol would relieve them, making haste back to us. when the fuze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much smoke that they were almost suffocated, we threw in a small leather bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle, and, following it in, we found there were but four people, who, as we supposed, had been about some of their diabolical sacrifices. they appeared, in short, frightened to death, at least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to speak either, for the smoke. we quickly took them from the hut, where the smoke soon drove us out, bound them as we had done the other, and all without any noise. then we carried them all together to the idol; when we came there, we fell to work with him. first, we daubed him all over, and his robes also, with tar, and tallow mixed with brimstone; then we stopped his eyes and ears and mouth full of gunpowder, and wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet; then sticking all the combustibles we had brought with us upon him, we looked about to see if we could find anything else to help to burn him; when my scotsman remembered that by the hut, where the men were, there lay a heap of dry forage; away he and the other scotsman ran and fetched their arms full of that. when we had done this, we took all our prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and ungagged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole. we stayed by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till the powder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and, as we could perceive, had split altogether; and in a word, till we saw it burned so that it would soon be quite consumed. we then began to think of going away; but the scotsman said, "no, we must not go, for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn themselves with the idol." so we resolved to stay till the forage has burned down too, and then came away and left them. after the feat was performed, we appeared in the morning among our fellow-travellers, exceedingly busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any man suppose that we had been anywhere but in our beds. but the affair did not end so; the next day came a great number of the country people to the town gates, and in a most outrageous manner demanded satisfaction of the russian governor for the insulting their priests and burning their great cham chi-thaungu. the people of nertsinkay were at first in a great consternation, for they said the tartars were already no less than thirty thousand strong. the russian governor sent out messengers to appease them, assuring them that he knew nothing of it, and that there had not a soul in his garrison been abroad, so that it could not be from anybody there: but if they could let him know who did it, they should be exemplarily punished. they returned haughtily, that all the country reverenced the great cham chi-thaungu, who dwelt in the sun, and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image but some christian miscreant; and they therefore resolved to denounce war against him and all the russians, who, they said, were miscreants and christians. the governor, unwilling to make a breach, or to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him, the czar having strictly charged him to treat the conquered country with gentleness, gave them all the good words he could. at last he told them there was a caravan gone towards russia that morning, and perhaps it was some of them who had done them this injury; and that if they would be satisfied with that, he would send after them to inquire into it. this seemed to appease them a little; and accordingly the governor sent after us, and gave us a particular account how the thing was; intimating withal, that if any in our caravan had done it they should make their escape; but that whether we had done it or no, we should make all the haste forward that was possible: and that, in the meantime, he would keep them in play as long as he could. this was very friendly in the governor; however, when it came to the caravan, there was nobody knew anything of the matter; and as for us that were guilty, we were least of all suspected. however, the captain of the caravan for the time took the hint that the governor gave us, and we travelled two days and two nights without any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called plothus: nor did we make any long stop here, but hastened on towards jarawena, another muscovite colony, and where we expected we should be safe. but upon the second day's march from plothus, by the clouds of dust behind us at a great distance, it was plain we were pursued. we had entered a vast desert, and had passed by a great lake called schanks oser, when we perceived a large body of horse appear on the other side of the lake, to the north, we travelling west. we observed they went away west, as we did, but had supposed we would have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very happily took the south side; and in two days more they disappeared again: for they, believing we were still before them, pushed on till they came to the udda, a very great river when it passes farther north, but when we came to it we found it narrow and fordable. the third day they had either found their mistake, or had intelligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards dusk. we had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a convenient place for our camp; for as we had just entered upon a desert above five hundred miles over, where we had no towns to lodge at, and, indeed, expected none but the city jarawena, which we had yet two days' march to; the desert, however, had some few woods in it on this side, and little rivers, which ran all into the great river udda; it was in a narrow strait, between little but very thick woods, that we pitched our camp that night, expecting to be attacked before morning. as it was usual for the mogul tartars to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them, as against armies of robbers; and it was, therefore, no new thing to be pursued. but we had this night a most advantageous camp: for as we lay between two woods, with a little rivulet running just before our front, we could not be surrounded, or attacked any way but in our front or rear. we took care also to make our front as strong as we could, by placing our packs, with the camels and horses, all in a line, on the inside of the river, and felling some trees in our rear. in this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was upon us before we had finished. they did not come on like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to be delivered to them that had abused their priests and burned their idol, that they might burn them with fire; and upon this, they said, they would go away, and do us no further harm, otherwise they would destroy us all. our men looked very blank at this message, and began to stare at one another to see who looked with the most guilt in their faces; but nobody was the word--nobody did it. the leader of the caravan sent word he was well assured that it was not done by any of our camp; that we were peaceful merchants, travelling on our business; that we had done no harm to them or to any one else; and that, therefore, they must look further for the enemies who had injured them, for we were not the people; so they desired them not to disturb us, for if they did we should defend ourselves. they were far from being satisfied with this for an answer: and a great crowd of them came running down in the morning, by break of day, to our camp; but seeing us so well posted, they durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they stood in such number as to terrify us very much; indeed, some spoke of ten thousand. here they stood and looked at us a while, and then, setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows among us; but we were well enough sheltered under our baggage, and i do not remember that one of us was hurt. some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and expected them on the rear: when a cunning fellow, a cossack of jarawena, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, "i will send all these people away to sibeilka." this was a city four or five days' journey at least to the right, and rather behind us. so he takes his bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were back to nertsinskay; after this he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on the army of the tartars as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story that the people who had burned the cham chi-thaungu were gone to sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them--that is to say, christians; and that they had resolved to burn the god scal-isar, belonging to the tonguses. as this fellow was himself a tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so well that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent hurry to sibeilka. in less than three hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they went to sibeilka or no. so we passed away safely on to jarawena, where there was a russian garrison, and there we rested five days. from this city we had a frightful desert, which held us twenty-three days' march. we furnished ourselves with some tents here, for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen waggons of the country, for carrying our water or provisions, and these carriages were our defence every night round our little camp; so that had the tartars appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us. we may well be supposed to have wanted rest again after this long journey; for in this desert we neither saw house nor tree, and scarce a bush; though we saw abundance of the sable-hunters, who are all tartars of mogul tartary; of which this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans, but we saw no numbers of them together. after we had passed this desert we came into a country pretty well inhabited--that is to say, we found towns and castles, settled by the czar with garrisons of stationary soldiers, to protect the caravans and defend the country against the tartars, who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans, that, if there are any tartars heard of in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to see the travellers safe from station to station. thus the governor of adinskoy, whom i had an opportunity to make a visit to, by means of the scots merchant, who was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought there was any danger, to the next station. i thought, long before this, that as we came nearer to europe we should find the country better inhabited, and the people more civilised; but i found myself mistaken in both: for we had yet the nation of the tonguses to pass through, where we saw the same tokens of paganism and barbarity as before; only, as they were conquered by the muscovites, they were not so dangerous, but for rudeness of manners and idolatry no people in the world ever went beyond them. they are all clothed in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same; you know not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their countenances nor their clothes; and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they live underground in vaults, which have cavities going from one to another. if the tartars had their cham chi-thaungu for a whole village or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave. this country, i reckon, was, from the desert i spoke of last, at least four hundred miles, half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days' severe travelling, without house or tree; and we were obliged again to carry our own provisions, as well water as bread. after we were out of this desert and had travelled two days, we came to janezay, a muscovite city or station, on the great river janezay, which, they told us there, parted europe from asia. all the country between the river oby and the river janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the tartars. i also found, which i observed to the muscovite governors whom i had an opportunity to converse with, that the poor pagans are not much wiser, or nearer christianity, for being under the muscovite government, which they acknowledged was true enough--but that, as they said, was none of their business; that if the czar expected to convert his siberian, tonguse, or tartar subjects, it should be done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with more sincerity than i expected, that it was not so much the concern of their monarch to make the people christians as to make them subjects. from this river to the oby we crossed a wild uncultivated country, barren of people and good management, otherwise it is in itself a pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country. what inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from russia; for this is the country--i mean on both sides the river oby--whither the muscovite criminals that are not put to death are banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever get away. i have nothing material to say of my particular affairs till i came to tobolski, the capital city of siberia, where i continued some time on the following account. we had now been almost seven months on our journey, and winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and i called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, as we were bound for england, to consider how to dispose of ourselves. they told us of sledges and reindeer to carry us over the snow in the winter time, by which means, indeed, the russians travel more in winter than they can in summer, as in these sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow, being frozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, vales, rivers, and lakes are all smooth and hard is a stone, and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath. but i had no occasion to urge a winter journey of this kind. i was bound to england, not to moscow, and my route lay two ways: either i must go on as the caravan went, till i came to jarislaw, and then go off west for narva and the gulf of finland, and so on to dantzic, where i might possibly sell my china cargo to good advantage; or i must leave the caravan at a little town on the dwina, from whence i had but six days by water to archangel, and from thence might be sure of shipping either to england, holland, or hamburg. now, to go any one of these journeys in the winter would have been preposterous; for as to dantzic, the baltic would have been frozen up and i could not get passage; and to go by land in those countries was far less safe than among the mogul tartars; likewise, as to archangel in october, all the ships would be gone from thence, and even the merchants who dwell there in summer retire south to moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that i could have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity of provisions, and must lie in an empty town all the winter. therefore, upon the whole, i thought it much my better way to let the caravan go, and make provision to winter where i was, at tobolski, in siberia, in the latitude of about sixty degrees, where i was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz. plenty of provisions, such as the country afforded, a warm house, with fuel enough, and excellent company. i was now in quite a different climate from my beloved island, where i never felt cold, except when i had my ague; on the contrary, i had much to do to bear any clothes on my back, and never made any fire but without doors, which was necessary for dressing my food, &c. now i had three good vests, with large robes or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrists; and all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently warm. as to a warm house, i must confess i greatly dislike our way in england of making fires in every room of the house in open chimneys, which, when the fire is out, always keeps the air in the room cold as the climate. so i took an apartment in a good house in the town, and ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace, in the centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the funnel to carry the smoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen, just as they heat baths in england. by this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved, and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with smoke. the most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible to meet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as this--one of the most northerly parts of europe. but this being the country where the state criminals of muscovy, as i observed before, are all banished, the city was full of russian noblemen, gentlemen, soldiers, and courtiers. here was the famous prince galitzin, the old german robostiski, and several other persons of note, and some ladies. by means of my scotch merchant, whom, nevertheless, i parted with here, i made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen; and from these, in the long winter nights in which i stayed here, i received several very agreeable visits. chapter xvi--safe arrival in england it was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished ministers of state belonging to the czar, that the discourse of my particular case began. he had been telling me abundance of fine things of the greatness, the magnificence, the dominions, and the absolute power of the emperor of the russians: i interrupted him, and told him i was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the czar was, though my dominion were not so large, or my people so many. the russian grandee looked a little surprised, and, fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what i meant. i said his wonder would cease when i had explained myself, and told him the story at large of my living in the island; and then how i managed both myself and the people that were under me, just as i have since minuted it down. they were exceedingly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told me, with a sigh, that the true greatness of life was to be masters of ourselves; that he would not have exchanged such a state of life as mine to be czar of muscovy; and that he found more felicity in the retirement he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his master the czar; that the height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storms without. when he came first hither, he said, he used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and consideration had made him look into himself, as well as round him to things without; that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the world. that being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of worldly pleasures, he said he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced that virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment than all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power they had left behind them. "nor, sir," says he, "do i bring my mind to this politically, from the necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable; but, if i know anything of myself, i would not now go back, though the czar my master should call me, and reinstate me in all my former grandeur." he spoke this with so much warmth in his temper, so much earnestness and motion of his spirits, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul; there was no room to doubt his sincerity. i told him i once thought myself a kind of monarch in my old station, of which i had given him an account; but that i thought he was not only a monarch, but a great conqueror; for he that had got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and the absolute dominion over himself, he whose reason entirely governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city. i had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter i thought it; the cold so intense that i could not so much as look abroad without being wrapped in furs, and a kind of mask of fur before my face, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight: the little daylight we had was for three months not above five hours a day, and six at most; only that the snow lying on the ground continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. our horses were kept, or rather starved, underground; and as for our servants, whom we hired here to look after ourselves and horses, we had, every now and then, their fingers and toes to thaw and take care of, lest they should mortify and fall off. it is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the windows small, and the glass all double. our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; bread good enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good meat. all the stores of provisions for the winter are laid up in the summer, and well cured: our drink was water, mixed with aqua vitae instead of brandy; and for a treat, mead instead of wine, which, however, they have very good. the hunters, who venture abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fine venison, and sometimes bear's flesh, but we did not much care for the last. we had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends, and we lived cheerfully and well, all things considered. it was now march, the days grown considerably longer, and the weather at least tolerable; so the other travellers began to prepare sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be going; but my measures being fixed, as i have said, for archangel, and not for muscovy or the baltic, i made no motion; knowing very well that the ships from the south do not set out for that part of the world till may or june, and that if i was there by the beginning of august, it would be as soon as any ships would be ready to sail. therefore i made no haste to be gone, as others did: in a word, i saw a great many people, nay, all the travellers, go away before me. it seems every year they go from thence to muscovy, for trade, to carry furs, and buy necessaries, which they bring back with them to furnish their shops: also others went on the same errand to archangel. in the month of may i began to make all ready to pack up; and, as i was doing this, it occurred to me that, seeing all these people were banished by the czar to siberia, and yet, when they came there, were left at liberty to go whither they would, why they did not then go away to any part of the world, wherever they thought fit: and i began to examine what should hinder them from making such an attempt. but my wonder was over when i entered upon that subject with the person i have mentioned, who answered me thus: "consider, first, sir," said he, "the place where we are; and, secondly, the condition we are in; especially the generality of the people who are banished thither. we are surrounded with stronger things than bars or bolts; on the north side, an unnavigable ocean, where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; every other way we have above a thousand miles to pass through the czar's own dominion, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made by the government, and through the towns garrisoned by his troops; in short, we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, nor subsist any other way, so that it is in vain to attempt it." i was silenced at once, and found that they were in a prison every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle at moscow: however, it came into my thoughts that i might certainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent person; and that, whatever hazard i ran, i would certainly try if i could carry him off. upon this, i took an occasion one evening to tell him my thoughts. i represented to him that it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the country; and as i was not going to moscow, but to archangel, and that i went in the retinue of a caravan, by which i was not obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the desert, but could encamp every night where i would, we might easily pass uninterrupted to archangel, where i would immediately secure him on board an english ship, and carry him safe along with me; and as to his subsistence and other particulars, it should be my care till he could better supply himself. he heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the while i spoke; nay, i could see in his very face that what i said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, till it might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately answer me when i had done, and, as it were, hesitated what he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, "how unhappy are we, unguarded creatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares unto us, and we are made tempters of one another!" he then heartily thanked me for my offers of service, but withstood resolutely the arguments i used to urge him to set himself free. he declared, in earnest terms, that he was fully bent on remaining where he was rather than seek to return to his former miserable greatness, as he called it: where the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury might revive, take root, and again overwhelm him. "let me remain, dear sir," he said, in conclusion--"let me remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the future happiness which i now have in my view, but should then, i fear, quickly lose sight of; for i am but flesh; a man, a mere man; and have passions and affections as likely to possess and overthrow me as any man: oh, be not my friend and tempter both together!" if i was surprised before, i was quite dumb now, and stood silent, looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what i saw. the struggle in his soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold, it put him into a most violent heat; so i said a word or two, that i would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, and then i withdrew to my own apartment. about two hours after i heard somebody at or near the door of my room, and i was going to open the door, but he had opened it and come in. "my dear friend," says he, "you had almost overset me, but i am recovered. do not take it ill that i do not close with your offer. i assure you it is not for want of sense of the kindness of it in you; and i came to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it to you; but i hope i have got the victory over myself."--"my lord," said i, "i hope you are fully satisfied that you do not resist the call of heaven."--"sir," said he, "if it had been from heaven, the same power would have influenced me to have accepted it; but i hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from heaven that i decline it, and i have infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man." i had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make professions to him of my having no end in it but a sincere desire to serve him. he embraced me very passionately, and assured me he was sensible of that, and should always acknowledge it; and with that he offered me a very fine present of sables--too much, indeed, for me to accept from a man in his circumstances, and i would have avoided them, but he would not be refused. the next morning i sent my servant to his lordship with a small present of tea, and two pieces of china damask, and four little wedges of japan gold, which did not all weigh above six ounces or thereabouts, but were far short of the value of his sables, which, when i came to england, i found worth near two hundred pounds. he accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the japan coinage, which i found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take any more: and he sent word by my servant that he desired to speak with me. when i came to him he told me i knew what had passed between us, and hoped i would not move him any more in that affair; but that, since i had made such a generous offer to him, he asked me if i had kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he would name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern. in a word, he told me it was his only son; who, though i had not seen him, was in the same condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other side of the oby; but that, if i consented, he would send for him. i made no hesitation, but told him i would do it. i made some ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account; and that, seeing i could not prevail on him, i would show my respect to him by my concern for his son. he sent the next day for his son; and in about twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven horses, loaded with very rich furs, which, in the whole, amounted to a very great value. his servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young lord at a distance till night, when he came incognito into our apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we concerted the manner of our travelling, and everything proper for the journey. i had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, fine ermines, and such other furs as are very rich in that city, in exchange for some of the goods i had brought from china; in particular for the cloves and nutmegs, of which i sold the greatest part here, and the rest afterwards at archangel, for a much better price than i could have got at london; and my partner, who was sensible of the profit, and whose business, more particularly than mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our stay, on account of the traffic we made here. it was the beginning of june when i left this remote place. we were now reduced to a very small caravan, having only thirty-two horses and camels in all, which passed for mine, though my new guest was proprietor of eleven of them. it was natural also that i should take more servants with me than i had before; and the young lord passed for my steward; what great man i passed for myself i know not, neither did it concern me to inquire. we had here the worst and the largest desert to pass over that we met with in our whole journey; i call it the worst, because the way was very deep in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had to say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of tartars or robbers to fear, as they never came on this side of the river oby, or at least very seldom; but we found it otherwise. my young lord had a faithful siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the country, and led us by private roads, so that we avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon the great road, such as tumen, soloy kamaskoy, and several others; because the muscovite garrisons which are kept there are very curious and strict in their observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the banished persons of note should make their escape that way into muscovy; but, by this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so our whole journey was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents, when we might have had very good accommodation in the cities on the way; this the young lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie abroad when we came to several cities on the way, but lay abroad himself, with his servant, in the woods, and met us always at the appointed places. we had just entered europe, having passed the river kama, which in these parts is the boundary between europe and asia, and the first city on the european side was called soloy kamaskoy, that is, the great city on the river kama. and here we thought to see some evident alteration in the people; but we were mistaken, for as we had a vast desert to pass, which is near seven hundred miles long in some places, but not above two hundred miles over where we passed it, so, till we came past that horrible place, we found very little difference between that country and mogul tartary. the people are mostly pagans; their houses and towns full of idols; and their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities and villages near them, where they are christians, as they call themselves, of the greek church: but have their religion mingled with so many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known in some places from mere sorcery and witchcraft. in passing this forest (after all our dangers were, to our imagination, escaped), i thought, indeed, we must have been plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves: of what country they were i am yet at a loss to know; but they were all on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and were at first about forty-five in number. they came so near to us as to be within two musket-shot, and, asking no questions, surrounded us with their horses, and looked very earnestly upon us twice; at length, they placed themselves just in our way; upon which we drew up in a little line, before our camels, being not above sixteen men in all. thus drawn up, we halted, and sent out the siberian servant, who attended his lord, to see who they were; his master was the more willing to let him go, because he was not a little apprehensive that they were a siberian troop sent out after him. the man came up near them with a flag of truce, and called to them; but though he spoke several of their languages, or dialects of languages rather, he could not understand a word they said; however, after some signs to him not to come near them at his peril, the fellow came back no wiser than he went; only that by their dress, he said, he believed them to be some tartars of kalmuck, or of the circassian hordes, and that there must be more of them upon the great desert, though he never heard that any of them were seen so far north before. this was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy: there was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile distance, a little grove, and very near the road. i immediately resolved we should advance to those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there; for, first, i considered that the trees would in a great measure cover us from their arrows; and, in the next place, they could not come to charge us in a body: it was, indeed, my old portuguese pilot who proposed it, and who had this excellency attending him, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct and encourage us in cases of the most danger. we advanced immediately, with what speed we could, and gained that little wood; the tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. when we came thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy piece of ground, and on the one side a very great spring of water, which, running out in a little brook, was a little farther joined by another of the like size; and was, in short, the source of a considerable river, called afterwards the wirtska; the trees which grew about this spring were not above two hundred, but very large, and stood pretty thick, so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy unless they attacked us on foot. while we stayed here waiting the motion of the enemy some hours, without perceiving that they made any movement, our portuguese, with some help, cut several arms of trees half off, and laid them hanging across from one tree to another, and in a manner fenced us in. about two hours before night they came down directly upon us; and though we had not perceived it, we found they had been joined by some more, so that they were near fourscore horse; whereof, however, we fancied some were women. they came on till they were within half-shot of our little wood, when we fired one musket without ball, and called to them in the russian tongue to know what they wanted, and bade them keep off; but they came on with a double fury up to the wood-side, not imagining we were so barricaded that they could not easily break in. our old pilot was our captain as well as our engineer, and desired us not to fire upon them till they came within pistol-shot, that we might be sure to kill, and that when we did fire we should be sure to take good aim; we bade him give the word of command, which he delayed so long that they were some of them within two pikes' length of us when we let fly. we aimed so true that we killed fourteen of them, and wounded several others, as also several of their horses; for we had all of us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apiece at least. they were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated immediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we loaded our pieces again, and seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out, and caught four or five of their horses, whose riders we supposed were killed; and coming up to the dead, we judged they were tartars, but knew not how they came to make an excursion such an unusual length. about an hour after they again made a motion to attack us, and rode round our little wood to see where they might break in; but finding us always ready to face them, they went off again; and we resolved not to stir for that night. we slept little, but spent the most part of the night in strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the wood, and keeping a strict watch. we waited for daylight, and when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed; for the enemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception they met with, were now greatly increased, and had set up eleven or twelve huts or tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and this little camp they had pitched upon the open plain, about three-quarters of a mile from us. i confess i now gave myself over for lost, and all that i had; the loss of my effects did not lie so near me, though very considerable, as the thoughts of falling into the hands of such barbarians at the latter end of my journey, after so many difficulties and hazards as i had gone through, and even in sight of our port, where we expected safety and deliverance. as to my partner, he was raging, and declared that to lose his goods would be his ruin, and that he would rather die than be starved, and he was for fighting to the last drop. the young lord, a most gallant youth, was for fighting to the last also; and my old pilot was of opinion that we were able to resist them all in the situation we were then in. thus we spent the day in debates of what we should do; but towards evening we found that the number of our enemies still increased, and we did not know but by the morning they might still be a greater number: so i began to inquire of those people we had brought from tobolski if there were no private ways by which we might avoid them in the night, and perhaps retreat to some town, or get help to guard us over the desert. the young lord's siberian servant told us, if we designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off in the night, to a way that went north, towards the river petruz, by which he made no question but we might get away, and the tartars never discover it; but, he said, his lord had told him he would not retreat, but would rather choose to fight. i told him he mistook his lord: for that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the sake of it; that i knew he was brave enough by what he had showed already; but that he knew better than to desire seventeen or eighteen men to fight five hundred, unless an unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he thought it possible for us to escape in the night, we had nothing else to do but to attempt it. he answered, if his lordship gave him such orders, he would lose his life if he did not perform it; we soon brought his lord to give that order, though privately, and we immediately prepared for putting it in practice. and first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in our little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to make it burn all night, that the tartars might conclude we were still there; but as soon as it was dark, and we could see the stars (for our guide would not stir before), having all our horses and camels ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who i soon found steered himself by the north star, the country being level for a long way. after we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to be lighter still; not that it was dark all night, but the moon began to rise, so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; but by six o'clock the next morning we had got above thirty miles, having almost spoiled our horses. here we found a russian village, named kermazinskoy, where we rested, and heard nothing of the kalmuck tartars that day. about two hours before night we set out again, and travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite so hard as before; and about seven o'clock we passed a little river, called kirtza, and came to a good large town inhabited by russians, called ozomys; there we heard that several troops of kalmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were now completely out of danger of them, which was to our great satisfaction. here we were obliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest, we stayed five days; and my partner and i agreed to give the honest siberian who conducted us thither the value of ten pistoles. in five days more we came to veussima, upon the river witzogda, and running into the dwina: we were there, very happily, near the end of our travels by land, that river being navigable, in seven days' passage, to archangel. from hence we came to lawremskoy, the 3rd of july; and providing ourselves with two luggage boats, and a barge for our own convenience, we embarked the 7th, and arrived all safe at archangel the 18th; having been a year, five months, and three days on the journey, including our stay of about eight months at tobolski. we were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a hamburgher come in above a month sooner than any of the english ships; when, after some consideration that the city of hamburgh might happen to be as good a market for our goods as london, we all took freight with him; and, having put our goods on board, it was most natural for me to put my steward on board to take care of them; by which means my young lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore again all the time we stayed there; and this he did that he might not be seen in the city, where some of the moscow merchants would certainly have seen and discovered him. we then set sail from archangel the 20th of august, the same year; and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived safe in the elbe the 18th of september. here my partner and i found a very good sale for our goods, as well those of china as the sables, &c., of siberia: and, dividing the produce, my share amounted to 3475 pounds, 17s 3d., including about six hundred pounds' worth of diamonds, which i purchased at bengal. here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the elbe, in order to go to the court of vienna, where he resolved to seek protection and could correspond with those of his father's friends who were left alive. he did not part without testimonials of gratitude for the service i had done him, and for my kindness to the prince, his father. to conclude: having stayed near four months in hamburgh, i came from thence by land to the hague, where i embarked in the packet, and arrived in london the 10th of january 1705, having been absent from england ten years and nine months. and here, resolving to harass myself no more, i am preparing for a longer journey than all these, having lived seventytwo years a life of infinite variety, and learned sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in peace. the life and adventures of robinson crusoe, of york, mariner. with an account of his travels round three parts of the globe. _written by himself_. in two volumes. vol.i. by c. whittingham; for j. carpenter, old bond street; j. booker, new bond street; sharps and hailes, museum, piccadilly; and gale, curtis, and fenner, paternoster row; london. 1812. the life of _daniel de foe_. daniel de foe was descended from a respectable family in the county of northampton, and born in london, about the year 1663. his father, james foe, was a butcher, in the parish of st. giles's, cripplegate, and a protestant dissenter. why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _de_ to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any period of his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. the political scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy this lack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the _amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not be taken for an englishman; though this idea could have had no other foundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of his zeal for king william, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his "trueborn englishman." after receiving a good education at an academy at newington, young de foe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his career as an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentiment in favour of the turks, who were at that time laying siege to vienna. this production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, was very little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success with his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boasting of the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to liberty and protestanism," by joining the ill-advised insurrection under the duke of monmouth, in the west. on the failure of that unfortunate enterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is not improbable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of london, and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where the rebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means of preventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction. with the professions of a writer and a soldier, mr. de foe, in the year 1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, in cornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near tilbury fort, in essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in the hilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in the calculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes proved unsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors, not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severity of the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. it is much to his credit, however, that after having been freed from his debts by composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from king william's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both the principal and interest of their claims. this is such an example of honesty as it would be unjust to de foe and to the world to conceal. the amount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as he afterwards feelingly mentions to lord haversham, who had reproached him with covetousness; "with a numerous family, and no helps but my own industry, i have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced my debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thousand pounds." at the beginning of the year 1700, mr. de foe published a satire in verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "trueborn englishman." its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were continually abusing king william and some of his friends as _foreigners_, by showing that the present race of englishmen was a mixed and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native purity of blood. the satire was in many parts very severe; and though it gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public attention. the reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this production, wherein he endeavours to account for- "what makes this discontented land appear less happy now in times of peace, than war; why civil fends disturb the nation more, than all our bloody wars had done before: fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place, and men are always honest in disgrace: the court preferments make men knaves in course, but they, who would be in them, would be worse. 'tis not at foreigners that we repine, would foreigners their perquisites resign: the grand contention's plainly to be seen, to get some men put out, and some put in." it will be immediately perceived that de foe could have no pretensions to the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in general excellent. the trueborn englishman concludes thus: could but our ancestors retrieve their fate, and see their offspring thus degenerate; how we contend for birth and names unknown, and build on their past actions, not our own; they'd cancel records, and their tombs deface, and openly disown the vile degenerate race. for fame of families is all a cheat; 'tis personal virtue only makes us great. for this defence of foreigners de foe was amply rewarded by king william, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponents denominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; an office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convinced they were injurious to his country. de foe now retired to newington with his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of sorrow which probably embittered his future life. he had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which ensued on the accession of queen anne, gave him an opportunity of gratifying his favourite passion. he therefore published a tract, entitled "the shortest way with the dissenters, or proposals for the establishment of the church," which contained an ironical recommendation of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons, particularly dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. the high church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation published in the gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1]. when de foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and bookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, as he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather than that others should be ruined for his mistakes." in july, 1703, he was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. he underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with unreasonable severity. so far was he from being ashamed of his fate himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding to his accusers: tell them, the men that plac'd him here are scandals to the times; are at a loss to find his guilt, and can't commit his crimes. pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his dunciad, (probably from no other reason than party difference) characterizes him in the following line: earless on high stood unabash'd de foe. this is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so frequently occur in the dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the author than on the parties traduced. de foe lay friendless and distressed in newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of deliverance, till sir robert harley, who approved of his principles, and foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the queen, and at length procured his release. the treasurer, lord godolphin, also sent a considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his fine and the expense of his discharge. gratitude and fidelity are inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that prompted de foe to support harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered, by violence. the talents and perseverance of de foe began now to be properly estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent by lord godolphin to scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. his knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and, above all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility in promoting the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history in 1709, with two dedications, one to the queen, and another to the duke of queensbury. soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal writings, rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once more retired to newington, in hopes of spending the remainder of his days in peace. his pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he began to compose works of a different kind.--the year 1715 may therefore be regarded as the period of de foe's political life. faction henceforth found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminate their suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods. in 1715 de foe published the "family instructor;" a work inculcating the domestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and displaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society. "religious courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "family instructor," is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and strongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety and private devotion for which the dissenters have generally been distinguished. the most celebrated of all his works, "the life and adventures of robinson crusoe," appeared in 1719. this work has passed through numerous editions, and been translated into almost all modern languages. the great invention which is displayed in it, the variety of incidents and circumstances which it contains, related in the most easy and natural manner, together with the excellency of the moral and religious reflections, render it a performance of very superior and uncommon merit, and one of the most interesting works that ever appeared. it is strongly recommended by rosseau as a book admirably calculated to promote the purposes of natural education; and dr. blair says, "no fiction, in any language, was ever better supported than the adventures of robinson crusoe. while it is carried on with that appearance of truth and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all readers, it suggests, at the same time, very useful instruction; by showing how much the native powers of man may be exerted for surmounting the difficulties of any external situation." it has been pretended, that de foe surreptitiously appropriated the papers of alexander selkirk, a scotch mariner, who lived four years alone on the island of juan fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had before appeared in the voyage of captain woodes rogers. but this charge, though repeatedly and confidently brought, appears to be totally destitute of any foundation. de foe probably took some general hints for his work from the story of selkirk, but there exists no proof whatever, nor is it reasonable to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or memoirs, which had been published seven years before the appearance of robinson crusoe. as a farther proof of de foe's innocence, captain rogers' account of selkirk may be produced, in which it is said that the latter had neither preserved pen, ink, or paper, and had, in a great measure, lost his language; consequently de foe could not have received any written assistance, and we have only the assertion of his enemies to prove that he had any verbal. the great success of robinson crusoe induced its author to write a number of other lives and adventures, some of which were popular in their times, though at present nearly forgotten. one of his latest publications was "a tour through the island of great britain," a performance of very inferior merit; but de foe was now the garrulous old man, and his spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer) "like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and sunk, blazed and sunk, till it disappeared at length in total darkness." his laborious and unfortunate life was finished on the 26th of april, 1731, in' the parish of st. giles's, cripplegate. daniel de foe possessed very extraordinary talents; as a commercial writer, he is fairly entitled to stand in the foremost rank among his contemporaries, whatever may be their performances or their fame. his distinguishing characteristics are originality, spirit, and a profound knowledge of his subject, and in these particulars he has seldom been surpassed. as the author of robinson crusoe he has a claim, not only to the admiration, but to the gratitude of his countrymen; and so long as we have a regard for supereminent merit, and take an interest in the welfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will not cease to exist. but the opinion of the learned and ingenious dr. beattie will be the best eulogium that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance: "robinson crusoe," says the doctor, "must be allowed, by the most rigid moralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, riot only with pleasure, but also with profit. it breathes throughout a spirit of piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importance of the mechanic arts, which they, who know not what it is to be without them, are so apt to under-value; it fixes in the mind a lively idea of the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of social life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid; and it shows how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may secure independence, and open for one's self many sources of health and amusement. i agree, therefore, with rosseau, that it is one of the best books that can be put into the hands of children." footnotes: [footnote 1: _st. james's, january 10, 1702-5._ "whereas daniel de foe, alias de fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled 'the shortest way with the dissenters:' he is a middle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in london, and for many years was a hose-factor, in freeman's yard, in cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works near tilbury fort, in essex; whoever shall discover the said daniel de foe, to one of her majesty's principal secretaries of state, or any of her majesty's justices of peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of £50, which her majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery." _london gaz._ no. 3879.] the life and adventures of robinson crusoe. i was born in the year 1632, in the city of york, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of bremen, who settled first at hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at york; from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom i was called robinson kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in england, we are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write, our name crusoe; and so my companions always called me. i had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an english regiment of foot in flanders, formerly commanded by the famous colonel lockhart, and was killed at the battle near dunkirk against the spaniards. what became of my second brother i never knew, any more than my father or mother did know what was become of me. being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free-school generally go, and designed me for the law; but i would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly, against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propension of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me. my father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. he called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons more than a mere wandering inclination i had for leaving my father's house and my native country, where i might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. he told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. he told me, i might judge of the happiness of this state by one thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wish they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. he bid me observe it, and i should always find, that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were, who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean and insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly. after this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not to precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life i was born in, seemed to have provided against; that i was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had been just recommending to me; and that if i was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt: in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if i would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes, as to give me any encouragement to go away: and to close all, he told me i had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the low country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if i did take this foolish step, god would not bless me, and i would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. i observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though i suppose my father did not know it to be so himself; i say, i observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, and especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed: and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart was so full he could say no more to me. i was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed who could be otherwise? and i resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my father's desire. but, alas! a few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's further importunities, in a few weeks after i resolved to run quite away from him. however, i did not act so hastily neither as my first heat of resolution prompted, but i took my mother, at a time when i thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that i should never settle to any thing with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that i was now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney; that i was sure, if i did, i should never serve out my time, and i should certainly run away from my master before my time was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if i came home again, and did not like it, i would go no more, and i would promise, by a double diligence, to recover that time i had lost. this put my mother into a great passion: she told me, she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to any such thing so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how i could think of any such thing after such a discourse as i had had with my father, and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if i would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but i might depend i should never have their consent to it: that for her part, she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and i should never have it to say, that my mother was willing when my father was not. though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, as i have heard afterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, "that boy might be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that was ever born; i can give no consent to it." it was not till almost a year after this that i broke loose, though, in the mean time, i continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulating with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to. but being one day at hull, where i went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time; but, i say, being there, and one of my companions then going by sea to london, in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the common allurement of seafaring men, viz. that it should cost me nothing for my passage, i consulted neither father or mother any more, not so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without asking god's blessing, or my father's, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, god knows, on the first of september, 1651, i went on board a ship bound for london. never any young adventurer's misfortunes, i believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine. the ship was no sooner gotten out of the humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as i had never been at sea before, i was most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in mind. i began now seriously to reflect upon what i had done, and how justly i was overtaken by the judgment of heaven for wickedly leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty. all the good counsel of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to god and my father. all this while the storm increased, and the sea, which i had never been upon before, went very high, though nothing like what i have seen many times since; no, nor like what i saw a few days after: but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter. i expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as i thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; and in this agony of mind i made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please god here to spare my life this one voyage, if ever i got once my foot upon dry land again, i would go directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship again while i lived; that i would take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more. now i saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and i resolved that i would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father. these wise and sober thoughts continued during the storm, and indeed some time after; but the next day, as the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, i began to be a little inured to it: however, i was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as i thought, the most delightful that i ever saw. i had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in a little time after. and now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me away, came to me and said, "well; bob," clapping me on the shoulder, "how do you do after it? i warrant you were frightened, wa'n't you, last night, when it blew but a cap-full of wind?"--"a cap-full do you call it?" said i; "it was a terrible storm."--"a storm, you fool you," replied he, "do you call that a storm? why it was nothing at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor. bob, come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; do you see what charming weather it is now?" to make short this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sailors; the punch was made, and i was made drunk with it; and in that one night's wickedness i drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions for my future. in a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, i entirely forgot the vows and promises that i made in my distress. i found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but i shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits, for so i called them; and i had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it, could desire: but i was to have another trial for it still; and providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse: for if i would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of. the sixth day of our being at sea we came into yarmouth roads; the wind having been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made but little way since the storm. here we were obliged to come to anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. at south-west, for seven or eight days, during which tune a great many ships from newcastle came into the same roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river. we had not, however, rid here so long, but should have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. however, the roads being reckoned as good as a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth day in the morning the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible. by noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor; so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the cables veered out to the better end. by this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now i began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. the master, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, i could hear him softly say to himself several times, "lord, be merciful to us! we shall be all lost; we shall be all undone!" and the like. during these first hurries i was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper: i could ill reassume the first penitence which i had so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against. i thought the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing like the first: but when the master himself came by me, as i said just now, and said we should be all lost, i was dreadfully frighted: i got up but of my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight i never saw; the sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes: when i could look about, i could see nothing but distress around us: two ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship which rid about a mile a-head of us was foundered. two more ships being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. the light ships-fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their spritsail out before the wind. towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do: but the boatswain protesting to him, that if he did not, the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the-fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear deck. any one may judge what a condition i must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little. but if i can express at this distance the thoughts that i had about me at that time, i was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and the having returned from them to the resolutions i had wickedly taken at first, than i was at death itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me in such a condition, that i can by no words describe it. but the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never known a worse. we had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then cried out, she would founder. it was my advantage in one respect, that i did not know what they meant by _founder_, till i inquired. however, the storm was so violent, that i saw what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. in the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had been down on purpose to see, cried out, we had sprung a leak; another said, there was four foot water in the hold. then all hands were called to the pump. at that very word my heart, as i thought, died within me, and i fell backwards upon the side of my bed where i sat, into the cabin. however, the men roused me, and told me, that i, that was able to do nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which i stirred up, and went to the pump and worked very heartily. while this was doing, the master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun as a signal of distress. i, who knew nothing what that meant, was so surprised, that i thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing had happened. in a word, i was so surprised, that i fell down in a swoon. as this was a time when every body had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but another man stept up to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking i had been dead; and it was a great while before i came to myself. we worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just a-head of us, ventured a boat out to help us. it was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they, after great labour and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat. it was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore he would make it good to their master: so partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as winterton ness. we were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then i understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. i must acknowledge i had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that moment they rather put me into the boat, than that i might be said to go in; my heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me. while we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore) a great many people running along the strand to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slow way towards the shore; nor were we able to reach it, till, being past the light-house at winterton, the shore falls off to the westward, towards cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind. here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to london or back to hull, as we thought fit. had i now had the sense to have gone back to hull, and have gone home, i had been happy, and my father, an emblem of our blessed saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship i went away in was cast away in yarmouth roads, it was a great while before he had any assurance that i was not drowned. but my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though i had several times loud calls from my reason, and my more composed judgment, to go home, yet i had no power to do it. i know not what to call this, nor will i urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open. certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as i had met with in my first attempt. my comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the master's son, was now less forward than i. the first time he spoke to me after we were at yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several quarters; i say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very melancholy, and shaking his head, asked me how i did, and telling his father who i was, and how i had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go farther abroad; his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone, "young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man,"--"why, sir," said i, "will you go to sea no more?" "that is another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist. perhaps this has all befallen us on your account, like jonah in the ship of tarshish. pray," continues he, "what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?" upon that i told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a strange kind of passion; "what had i done," says he, "that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? i would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds," this indeed was, as i said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go. however, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back to my father, and not tempt providence to my ruin; told me i might see a visible hand of heaven against me. "and young man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon you." we parted soon after; for i made him little answer, and i saw him no more: which way he went, i know not. as for me, having some money in my pocket, i travelled to london by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself, what course of life i should take, and whether i should go home, or go to sea. as to going home, shame opposed the best notions that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how i should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even every body else; from whence i have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; nor ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men. in this state of life, however, i remained some time, uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. an irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and as i stayed a while, the remembrance of the distress i had been in wore off; and as that abated, the little notion i had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till at last i quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. that evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune; and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands of my father: i say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and i went on board a vessel bound to the coast of africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to guinea. it was my great misfortune that in all these adventures i did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though i might indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time i had learnt the duty and office of a foremast-man; and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. but as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so i did here; for having money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, i would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so i neither had any business in the ship, or learnt to do any. it was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in london, which does not always happen to such loose and unguided young fellows as i then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for them very early: but it was not so with me. i first fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was resolved to go again; and who taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say i had a mind to see the world, told me if i would go the voyage with him i should be at no expense; i should be his messmate and his companion; and if i could carry any thing with me, i should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and perhaps i might meet with some encouragement. i embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, i went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, i increased very considerably; for i carried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. this £40 i had mustered together by the assistance of some of my relations whom i corresponded with, and who, i believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first adventure. this was the only voyage which i may say i was successful in all my adventures, and which i owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also i got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learnt how to keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor: for, as he took delight to instruct me, i took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant: for i brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in london at my return almost £300, and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which have so completed my ruin. yet even in this voyage i had my misfortunes too; particularly, that i was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself. i was now set up for a guinea trader; and my friend, to my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, i resolved to go the same voyage again, and i embarked in the same vessel with one who was his mate in his former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. this was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though i did not carry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that i had £200 left, and which i lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet i fell into terrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was this, viz. our ship making her course towards the canary islands, or rather between those islands and the african shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a turkish rover, of sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. we crowded also as much canvass as our yards would spread, or our masts carry to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rover eighteen. about three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in also his small-shot from near 200 men which he had on board. however, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. he prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves; but laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and rigging. we plied them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. however, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were carried all prisoners into sallee, a port belonging to the moors. the usage i had there was not so dreadful as at first i apprehended; nor was i carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. at this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable slave, i was perfectly overwhelmed; and now i looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me, that i should be miserable, and have none to relieve me, which i thought was now so effectually brought to pass, that i could not be worse; that now the hand of heaven had overtaken me, and i was undone without redemption: but, alas! this was but a taste of the misery i was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this story. as my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so i was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again, believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a spanish or portugal man of war; and that then i should be set at liberty. but this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship. here i meditated nothing but my escape, and what method i might take to effect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it: nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for i had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow slave, no englishman, irishman, or scotchman there but myself; so that for two years, though i often pleased myself with the imagination, yet i never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice. after about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head. my patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as i heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always took me and a young moresco with him to row the boat, we made him very merry, and i proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth of moresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him. it happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all the next night, and when the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were at least two leagues from the shore: however, we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but particularly we were all very hungry. but our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat of our english ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of his ship, who also was an english slave, to build a little state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul home the main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work the sails: she sailed with what we call a shoulder of mutton sail; and the boom gibbed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink; and particularly his bread, rice, and coffee. we went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as i was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. it happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on board the boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot, which were on board his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing. i got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ensign and pendants out, and every thing to accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business that fell out, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at his house; and commanded that as soon as i got some fish i should bring it home to his house; all which i prepared to do. this moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for now i found i was like to have a little ship at my command; and my master being gone, i prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage; though i knew not, neither did i so much as consider, whither i should steer; for any where, to get out of that place, was my way. my first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for i told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's bread; he said, that was true: so he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the boat. i knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some english prize, and i conveyed them into the boat while the moor was on shore, as if they had been there before for our master: i conveyed also a great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax to make candles. another trick i tried upon him, which he innocently came into also; his name was ismael, whom they call muley, or moley; so i called him: "moley," said i, "our patron's guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? it may be we may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for i know he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship."--"yes," says he, "i'll bring some;" and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held about a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat: at the same time i had found some powder of my master's in the great cabin, with which i filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus furnished with every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. the castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of us: and we were not above a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail, and set us down to fish. the wind blew from the n.n.e. which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown southerly, i had been sure to have made the coast of spain, and at least reached to the bay of cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it would, i would be gone from that horrid place where i was, and leave the rest to fate. after we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when i had fish on my hook i would not pull them up, that he might not see them, i said to the moor, "this will not do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand farther off." he, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the head of the boat set the sails; and as i had the helm i run the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to as if i would fish; when giving the boy the helm, i stepped forward to where the moor was, and making as if i stooped for something behind him, i took him by surprise with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea. he rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. he swam so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon which i stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, i presented it at him, and told him, i had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet i would do him none: "but," said i, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and i will do you no harm; but if you come near the boat i'll shoot you through the head, for i am resolved to have my liberty." so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and i make no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer. i could have been content to have taken this moor with me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. when he was gone i turned to the boy, whom they called xury, and said to him, "xury, if you will be faithful to me i'll make you a great man; but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me," that is, swear by mahomet and his father's beard, "i must throw you into the sea too." the boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently, that i could not mistrust him; and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me. while i was in view of the moor that was swimming, i stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might think me gone towards the straits' mouth; (as indeed any one that had been in their wits must have been supposed to do) for who would have supposed we were sailed on to the southward to the truly barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with the canoes, and destroy us; where we could never once go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind? but as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, i changed my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little toward the east, that i might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, i made such sail that i believe by the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when i first made the land, i could not be less than 150 miles south of sallee; quite beyond the emperor of morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabout, for we saw no people. yet such was the fright i had taken at the moors, and the dreadful apprehensions i had of falling into their hands, that i would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till i had sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to the southward, i concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also would now give over; so i ventured to make to the coast, and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, i knew not what, or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river: i neither saw, or desired to see any people; the principal thing i wanted was fresh water. we came into this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but, as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day. "well, xury," said i, "then i won't; but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions."--"then we give them the shoot gun," says xury, laughing, "make them run wey." such english xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. however i was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and i gave him a dram (out of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. after all, xury's advice was good, and i took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all night; i say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, that i never indeed heard the like. xury was dreadfully frightened, and indeed so was i too; but we were both more frightened when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast; xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught i know; but poor xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away: "no," says i, "xury; we can slip our cable with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us far." i had no sooner said so, but i perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, i immediately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun, fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about, and swam towards the shore again. but it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing i have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before: this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night upon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of lions and tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or where to get it, was the point: xury said, if i would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. i asked him why he would go? why i should not go, and he stay in the boat? the boy answered with so much affection, that made me love him ever after. says he, "if wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey."--"well, xury," said i, "we will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us." so i gave xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which i mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was proper, and so waded to shore; carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for water. i did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river: but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by i saw him come running towards me. i thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and i run forward towards him to help him, but when i came nearer to him, i saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water, and seen no wild mans. but we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country. as i had been one voyage to this coast before, i knew very well that the islands of the canaries, and the cape de verd islands also, lay not far off from the coast. but as i had no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least remembering what latitude they were in, and knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise i might now easily have found some of these islands. but my hope was, that if i stood along this coast till i came to that part where the english traded, i should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in. by the best of my calculation, that place where i now was, must be that country, which, lying between the emperor of morocco's dominions and the negroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having abandoned it, and gone farther south for fear of the moors; and the moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness; and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of tigers, lions, and leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there; so that the moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near an hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by night. once or twice in the day-time i thought i saw the pico of teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain teneriffe in the canaries; and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, i was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my little vessel; so i resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore. several times i was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left this place; and once in particular, being early in the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; "for," says he, "look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock fast asleep." i looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. "xury," says i, "you shall go on shore and kill him." xury looked frightened, and said, "me kill! he eat me at one mouth;" one mouthful he meant: however, i said no more to the boy, but bad him lie still, and i took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down; then i loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) i loaded with five smaller bullets. i took the best aim i could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. he started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broke, fell down again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever i heard. i was a little surprised that i had not hit him on the head; however, i took up the second piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. then xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore; "well, go," said i; so the boy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which dispatched him quite. this was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and i was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. however, xury said he would have some of him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "for what, xury?" said i, "me cut off his head," said he. however, xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous great one. i bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one way or other be of some value to us; and i resolved to take off his skin if i could. so xury and i went to work with him; but xury was much the better workman at it, for i knew very ill how to do it. indeed it took us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon. after this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river gambia or senegal, that is to say, any where about the cape de verd, where i was in hopes to meet with some european ship; and if i did not, i knew not what course i had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the negroes, i knew that all the ships from europe, which sailed either to the coast of guinea or to brazil, or to the east indies, made this cape, or those islands; and in a word, i put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that i must meet with some ship, or must perish. when i had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as i have said, i began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark naked. i was once inclined to have gone off shore to them; but xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, "no go, no go." however, i hauled in nearer the shore that i might talk to them, and i found they run along the shore by me a good way: i observed they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which nury said was a lance, and that they would throw them a great way with a good aim; so i kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as i could; and particularly made signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. upon this i lowered the top of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one or the other was: however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for i was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again. we made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but i believe it was the latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night; and in the second place, we found the people terribly frightened, especially the women. the man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if they had come for their diversion: at last, one of them began to come nearer our boat than i at first expected; but i lay ready for him, for i had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade xury load both the others. as soon as he came fairly within my reach, i fired, and shot him directly in the head: immediately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he was struggling for life, and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore. it is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures, at the noise and fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that i made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and began to search for the creature. i found him by his blood staining the water; and by the help of a rope, which i slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the negroes held up their hands with admiration, to think what it was i had killed him with. the other creature, frightened with the flash of fire and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from whence they came; nor could i, at that distance, know what it was. i found quickly the negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, so i was willing to have them take it as a favour from me; which, when i made signs to them that they might take him, they were very thankful for. immediately they fell to work with him; and though they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. they offered me some of the flesh, which i declined, making as if i would give it them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a great deal more of their provisions, which, though i did not understand, yet i accepted. i then made signs to them for some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that it was empty, and that i wanted to have it filled. they called immediately to some of their friends, and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as i suppose, in the sun; this they set down to me, as before, and i sent xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. the women were as stark naked as the men. i was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and leaving my friendly negroes, i made forward for about eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till i saw the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being very calm, i kept a large offing, to make this point. at length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the land, i saw plainly land on the other side, to seaward: then i concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the cape de verd, and those the islands, called, from thence, cape de verd islands. however, they were at a great distance, and i could not well tell what i had best to do; for if i should be taken with a gale of wind, i might neither reach one nor the other. in this dilemma, as i was very pensive, i stepped into the cabin, and sat me down, xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, master, master, a ship with a sail! and the foolish boy was frightened out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when i knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. i jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but what she was, viz. that it was a portuguese ship, and, as i thought, was bound to the coast of guinea, for negroes. but, when i observed the course she steered, i was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore: upon which, i stretched out to sea as much as i could, resolving to speak with them, if possible. with all the sail i could make, i found i should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before i could make any signal to them: but after i had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me, by the help of their perspective glasses, and that it was some european boat, which, they supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sail, to let me come up. i was encouraged with this, and as i had my patron's ensign on board, i made a waft of it to them, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. upon these signals, they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and in about three hours' time i came up with them. they asked me what i was, in portuguese, and in spanish, and in french, but i understood none of them; but, at last, a scotch sailor, who was on board, called to me, and i answered him, and told him i was an englishman, that i had made my escape out of slavery from the moors, at sallee: they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods. it was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that i was thus delivered, as i esteemed it, from such a miserable, and almost hopeless, condition as i was in; and i immediately offered all i had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that all i had should be delivered safe to me, when i came to the brazils. "for," says he, "i have saved your life on no other terms than i would be glad to be saved myself; and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition. besides," continued he, "when i carry you to the brazils, so great a way from your own country, if i should take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then i only take away that life i have given. no, no, seignior inglese," (mr. englishman,) says he; "i will carry you thither in charity, and these things will help to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home again." as he was charitable, in this proposal, so he was just in the performance, to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none should offer to touch any thing i had: then he took every thing into his own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that i might have them, even so much as my three earthen jars. as to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the ship's use; and asked me what i would have for it? i told him, he had been so generous to me in every thing, that i could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him: upon which, he told me he would give me a note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at brazil; and when it came there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up. he offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy xury, which i was loth to take; not that i was not willing to let the captain have him, but i was very loth to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. however, when i let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he turned christian: upon this, and xury saying he was willing to go to him, i let the captain have him. we had a very good voyage to the brazils, and arrived in the bay de todos los santos, or all saints' bay, in about twenty-two days after. and now i was once more delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do next with myself, i was now to consider. the generous treatment the captain gave me, i can never enough remember: he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which i had in my boat, and caused every thing i had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me; and what i was willing to sell, he bought of me; such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of bees-wax,--for i had made candles of the rest: in a word, i made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock, i went on shore in the brazils. i had not been long here, before i was recommended to the house of a good honest man, like himself, who had an ingeino as they call it, (that is, a plantation and a sugar-house.) i lived with him some time, and acquainted myself, by that means, with the manner of planting and making of sugar: and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got rich suddenly, i resolved, if i could get a licence to settle there, i would turn planter among them: endeavouring, in the mean time, to find out some way to get my money, which i had left in london, remitted to me. to this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, i purchased as much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement; such a one as might be suitable to the stock which i proposed to myself to receive from england. i had a neighbour, a portuguese of lisbon, but: born of english parents, whose name was wells, and in much such circumstances as i was. i call him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably together. my stock was but low, as well as his; and we rather planted for food than any thing else, for about two years. however, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so that ihe third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come: but we both wanted help; and now i found, more than before, i had done wrong in parting with my boy xury. but, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right, was no great wonder. i had no remedy, but to go on: i had got into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life i delighted in, and for which i forsook my father's house, and broke through all his good advice: nay, i was coining into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which, if i resolved to go on with, i might as well have staid at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world, as i had done: and i used often to say to myself, i could have done this as well in england, among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me. in this manner, i used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret. i had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands: and i used to say, i lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself. but how just has it been! and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse, heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience: i say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life i reflected on, in an island of mere desolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which i then led, in which, had i continued, i had, in all probability, been exceeding prosperous and rich. i was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took me up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there, in providing his lading, and preparing for his voyage, near three months; when, telling him what little stock i had left behind me in london, he gave me this friendly and sincere advice: "seignior inglese," says he, for so he always called me, "if you will give me letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with orders to the person who has your money in london, to send your effects to lisbon, to such persons as i shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this country, i will bring you the produce of them, god willing, at my return; but, since human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, i would have you give orders for but one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first, so that if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way; and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your supply." this was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that i could not but be convinced it was the best course i could take; so i accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom i left my money, and a procuration to the portuguese captain, as he desired me. i wrote the english captain's widow a full account of all my adventures; my slavery, escape, and how i had met with the portuguese captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition i was now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when this honest captain came to lisbon, he found means, by some of the english merchants there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of my story to a merchant at london, who represented it effectually to her: whereupon she not only delivered the money, but, out of her own pocket, sent the portuguese captain a very handsome present for his humanity and charity to me. the merchant in london, vesting this hundred pounds in english goods, such as the captain had wrote for, sent them directly to him at lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me at the brazils: among which, without my direction, (for i was too young in my business to think of them,) he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron work, and utensils, necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me. when this cargo arrived, i thought my fortune made, for i was surprised with the joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him as a present for himself, to purchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' service, and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which i would have him accept, being of my own produce. neither was this all: but my goods being all english manufactures, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirable in the country, i found means to sell them to a very great advantage; so that i might say, i had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, i mean in the advancement of my plantation: for the first thing i did, i bought me a negro slave, and ail european servant also; i mean another besides that which the captain brought me from lisbon. but as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our adversity, so was it with me. i went on the next year with great success in my plantation; i raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than i had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, were well cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from lisbon: and now, increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often the ruin of the best heads in business. had i continued in the station i was now in, i had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full of: but other things attended me, and i was still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and, particularly, to increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows i should have leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination, of wandering about, and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, and those measures of life, which nature and providence concurred to present me with, and to make my duty. as i had once done thus in breaking away from my parents, so i could not be content now, but i must go and leave the happy view i had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus i cast myself down again into the deepest gulph of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life, and a state of health in the world. to come, then, by just degrees, to the particulars of this part of my story:--you may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in the brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, i had not only learned the language, but had contracted an acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at st. salvador, which was our port; and that, in my discourses among them, i had frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of guinea, the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase on the coast for trifles--such as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like--not only gold dust, guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c. but negroes, for the service of the brazils, in great numbers. they listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying negroes; which was a trade, at that time, not only not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the assientos, or permission of the kings of spain and portugal, and engrossed from the public; so that few negroes were bought, and those excessive dear. it happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and told me they had been musing very much upon what i had discoursed with them of the last night, and they came to make a secret proposal to me: and, after enjoining me to secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to guinea; that they had all plantations as well as i, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their own plantations: and, in a word, the question was, whether i would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of guinea; and they offered me that i should have an equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of the stock. this was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to any one that had not a settlement and plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock upon it. but for me, that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but go on as i had begun, for three or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from england; and who, in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too; for me to think of such a voyage, was the most preposterous thing that ever man, in such circumstances, could be guilty of. but i, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the offer, than i could restrain my first rambling designs, when my father's good counsel was lost upon me. in a word, i told them i would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as i should direct, if i miscarried. this they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or covenants to do so; and i made a formal will, disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my death; making the captain of the ship that had saved my life, as before, my universal heir; but obliging him to dispose of my effects as i had directed in my will; one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to england. in short, i took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and to keep up my plantation: had i used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what i ought to have done and not to have done i had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons i had to expect particular misfortunes to myself. but i was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy, rather than my reason: and accordingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage, i went on board in an evil hour again, the 1st of september, 1659, being the same day eight years that i went from my father and mother at hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own interest. our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself; we had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like. the same day i went on board we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the african coast. when they came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of their course in those days, we had very good weather, only excessive hot all the way upon our own coast, till we came to the height of cape st. augustino; from whence, keeping farther off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle fernando de noronha, holding our course n.e. by n. and leaving those isles on the east. in this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, and were by our last observation, in 7 degrees 22 minutes northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite out of our knowledge: it began from the south-east, came about to the north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and the fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelve days, i need not say that i expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives. in this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our men died of the calenture, and one man and a boy washed overboard. about the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made an observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude difference, west from cape st. augustino; so that he found he was got upon the coast of guiana, or the north part of brazil, beyond the river amazons, toward that of the river oroonoque, commonly called the great river; and began to consult with me what course he should take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled, add he was going directly back to the coast of brazil. i was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the sea-coast of america with him, we concluded there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came within the circle of the caribbee islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for barbadoes; which by keeping off to sea, to avoid the in-draft of the bay or gulf of mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of africa without some assistance, both to our ship and ourselves. with this design, we changed our course, and steered away n.w. by w. in order to reach some of our english islands, where i hoped for relief: but our voyage was otherwise determined; for being in the latitude of 12 degrees 18 minutes, a second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that had all our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country. in this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men early in the morning cried out, land! and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea. it is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances; we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes, without breaking in pieces, unless the wind, by a kind of miracle, should immediately turn about. in a word, we sat looking upon one another, and expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this: that which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate. now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. we had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and, in the next place, she broke away, and either sunk, or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from her: we had another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she was actually broken already. in this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, they got her flung over the ship's side; and getting all into her, let her go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to god's mercy, and the wild sea: for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful high upon the shore, and might be well called _den wild zee_, as the dutch call the sea in a storm. and now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly, that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned. as to making sail, we had none; nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew that when the boat came nearer to the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. however, we committed our souls to god in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land. what the shore was--whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal--we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. but there was nothing of this appeared; and as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. after we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the _coup de grace_. in a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us, as well from the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say, "o god!" for we were all swallowed up in a moment. nothing can describe the confusion of thought which i felt, when i sunk into the water; for though i swam very well, yet i could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw my breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water i took in. i had so much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the main land than i expected, i got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as i could, before another wave should return and take me up again; but i soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for i saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which i had no means or strength to contend with: my business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if i could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible; my greatest concern now being, that the wave, as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea. the wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body; and i could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but i held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. i was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as i felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, i found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that i could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath, and new courage. i was covered again with water a good while, but not so long but i held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began to return, i struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. i stood still a few moments, to recover breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to my heels, and ran with what strength i had farther towards the shore. but neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and twice more i was lifted up by the waves and carried forwards as before, the shore being very flat. the last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me; for the sea having hurried me along, as before, landed me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, that it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath, as it were, quite out of my body; and had it returned again immediately, i must have been strangled in the water: but i recovered a little before the return of the waves, and seeing i should again be covered with the water, i resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went back. now as the waves were not so high as the first, being nearer land, i held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near the shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run i took, i got to the main land; where, to my great comfort, i clambered up the cliffs of the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach of the water. i was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank god that my life was saved, in a case wherein there were, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. i believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as i may say, out of the grave: and i did not wonder now at the custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him; i say, i do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart, and overwhelm him. for sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first. i walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as i may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which i cannot describe; reflecting upon my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, i never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. i cast my eyes to the stranded vessel--when the breach and froth of the sea being so big i could hardly see it, it lay so far off--and considered, lord! how was it possible i could get on shore? after i had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, i began to look round me, to see what kind of a place i was in, and what was next to be done; and i soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word, i had a dreadful deliverance: for i was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing either to eat or drink, to comfort me; neither did i see any prospect before me, but that of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts: and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that i had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. in a word, i had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. this was all my provision; and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mind, that, for a while, i ran about like a madman. night coming upon me, i began, with a heavy heart, to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they always come abroad for their prey. all the remedy that offered to my thoughts; at that time, was, to get up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir, but thorny--which grew near me, and where i resolved to sit all night--and consider the next day what death i should die, for as yet i saw no prospect of life. i walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if i could find any fresh water to drink, which i did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, i went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so, as that if i should fall asleep, i might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, i took up my lodging; and having been excessively fatigued, i fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, i believe, few could have done in my condition; and found myself the most refreshed with it that i think i ever was on such an occasion. when i waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock which i at first mentioned, where i had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. this being within about a mile from the shore where i was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still, i wished myself on board, that at least i might save some necessary things for my use. when i came down from my apartment in the tree, i looked about me again, and the first thing i found was the boat; which lay, as the wind and the sea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. i walked as far as i could upon the shore to have got to her; but found a neck, or inlet, of water between me and the boat, which was about half a mile broad; so i came back for the present, being more intent upon getting at the ship, where i hoped to find something for my present subsistence. a little after noon, i found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed so far out, that i could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship: and here i found a fresh renewing of my grief; for i saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we had been all safe; that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and i had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as i now was. this forced tears from my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, i resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so i pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the water; but when i came to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board; for as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. i swam round her twice, and the second time i spied a small piece of a rope, which i wondered i did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains so low, as that with great difficulty, i got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got into the forecastle of the ship. here i found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold; but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost to the water. by this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free: and, first, i found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water; and, being very well disposed to eat, i went to the bread-room, and filled my pockets with biscuit, and eat it as i went about other things, for i had no time to lose. i also found some rum in the great cabin, of which i took a large dram, and which i had indeed need enough of, to spirit me for what was before me. now i wanted nothing but a boat, to furnish myself with many things which i foresaw would be very necessary to me. it was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had, and this extremity roused my application: we had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare top-mast or two in the ship; i resolved to fall to work with these, and flung as many overboard as i could manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might not drive away. when this was done, i went down the ship's side, and pulling them to me, i tied four of them fast together at both ends, as well as i could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them, crossways, i found i could walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light: so i went to work, and with the carpenter's saw i cut a spare top-mast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of labour and pains. but the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries, encouraged me to go beyond what i should have been able to have done upon another occasion. my raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. my next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what i laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but i was not long considering this. i first laid all the planks or boards upon it that i could get, and having considered well what i most wanted, i got three of the seamen's chests, which i had broken open and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft; these i filled with provisions, viz. bread, rice, three dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goats' flesh, (which we lived much upon,) and a little remainder of european corn, which had been laid by for some fowls which we had brought to sea with us, but the fowls were killed. there had been some barley and wheat together, but, to my great disappointment, i found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. as for liquors, i found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were some cordial waters; and, in all, about five or six gallons of rack. these i stowed by themselves, there being no need to put them into the chests, nor any room for them. while i was doing this, i found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and i had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which i had left on shore, upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were only linen, and open-knee'd, i swam on board in them, and my stockings. however, this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which i found enough, but took no more than i wanted for present use, for i had other things which my eye was more upon; as, first, tools to work with on shore and it was after long searching that i found the carpenter's chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a ship-lading of gold would have been at that time. i got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for i knew in general what it contained. my next care was for some ammunition and arms. there were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols; these i secured first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. i knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search i found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water. those two i got to my raft, with the arms. and now i thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how i should get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least cap-full of wind would have overset all my navigation. i had three encouragements: 1st, a smooth, calm sea: 2dly, the tide rising, and setting in to the shore: 3dly, what little wind there was, blew me towards the land. and thus, having found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools which were in the chest, i found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; and with this cargo i put to sea. for a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that i found it drive a little distant from the place where i had landed before; by which i perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently i hoped to find some creek or river there, which i might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo. as i imagined, so it was: there appeared before me a little opening of the land, and i found a strong current of the tide set into it; so i guided my raft, as well as i could, to get into the middle of the stream. but here i had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if i had, i think verily would have broken my heart; for knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. i did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength; neither durst i stir from the posture i was in, but holding up the chests with all my might, i stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level; and a little after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, and i thrust her off with the oar i had into the channel, and then driving up higher, i at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong current or tide running up. i looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for i was not willing to be driven too high up the river; hoping, in time, to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as i could. at length i spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, i guided my raft, and at last got so near, as that reaching ground with my oar, i could thrust her directly in; but here i had like to have dipped all my cargo into the sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep, that is to say, sloping, there was no place to land, but where one end of my float, if it ran on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower, as before, that it would endanger my cargo again. all that i could do, was to wait till the tide was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which i expected the water would flow over; and so it did. as soon as i found water enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, i thrust her upon that flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her, by sticking my two broken oars into the ground; one on one-side, near one end, and one on the other side, near the other end: and thus i lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore. my next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure them from whatever might happen. where i was, i yet knew not; whether on the continent, or on an island; whether inhabited, or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts, or not. there was a hill, not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. i took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, i travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill; where, after i had, with great labour and difficulty, got up to the top, i saw my fate, to my great affliction, viz. that i was in an island, environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some rocks, which lay a great way off, and two small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west. i found also that the island i was in was barren, and, as i saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom, however, i saw none; yet i saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither, when i killed them, could i tell what was fit for food, and what not. at my coming back, i shot at a great bird, which i saw sitting upon a tree, on the side of a great wood. i believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world: i had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming, and crying, every one according to his usual note; but not one of them of any kind that i knew. as for the creature i killed, i took it to be a kind of a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but had no talons or claws more than common. its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. contented with this discovery, i came back to my raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day: what to do with myself at night i knew not, nor indeed where to rest: for i was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me; though, as i afterwards found, there was really no need for those fears. however, as well as i could, i barricadoed myself round with the chests and boards that i had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging. as for food, i yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that i had seen two or three creatures, like hares, run out of the wood where i shot the fowl. i now began to consider, that i might yet get a great many things out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and particularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other things as might come to land; and i resolved to make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible. and as i knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, i resolved to set all other things apart, till i got every thing out of the ship that i could get. then i called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts, whether i should take back the raft; but this appeared impracticable: so i resolved to go as before, when the tide was down; and i did so, only that i stripped before i went from my hut; having nothing on but a chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and a pair of pumps on my feet. i got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second raft; and having had experience of the first, i neither made this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet i brought away several things very useful to me: as, first, in the carpenter's stores, i found two or three bags of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets; and, above all, that most useful thing called a grind-stone. all these i secured together, with several things belonging to the gunner; particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder more; a large bag-full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy, i could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side. besides these things, i took all the men's clothes that i could find, and a spare fore-top sail, a hammock, and some bedding; and with this i loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort. i was under some apprehensions, during my absence from the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on shore: but when i came back, i found no sign of any visitor; only there sat a creature like a wild cat, upon one of the chests, which, when i came towards it, ran away a little distance, and then stood still. she sat very composed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted with me. i presented my gun to her, but, as she did not understand it, she was perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon which i tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by the way, i was not very free of it, for my store was not great: however, i spared her a bit, i say, and she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked (as pleased) for more; but i thanked her, and could spare no more: so she marched off. having got my second cargo on shore--though i was fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large casks--i went to work to make me a little tent, with the sail, and some poles, which i cut for that purpose; and into this tent i brought every thing that i knew would spoil either with rain or sun; and i piled all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt either from man or beast. when i had done this, i blocked up the door of the tent with some boards within, and an empty chest set up on end without; and spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my gun at length by me, i went to bed for the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for i was very weary and heavy; for the night before i had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day, as well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to get them on shore. i had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up, i believe, for one man: but i was not satisfied still: for while the ship sat upright in that posture, i thought i ought to get every thing out of her that i could: so every day, at low water, i went on board, and brought away something or other; but particularly the third time i went, i brought away as much of the rigging as i could, as also all the small ropes and rope-twine i could get, with a piece of spare canvass, which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder. in a word, i brought away all the sails first and last; only that i was fain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as i could; for they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere canvass only. but that which comforted me still more, was, that, last of all, after i had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought i had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with; i say, after all this, i found a great hogshead of bread, and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was surprising to me, because i had given over expecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled by the water. i soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which i cut out; and, in a word, i got all this safe on shore also. the next day i made another voyage, and now having plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, i began with the cables, and cutting the great cable into pieces, such as i could move, i got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the iron-work i could get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing i could, to make a large raft, i loaded it with all those heavy goods; and came away; but my good luck began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy, and so overladen, that after i was entered the little cove, where i had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it so handily as i did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the water; as for myself, it was no great harm, for i was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was a great part of it lost, especially the iron, which i expected would have been of great use to me: however, when the tide was out, i got most of the pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with infinite labour; for i was fain to dip for it into the water, a work which fatigued me very much. after this i went every day on board, and brought away what i could get. i had been now thirteen days ashore, and had been eleven times on board the ship; in which time i had brought away all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to bring; though i believe verily, had the calm weather held, i should have brought away the whole ship, piece by piece; but preparing the twelfth time to go on board, i found the wind began to rise: however, at low water, i went on board; and though i thought i had rummaged the cabin so effectually, as that nothing could be found, yet i discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which i found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissars with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks; in another i found about thirty-six pounds value in money, some european coin, some brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, and some silver. i smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "o drug!" said i aloud, "what art thou good for? thou art not worth to me, no, not the taking off the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap: i have no manner of use for thee; e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom, as a creature whose life is not worth saving." however, upon second thoughts, i took it away; and wrapping all this in a piece of canvass, i began to think of making another raft; but while i was preparing this, i found the sky over-cast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. it presently occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore; and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began, or otherwise i might not be able to reach the shore at all. accordingly i let myself down into the water, and swam across the channel which lay between the ship and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight of the things i had about me, and partly the roughness of the water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it was quite high water it blew a storm. but i was got home to my little tent, where i lay, with all my wealth about me very secure. it blew very hard all that night, and in the morning, when i looked out, behold, no more ship was to be seen! i was a little surprised, but recovered myself with this satisfactory reflection, viz. that i had lost no time, nor abated no diligence, to get every thing out of her that could be useful to me, and that, indeed, there was little left in her that i was able to bring away, if i had had more time. i now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any thing out of her, except what might drive on shore, from her wreck; as, indeed, divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were of small use to me. my thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and i had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to make, whether i should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: and in short, i resolved upon both; the manner and description of which, it may not be improper to give an account of. i soon found the place i was in was not for my settlement, particularly because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and i believed it would not be wholesome; and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it: so i resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground. i consulted several things in my situation, which i found would be proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water, i just now mentioned: 2dly, shelter from the heat of the sun: 3dly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts: 4thly, a view to the sea, that if god sent any ship in sight, i might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which i was not willing to banish all my expectation yet. in search for a place proper for this, i found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top. on the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave, or way into the rock, at all. on the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, i resolved to pitch my tent. this plain was not above a hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and, at the end of it, descended irregularly every way down into the low ground by the sea side. it was on the n.n.w. side of the hill; so that it was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a w. and by s. sun, or thereabouts, which, in those countries, is near the setting. before i set up my tent, i drew a half-circle before the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and ending. in this half-circle i pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest end being out of the ground about five feet and a half and sharpened on the top. the two rows did not stand above six inches from one another. then i took the pieces of cable which i cut in the ship, and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it. this cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth. the entrance into this place i made to be not by a door, but by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when i was in, i lifted over after me; and so i was completely fenced in and fortified, as i thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise i could not have done; though, as it appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this caution from the enemies that i apprehended danger from. into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, i carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the account above; and i made a large tent, which, to preserve me from the rains, that in one part of the year are very violent there, i made double, viz. one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which i had saved among the sails. and now i lay no more for a while in the bed which i had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship. into this tent i brought all my provisions, and every thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, i made up the entrance which till now i had left open, and so passed and repassed, as i said, by a short ladder. when i had done this, i began to work my way into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that i dug down out through my tent, i laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about a foot and an half; and thus i made me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house. it cost me much labour and many days, before all these things were brought to perfection; and therefore i must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts. at the same time it happened, after i had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that, a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. i was not so much surprised with the lightning, as i was with a thought, which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself: o my powder! my very heart sunk within me when i thought, that at one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence only, but the providing me food, as i thought, entirely depended. i was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder took fire, i had never known who had hurt me. such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was over, i laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once; and to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one part fire another. i finished this work in about a fortnight; and i think my powder, which in all was about 240 lb. weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. as to the barrel that had been wet, i did not apprehend any danger from that; so i placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, i called my kitchen, and the rest i hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where i laid it. in the interval of time while this was doing, i went out at least once every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if i could kill any thing fit for food; and, as near as i could, to acquaint myself with what the island produced. the first time i went out, i presently discovered that there were goats upon the island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them: but i was not discouraged at this, not doubting but i might now and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after i had found their haunts a little, i laid wait in this manner for them: i observed, if they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and i was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence i concluded, that by the position of their optics, their sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily see objects that were above them: so, afterwards, i took this method--i always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark. the first shot i made among these creatures, i killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her, till i came and took her up; and not only so, but when i carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon which, i laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so i was forced to kill it, and eat it myself. these two supplied me with flesh a great while, for i ate sparingly, and preserved my provisions (my bread especially) as much as possibly i could. having now fixed my habitation, i found it absolutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what i did for that, as also how i enlarged my cave, and what conveniences i made, i shall give a full account of in its proper place: but i must first give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it may well be supposed, were not a few. i had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as i was not cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage; and a great way, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, i had great reason to consider it as a determination of heaven, that in this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, i should end my life. the tears would run plentifully down my face when i made these reflections; and sometimes i would expostulate with myself why providence should thus completely ruin its creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable; so abandoned without help, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life. but something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, and to reprove me: and particularly, one day, walking with my gun in my hand, by the sea side, i was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way, thus: "well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray remember, where are the rest of you? did not you come eleven of you into the boat? where are the ten? why were not they saved, and you lost? why were you singled out? is it better to be here or there?" and then i pointed to the sea. all evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them. then it occurred to me again, how well i was furnished for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened (which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore, that i had time to get all these things out of her: what would have been my case, if i had been to have lived in the condition in which i at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them? "particularly, said i aloud (though to myself,) what should i have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools to make any thing, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of covering?" and that now i had all these to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as to live without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that i had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as i lived; for i considered, from the beginning, how i should provide for the accidents that might happen, and for the time that was to come, not only after my ammunition should be spent, but even after my health or strength should decay. i confess, i had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being destroyed at one blast, i mean my powder being blown up by lightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it lightened and thundered, as i observed just now. and now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before, i shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. it was, by my account, the 30th of september, when, in the manner as above said, i first set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head: for i reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes north of the line. after i had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my thoughts that i should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the working days: but, to prevent this, i cut it with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters; and making it into a great cross, i set it up on the shore where i first landed, viz. "i came on shore here on the 30th of september, 1659." upon the sides of this square post i cut every day a notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one: and thus i kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time. but it happened, that among the many things which i brought out of the ship, in the several voyages which, as above mentioned, i made to it, i got several things of less value, but not at all less useful to me, which i found, some time after, in rummaging the chests; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of navigation; all which i huddled together, whether i might want them or no: also i found three very good bibles, which came to me in my cargo from england, and which i had packed up among my things; some portuguese books also, and, among them, two or three popish prayer books, and several other books, all which i carefully secured. and i must not forget, that we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminent history i may have occasion to say something, in its place: for i carried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship himself, and swam on shore to me the day after i went on shore with my first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me for many years: i wanted nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me, i only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do. as i observed before, i found pens, ink, and paper, and i husbanded them to the utmost; and i shall show that while my ink lasted, i kept things very exact, but after that was gone i could not; for i could not make any ink, by any means that i could devise. and this put me in mind that i wanted many things, notwithstanding all that i had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one; as also a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread: as for linen, i soon learned to want that without much difficulty. this want of tools made every work i did go on heavily; and it was near a whole year before i had entirely finished my little pale, or surrounded my habitation. the piles or stakes, which were as heavy as i could well lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing home; so that i spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it into the ground; for which purpose, i got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows; which, however, though i found it, yet it made driving these posts or piles very laborious and tedious work. but what need i have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing i had to do, seeing i had time enough to do it in? nor had i any other employment, if that had been over, at least that i could foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for food; which i did, more or less, every day. i now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance i was reduced to; and i drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me (for i was like to have but few heirs,) as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting my mind: and as my reason began now to master my despondency, i began to comfort myself as well as i could, and to set the good against the evil, that i might have something to distinguish my case from worse; and i stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts i enjoyed against the miseries i suffered, thus: evil. i am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. i am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. i am divided from mankind, a solitaire; one banished from human society. i have no clothes to cover me. i am without any defence, or means to resist any violence of man or beast. i have no soul to speak to, or relieve me. good. but i am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's company were. but i am singled out too from all the ship's crew, to be spared from death; and he that miraculously save me from death, can deliver me from this condition. but i am not starved, and perishing in a barren place, affording no sustenance. but i am in a hot climate, where, if i had clothes, i could hardly wear them. but i am cast on an island where i see no wild beast to hurt me, as i saw on the coast of africa: and what if i had been shipwrecked there? but god wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that i have got out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants, or enable me to supply myself, even as long as i live. upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something negative, or something positive, to be thankful for in it: and let this stand as a direction, from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account. having now, brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if i could spy a ship; i say, giving over these things, i began to apply myself to accommodate my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as i could. i have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock,--surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but i might now rather call it a wall, for i raised a kind of wall against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside: and after some time (i think it was a year and a half) i raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as i could get, to keep out the rain; which i found, at some times of the year, very violent. i have already observed how i brought all my goods into this pale, and into the cave which i had made behind me. but i must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place; i had no room to turn myself: so i set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it was a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour i bestowed on it: and when i found i was pretty safe as to the beasts of prey, i worked sideways, to the right hand, into the rock, and then turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out in the outside of my pale or fortification. this gave me not only egress and regress, as it were, a back-way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods. and now i began to apply myself to make such necessary things as i found i most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these i was not able to enjoy the few comforts i had in the world; i could not write, or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure, without a table: so i went to work. and here i must needs observe, that as reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating, and squaring every thing by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. i had never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, i found, at last, that i wanted nothing but i could have made, especially if i had had tools. however, i made abundance of things, even without tools; and some with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with infinite labour. for example, if i wanted a board, i had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till i had brought it to be as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. it is true, by this method i could make but one board of a whole tree; but this i had no remedy for but patience, any more than i had for a prodigious deal of time and labour which it took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another. however, i made me a table and a chair, as i observed above, in the first place; and this i did out of the short pieces of boards that i brought on my raft from the ship. but when i wrought out some boards, as above, i made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work on; and, in a word, to separate every thing at large in their places, that i might easily come at them. i knocked pieces into the wall of the rock, to hang my guns, and all things that would hang up: so that had my cave been seen, it looked like a general magazine of all necessary things; and i had every thing so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great. and now it was that i began to keep a journal of every day's employment; for, indeed, at first, i was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in much discomposure of mind; and my journal would, too, have been full of many dull things: for example, i must have said thus--"_sept_. 30th. after i had got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to god for my deliverance, having first vomited, with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, i ran about the shore, wringing my hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, 'i was undone, undone!' till, tired and faint, i was forced to lie down on the ground to repose; but durst not sleep, for fear of being devoured." some days after this, and after i had been on board the ship, and got all that i could out of her, i could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship: then fancy that, at a vast distance, i spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till i was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly. but, having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settled my household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as i could, i began to keep my journal: of which i shall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, i was forced to leave it off. * * * * * the journal. _september_ 30th, 1659. i, poor miserable robinson crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in the offing, came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island, which i called the island of despair; all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead. all the rest of that day i spent in afflicting myself at the dismal circumstances i was brought to, viz. i had neither food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to: and, in despair of any relief, saw nothing but death before me; that i should either be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. at the approach of night i slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all night. _october_ 1. in the morning i saw, to my great surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort on one hand (for seeing her sit upright, and not broken in pieces, i hoped, if the wind abated, i might get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for my relief,) so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who, i imagined, if we had all staid on board, might have saved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been all drowned, as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat, out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us to some other part of the world. i spent great part of this day in perplexing myself on these things; but, at length, seeing the ship almost dry, i went upon the sand as near as i could, and then swam on board. this day also it continued raining, though with no wind at all. from the 1st of _october_ to the 24th. all these days entirely spent in many several voyages to get all i could out of the ship; which i brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. much rain also in these days, though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it seems, this was the rainy season. _oct_. 20. i overset my raft, and all the goods i had got upon it; but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, i recovered many of them when the tide was out. _oct_. 25. it rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind; during which time the ship broke in pieces (the wind blowing a little harder than before) and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at low water. i spent this day in covering and securing the goods which i had saved, that the rain might not spoil them. _oct_. 26. i walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a place to fix my habitation; greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men. towards night i fixed upon a proper place, under a rock, and marked out a semi-circle for my encampment; which i resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification, made of double piles, lined within with cables, and without with turf. from the 26th to the 30th, i worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it rained exceedingly hard. the 31st, in the morning, i went out into the island with my gun, to see for some food, and discover the country; when i killed a she-goat, and her kid followed me home, which i afterwards killed also, because it would not feed. _november_ 1. i set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the first night; making it as large as i could, with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon. _nov_. 2. i set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of timber which made my rafts; and with them formed a fence round me, a little within the place i had marked out for my fortification. _nov_. 3. i went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks, which were very good food. in the afternoon i went to work to make me a table. _nov_. 4. this morning i began to order my times of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion; viz. every morning i walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain; then employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock; then ate what i had to live on; and from twelve to two i lay down to sleep, the weather being excessive hot; and then, in the evening, to work again. the working part of this day and the next was wholly employed in making my table, for i was yet but a very sorry workman: though time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as i believe they would any one else. _nov. 5._ this day went abroad with my gun and dog, and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing: of every creature that i killed i took off the skins, and preserved them. coming back by the sea-shore, i saw many sorts of sea-fowl which i did not understand: but was surprised, and almost frightened, with two or three seals; which, while i was gazing at them (not well knowing what they were) got into the sea, and escaped me for that time. _nov. 6._ after my morning walk, i went to work with my table again, and finished it, though not to my liking: nor was it long before i learned to mend it. _nov. 7._ now it began to be settled fair weather. the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was sunday, according to my reckoning) i took wholly up to make me a chair, and with much ado, brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please me; and, even in the making, i pulled it in pieces several times. _note._ i soon neglected my keeping sundays; for, omitting my mark for them on my post, i forgot which was which. _nov. 13._ this day it rained; which refreshed me exceedingly, and cooled the earth: but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder. as soon as it was over, i resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger. _nov. 14, 15, 16._ these three days i spent in making little square chests or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two pounds at most, of powder: and so, putting the powder in, i stowed it in places as secure and as remote from one another as possible. on one of these three days i killed a large bird that was good to eat; but i knew not what to call it. _nov. 17._ this day i began to dig behind my tent, into the rock, to make room for my farther convenience. _note._ three things i wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow, or basket; so i desisted from my work, and began to consider how to supply these wants, and make me some tools. as for a pick-axe, i made use of the iron crows, which were proper enough, though heavy: but, the next thing was a shovel or spade; this was so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, i could do nothing effectually without it; but what kind of one to make i knew not. _nov. 18._ the next day, in searching the woods, i found a tree of that wood, or like it, which, in the brazils, they call the iron tree, from its exceeding hardness: of this, with great labour, and almost spoiling my axe, i cut a piece; and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. the excessive hardness of the wood, and my having no other way, made me a long while upon this machine; for i worked it effectually, by little and little, into the form of a shovel or spade; the handle exactly shaped like ours in england, only that the broad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long: however, it served well enough for the uses which i had occasion to put it to; but never was a shovel, i believe, made after that fashion, or so long a-making. i was still deficient: for i wanted a basket, or a wheel-barrow. a basket i could not make by any means, having no such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker-ware; at least, none yet found out: and as to the wheel-barrow, i fancied i could make all but the wheel, but that i had no notion of; neither did i know how to go about it: besides, i had no possible way to make iron gudgeons for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in; so i gave it over: and, for carrying away the earth which i dug out of the cave, i made me a thing like a hod, which the labourers carry mortar in for the brick-layers. this was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel: and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which i made in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took me up no less than four days; i mean, always excepting my morning walk with my gun, which i seldom omitted, and very seldom failed also bringing home something fit to eat. _nov. 23._ my other work having now stood still, because of my making these tools, when they were finished i went on; and working every day, as my strength and time allowed, i spent eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods commodiously. _note._ during all this time, i worked to make this room, or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. as for a lodging, i kept to the tent; except that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it rained so hard that i could not keep myself dry; which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles, in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags and large leaves of trees, like a thatch. _december 10._ i began now to think my cave or vault finished; when on a sudden (it seems i had made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down from the top and one side: so much, that, in short, it frightened me, and not without reason too; for if i had been under it, i should never have wanted a grave-digger. upon this disaster, i had a great deal of work to do over again, for i had the loose earth to carry out; and, which was of more importance, i had the ceiling to prop up, so that i might be sure no more would come down. _dec. 11._ this day i went to work with it accordingly; and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces of board across over each post; this i finished the next day; and setting more posts up with boards, in about a week more i had the roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to part off my house. _dec. 17._ from this day to the 30th, i placed shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts, to hang every thing up that could be hung up: and now i began to be in some order within doors. _dec. 20._ i carried every thing into the cave, and began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards, like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with me: also i made me another table. _dec. 24._ much rain all night and all day: no stirring out. _dec. 25._ rain all day. _dec. 26._ no rain; and the earth much cooler than before, and pleasanter. _dec. 27._ killed a young goat; and lamed another, so that i catched it, and led it home in a string: when i had it home, i bound and splintered up its leg, which was broke. _n.b._ i took such care of it that it lived; and the leg grew well, and as strong as ever: but, by nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away. this was the first time that i entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures, that i might have food when my powder and shot was all spent. _dec. 28, 29, 30, 31._ great heats, and no breeze; so that there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food: this time i spent in putting all my things in order within doors. _january 1._ very hot still; but i went abroad early and late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. this evening, going farther into the vallies which lay towards the centre of the island, i found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy, and hard to come at; however, i resolved to try if i could not bring my dog to hunt them down. accordingly, the next day, i went out with my dog, and set him upon the goats: but i was mistaken, for they all faced about upon the dog: and he knew his danger too well, for he would not come near them. _jan. 3._ i began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, i resolved to make very thick and strong. _n.b._ this wall being described before, i purposely omit what was said in the journal: it is sufficient to observe, that i was no less time than from the 3d of january to the 14th of april, working, finishing, and perfecting this wall; though it was no more than about 25 yards in length, being a half-circle, from one place in the rock to another place, about twelve yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre, behind it. all this time i worked very hard; the rains hindering me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together: but i thought i should never be perfectly secure till this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour every thing was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods, and driving them into the ground; for i made them much bigger than i needed to have done. when this wall was finished, and the outside double-fenced, with a turf-wall raised up close to it, i persuaded myself that if any people were to come on shore there they would not perceive any thing like a habitation: and it was very well i did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion. during this time, i made my rounds in the woods for game every day, when the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries, in these walks, of something or other to my advantage; particularly, i found a kind of wild pigeons, who build, not as wood-pigeons, in a tree, but rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks: and, taking some young ones, i endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew older, they flew all away; which, perhaps, was at first for want of feeding them, for i had nothing to give them: however, i frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which were very good meat. and now, in the managing my household affairs, i found myself wanting in many things, which i thought at first it was impossible for me to make; as indeed, as to some of them, it was: for instance, i could never make a cask to be hooped. i had a small runlet or two, as i observed before; but i could never arrive to the capacity of making one by them, though i spent many weeks about it: i could neither put in the heads, nor join the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water; so i gave that also over. in the next place, i was at a great loss for candle; so that as soon as it was dark, which was generally by seven o'clock, i was obliged to go to bed. i remember the lump of bees-wax with which i made candles in my african adventure; but i had none of that now; the only remedy i had was, that when i had killed a goat, i saved the tallow; and with a little dish made of clay, which i baked in the sun, to which i added a wick of some oakum, i made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear steady light like a candle. in the middle of all my labours it happened, that in rummaging my things, i found a little bag; which, as i hinted before, had been filled with corn, for the feeding of poultry; not for this voyage, but before, as i suppose, when the ship came from lisbon. what little remainder of corn had been in the bag was all devoured with the rats, and i saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag for some other use (i think, it was to put powder in, when i divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use,) i shook the husks of corn out of it, on one side of my fortification, under the rock. it was a little before the great rain just now mentioned, that i threw this stuff away; taking no notice of any thing, and not so much as remembering that i had thrown any thing there: when about a month after, i saw some few stalks of something green, shooting out of the ground, which i fancied might be some plant i had not seen; but i was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, i saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley of the same kind as our european, nay, as our english barley. it is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts on this occasion: i had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all; indeed, i had very few notions of religion in my head, nor had entertained any sense of any thing that had befallen me, otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases god; without so much as inquiring into the end of providence in these things, or his order in governing events in the world. but after i saw barley grow there, in a climate which i knew was not proper for corn, and especially as i knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely; and i began to suggest, that god had miraculously caused this grain to grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance, on that wild miserable place. this touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes; and i began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account: and this was the more strange to me, because i saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which i knew, because i had seen it grow in africa, when i was ashore there. i not only thought these the pure productions of providence for my support, but, not doubting that there was more in the place, i went over all that part of the island where i had been before, searching in every corner, and under every rock, for more of it; but i could not find any. at last it occurred to my thoughts, that i had shook out a bag of chicken's-meat in that place, and then the wonder began to cease: and i must confess, my religious thankfulness to god's providence began to abate too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common; though i ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence, as if it had been miraculous: for it was really the work of providence, as to me, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropt from heaven; as also, that i should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if i had thrown it any where else, at that time, it would have been burnt up and destroyed. i carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their season, which was about the end of june; and, laying up every corn, i resolved to sow them all again; hoping, in time, to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread. but it was not till the fourth year that i could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as i shall show afterwards, in its order; for i lost all that i sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; as i sowed just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it would have done; of which in its place. besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of rice, which i preserved with the same care; and whose use was of the same kind, or to the same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or rather food; for i found ways to cook it up without baking, though i did that also after some time.--but to return to my journal. i worked excessively hard these three or four months, to get my wall done; and the 14th of april i closed it up; contriving to get into it, not by a door, but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside of my habitation. _april 16._ i finished the ladder; so i went up with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside: this was a complete enclosure to me; for within i had room enough, and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall. the very next day after this wall was finished, i had almost all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus:--as i was busy in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at the entrance into my cave, i was terribly frightened with a most dreadful surprising thing indeed; for, all on a sudden, i found the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts i had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. i was heartily scared; but thought nothing of what really was the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in, as some of it had done before: and for fear i should be buried in it, i ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, i got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which i expected might roll down upon me. i had no sooner stepped down upon the firm ground, than i plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake; for the ground i stood on shook three times at about eight minutes distance, with three such shocks as would have overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me, next the sea, fell down, with such a terrible noise as i never heard in all my life. i perceived also that the very sea was put into a violent motion by it; and i believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island. i was so much amazed with the thing itself (having never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had) that i was like one dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at sea: but the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me, as it were; and rousing me from the stupified condition i was in, filled me with horror, and i thought of nothing but the hill falling upon my tent and my household goods, and burying all at once; this sunk my very soul within me a second time. after the third shock was over, and i felt no more for some time, i began to take courage; yet i had not heart enough to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground greatly cast down, and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. all this while, i had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but the common _lord, have mercy upon me!_ and when it was over, that went away too. while i sat thus, i found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as if it would rain; and soon after the wind rose by little, and little, so that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea was, all on a sudden, covered with foam and froth; the shore was covered with a breach of the water; the trees were torn up by the roots; and a terrible storm it was. this held about three hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours more it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard. all this while i sat upon the ground, very much terrified and dejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rain being the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and i might venture into my cave again. with this thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping to persuade me, i went in, and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and i was forced to get into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on my head. this violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the water go out, which would else have drowned my cave. after i had been in my cave for some time, and found no more shocks of the earthquake follow, i began to be more composed. and now to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, i went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum; which, however, i did then, and always, very sparingly, knowing i could have no more when that was gone. it continued raining all that night, and great part of the next day, so that i could not stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, i began to think of what i had best do; concluding, that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but i must consider of building me some little hut in an open place, which i might surround with a wall, as i had done here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men; for if i staid where i was, i should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive. with these thoughts, i resolved to remove my tent from the place where it now stood, being just under the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent. i spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of april, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation. the fear of being swallowed alive affected me so, that i never slept in quiet; and yet the apprehension of lying abroad, without any fence, was almost equal to it: but still, when i looked about, and saw how every thing was put in order, how pleasantly i was concealed, and how safe from danger, it made me very loth to remove. in the mean time, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this; and that i must be contented to run the risk where i was, till i had formed a convenient camp, and secured it so as to remove to it. with this conclusion i composed myself for a time; and resolved that i would go to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before, and set up my tent in it when it was finished; but that i would venture to stay where i was till it was ready, and fit to remove to. this was the 21st. _april_ 22. the next morning i began to consider of means to put this measure into execution; but i was at a great loss about the tools. i had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the indians;) but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and though i had a grind-stone, i could not turn it and grind my tools too. this caused me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. at length i contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that i might have both my hands at liberty. _note._ i had never seen any such thing in england, or at least not to take notice how it was done, though since i have observed it is very common there: besides that, my grind-stone was very large and heavy. this machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection. _april 28, 29._ these two whole days i took up in grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grind-stone performing very well. _april 30._ having perceived that my bread had been low a great while, i now took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made my heart very heavy. _may 1._ in the morning, looking toward the sea-side, the tide being low, i saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and it looked like a cask: when i came to it, i found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, i thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. i examined the barrel that was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone: however, i rolled it farther on the shore for the present, and went on upon the sands, as near as i could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more. when i came down to the ship, i found it strangely removed. the forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six feet: and the stern (which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest, by the force of the sea, soon after i had left rummaging of her) was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side: and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that i could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out; whereas there was a great piece of water before, so that i could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming. i was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake; and as by this violence the ship was more broke open than formerly, so many things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land. this wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation; and i busied myself mightily, that day especially, in searching whether i could make any way into the ship: but i found nothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand. however, as i had learned not to despair of any thing, i resolved to pull every thing to pieces that i could of the ship, concluding that every thing i could get from her would be of some use or other to me. _may 3._ i began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which i thought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together; and when i had cut it through, i cleared away the sand as well as i could from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, i was obliged to give over for that time. _may 4._ i went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that i durst eat of, till i was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, i caught a young dolphin. i had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but i had no hooks; yet i frequently caught fish enough, as much as i cared to eat; all which i dried in the sun, and ate them dry. _may 5._ worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and brought three great fir-planks off from the decks; which i tied together, and made swim on shore when the tide of flood came on. _may 6._ worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her, and other pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it over. _may 7._ went to the wreck again, but not with an intent to work; but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams being cut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose; and the inside of the hold lay so open that i could see into it; but almost full of water and sand. _may 8._ went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water and sand. i wrenched up two planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. i left the iron crow in the wreck for next day. _may 9._ went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could not break them up. i felt also a roll of english lead, and could stir it; but it was too heavy to remove. _may 10--14._ went every day to the wreck; and got a great many pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weight of iron. _may 15._ i carried two hatchets, to try if i could not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, i could not make any blow to drive the hatchet. _may 16._ it had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water; but i staid so long in the woods, to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreck that day. _may 17._ i saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great distance, two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away. _may 24._ every day, to this day, i worked on the wreck; and with hard labour i loosened some things so much with the crow, that the first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests: but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some brazil pork in it; but the salt-water and the sand had spoiled it. i continued this work every day to the 15th of june, except the time necessary to get food; which i always appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the tide was up, that i might be ready when it was ebbed out: and by this time i had gotten timber, and plank, and iron-work, enough to have built a good boat, if i had known how: and i also got, at several times, and in several pieces, near one hundred weight of the sheet-lead. _june 16._ going down to the sea-side, i found a large tortoise, or turtle. this was the first i had seen; which, it seems, was only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity: for had i happened to be on the other side of the island, i might have had hundreds of them every day, as i found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for them. _june 17._ i spent in cooking the turtle. i found in her threescore eggs: and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and pleasant that i ever tasted in my life; having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since i landed in this horrid place. _june 18._ rained all that day, and i staid within. i thought, at this time, the rain felt cold, and i was somewhat chilly; which i knew was not usual in that latitude. _june 19._ very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold. _june 20._ no rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish. _june 21._ very ill; frightened almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help: prayed to god, for the first time since the storm off hull; but scarce knew what i said, or why, my thoughts being all confused. _june 22._ a little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness. _june 23._ very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent head-ache. _june 24._ much better. _june 25._ an ague very violent: the fit held me seven hours; cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats after it. _june 26._ better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but found myself very weak: however, i killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate. i would fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot. _june 27._ the ague again so violent that i lay a-bed all day, and neither ate nor drank. i was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak, i had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink. prayed to god again, but was light-headed: and when i was not, i was so ignorant that i knew not what to say; only lay and cried, "lord, look upon me! lord, pity me! lord, have mercy upon me!" i suppose i did nothing else for two or three hours; till the fit wearing off, i fell asleep, and did not wake till far in the night. when i awoke, i found myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty: however, as i had no water in my whole habitation, i was forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. in this second sleep i had this terrible dream: i thought that i was sitting on the ground, on the outside of my wall, where i sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that i saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground: he was all over as bright as a flame, so that i could but just bear to look towards him: his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe: when he stepped upon the ground with his feet, i thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earthquake; and all the air looked, to my apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. he had no sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward towards me, with a long spear or weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came to a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me, or i heard a voice so terrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it: all that i can say i understood, was this: "seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;" at which words i thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand, to kill me. no one that shall ever read this account, will expect that i should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision; i mean, that even while it was a dream, i even dreamed of those horrors; nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my mind when i awaked, and found it was but a dream. i had, alas! no divine knowledge: what i had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out, by an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversation with none but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last degree. i do not remember that i had, in all that time, one thought that so much as tended either to looking upward towards god, or inward towards a reflection upon my own ways: but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or consciousness of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me; and i was all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our common sailors, can be supposed to be; not having the least sense, either of the fear of god, in danger, or of thankfulness to him, in deliverances. in the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the more easily believed, when i shall add, that through all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, i never had so much as one thought of its being the hand of god, or that it was a just punishment for my sin; either my rebellious behaviour against my father, or my present sins, which were great; or even as a punishment for the general course of my wicked life. when i was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of africa, i never had so much as one thought of what would become of me; or one wish to god to direct me whither i should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages: but i was quite thoughtless of a god or a providence; acted like a mere brute, from the principles of nature, and by the dictates of common sense only; and indeed hardly that. when i was delivered and taken up at sea by the portuguese captain, well used, and dealt with justly and honourably, as well as charitably, i had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts. when, again, i was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drowning, on this island, i was as far from remorse, or looking on it as a judgment: i only said to myself often, that i was an unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable. it is true, when i first got on shore here, and found all my ship's crew drowned, and myself spared, i was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace of god assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; but it ended where it began, in a mere common flight of joy; or, as i may say, being glad i was alive, without the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed, or an inquiry why providence had been thus merciful to me: just the same common sort of joy which seamen generally have, after they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck; which they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over: and all the rest of my life was like it. even when i was, afterwards, on due consideration, made sensible of my condition,--how i was cast on this dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect of redemption,--as soon as i saw but a prospect of living, and that i should not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense of my affliction wore off, and i began to be very easy, applied myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply, and was far enough from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from heaven, or as the hand of god against me: these were thoughts which very seldom entered into my head. the growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, had, at first, some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness, as long as i thought it had something miraculous in it; but as soon as that part of the thought was removed, all the impression which was raised from it wore off also, as i have noted already. even the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in its nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible power which alone directs such things, yet no sooner was the fright over, but the impression it had made went off also. i had no more sense of god, or his judgments, much less of the present affliction of my circumstances being from his hand, than if i had been in the most prosperous condition of life. but now, when i began to be sick, and a leisure view of the miseries of death came to place itself before me; when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever; conscience, that had slept so long, began to awake; and i reproached myself with my past life, in which i had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of god to lay me under uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. these reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of my distemper; and in the violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, extorted from me some words like praying to god: though i cannot say it was a prayer attended either with desires or with hopes; it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress. my thoughts were confused; the convictions great upon my mind; and the horror of dying in such a miserable condition, raised vapours in my head with the mere apprehension: and, in these hurries of my soul, i knew not what my tongue might express: but it was rather exclamation, such as, "lord, what a miserable creature am i! if i should be sick, i shall certainly die for want of help; and what will become of me?" then the tears burst out of my eyes, and i could say no more for a good while. in this interval, the good advice of my father came to my mind, and presently his prediction, which i mentioned at the beginning of this story, viz. that if i did take this foolish step, god would not bless me; and i should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. "now," said i, aloud, "my dear father's words are come to pass; god's justice has overtaken me, and i have none to help or hear me. i rejected the voice of providence, which had mercifully put me in a station of life wherein i might have been happy and easy; but i would neither see it myself, nor learn from my parents to know the blessing of it. i left them to mourn over my folly; and now i am left to mourn under the consequences of it: i refused their help and assistance, who would have pushed me in the world, and would have made every thing easy to me; and now i have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature itself to support; and no assistance, no comfort, no advice." then i cried out, "lord, be my help, for i am in great distress." this was the first prayer, if i may call it so, that i had made for many years. but i return to my journal. _june 28._ having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep i had had, and the fit being entirely off, i got up; and though the fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet i considered that the fit of the ague would return again the next day, and now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself when i should be ill. the first thing i did was to fill a large square case-bottle with water; and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed: and to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, i put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed them together. then i got me a piece of the goat's flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. i walked about; but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable condition, dreading the return of my distemper the next day. at night, i made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs; which i roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell: and this was the first bit of meat i had ever asked god's blessing to, as i could remember, in my whole life. after i had eaten, i tried to walk; but found myself so weak, that i could hardly carry the gun (for i never went out without that;) so i went but a little way, and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and very calm and smooth. as i sat here, some such thoughts as these occurred to me: what is this earth and sea, of which i have seen so much? whence is it produced? and what am i, and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human and brutal? whence are we? surely, we are all made by some secret power, who formed the earth and sea, the air and sky. and who is that? then it followed most naturally, it is god that has made all. well, but then, it came on strangely, if god has made all these things, he guides and governs them all, and all things that concern them; for the power that could make all things, must certainly have power to guide and direct them: if so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works, either without his knowledge or appointment. and if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that i am here, and am in this dreadful condition: and if nothing happens without his appointment, he has appointed all this to befall me. nothing occurred to my thought, to contradict any of these conclusions: and therefore it rested upon me with the greatest force, that it must needs be that god had appointed all this to befall me; that i was brought to this miserable circumstance by his direction, he having the sole power, not of me only, but of every thing that happens in the world. immediately it followed, why has god done this to me? what have i done to be thus used? my conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if i had blasphemed; and methought it spoke to me like a voice, "wretch! dost _thou_ ask what thou hast done? look back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself, what thou hast _not_ done? ask, why is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed? why wert thou not drowned in yarmouth roads; killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the sallee man of war; devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of africa; or drowned _here_, when all the crew perished but thyself? dost _thou_ ask what thou hast done?" i was struck dumb with these reflections, as one astonished, and had not a word to say; no, not to answer to myself; and, rising up pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went over my wall, as if i bad been going to bed: but my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and i had no inclination to sleep; so i sat down in the chair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. now, as the apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, it occurred to my thought, that the brazilians take no physic but their tobacco for almost all distempers; and i had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured; and some also that was green, and not quite cured. i went, directed by heaven no doubt: for in this chest i found a cure both for soul and body. i opened the chest, and found what i looked for, viz. the tobacco; and as the few books i had saved lay there too, i took out one of the bibles which i mentioned before, and which to this time i had not found leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into. i say, i took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table. what use to make of the tobacco i knew not, as to my distemper, nor whether it was good for it or not; but i tried several experiments with it, as if i was resolved it should hit one way or other. i first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in my mouth; which, indeed, at first, almost stupified my brain; the tobacco being green and strong, and such as i had not been much used to. then i took some and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved to take a dose of it when i lay down: and, lastly, i burnt some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the smoke of it as long as i could bear it; as well for the heat, as almost for suffocation. in the interval of this operation, i took up the bible, and began to read; but my head was too much disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading, at least at that time; only, having opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these: "call on me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." these words were very apt to my case; and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though not so much as they did afterwards; for, as for being _delivered_, the word had no sound, as i may say, to me; the thing was so remote, so impossible in my apprehension of things, that, as the children of israel said when they were promised flesh to eat, "can god spread a table in the wilderness?" so i began to say, can even god himself deliver me from this place? and as it was not for many years that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts: but, however, the words made a great impression upon me, and i mused upon them very often. it now grew late; and the tobacco had, as i said, dozed my head so much, that i inclined to sleep: so i left my lamp burning in the cave, lest i should want any thing in the night, and went to bed. but before i lay down, i did what i never had done in all my life; i kneeled down, and prayed to god to fulfil the promise to me, that if i called upon him in the day of trouble, he would deliver me. after my broken and imperfect prayer was over, i drank the rum in which i had steeped the tobacco; which was so strong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed i could scarce get it down: immediately upon this i went to bed. i found presently the rum flew up into my head violently; but i fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next day: nay, to this hour i am partly of opinion, that i slept all the next day and night, and till almost three the day after; for otherwise, i know not how i should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it appeared some years after i had done; for if i had lost it by crossing and re-crossing the line, i should have lost more than one day; but certainly i lost a day in my account, and never knew which way. be that, however, one way or the other, when i awaked i found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful: when i got up, i was stronger than i was the day before, and my stomach better, for i was hungry; and, in short, i had no fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better. this was the 29th. the 30th was my well day, of course; and i went abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too far. i killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a brand goose, and brought them home; but was not very forward to eat them; so i ate some more of the turtle's eggs, which were very good. this evening i renewed the medicine, which i had supposed did me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped in rum; only i did not take so much as before, nor did i chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke: however, i was not so well the next day, which was the 1st of july, as i hoped i should have been; for i had a little of the cold fit, but it was not much. _july 2._ i renewed the medicine all the three ways; and dosed myself with it as at first, and doubled the quantity which i drank. _july 3._ i missed the fit for good and all, though i did not recover my full strength for some weeks after. while i was thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, "i will deliver thee;" and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it: but as i was discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred to my mind that i pored so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction, that i disregarded the deliverance i had received; and i was, as it were, made to ask myself such questions as these, viz. have i not been delivered, and wonderfully too, from sickness; from the most distressed condition that could be, and that was so frightful to me? and what notice have i taken of it? have i done my part? god has delivered me, but i have not glorified him; that is to say, i have not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance: and how can i expect a greater deliverance? this touched my heart very much; and immediately i knelt down, and gave god thanks aloud for my recovery from my sickness. _july 4._ in the morning i took the bible; and beginning at the new testament, i began seriously to read it; and imposed upon myself to read awhile every morning and every night; not binding myself to the number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts should engage me. it was not long after i set seriously to this work, that i found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. the impression of my dream revived; and the words, "all these things have not brought thee to repentance," ran seriously in my thoughts. i was earnestly begging of god to give me repentance, when it happened providentially, the very same day, that, reading the scripture, i came to these words, "he is exalted a prince and a saviour; to give repentance, and to give remission." i threw down the book; and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, i cried out aloud, "jesus, thou son of david! jesus, thou exalted prince and saviour! give me repentance!" this was the first time in all my life i could say, in the true sense of the words, that i prayed; for now i prayed with a sense of my condition, and with a true scripture view of hope, founded on the encouragement of the word of god: and from this time, i may say, i began to have hope that god would hear me. now i began to construe the words mentioned above, "call on me, and i will deliver thee," in a different sense from what i had ever done before; for then i had no notion of any thing being called _deliverance_, but my being delivered from the captivity i was in: for though i was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world. but now i learned to take it in another sense: now i looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of god but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. as for my solitary life, it was nothing; i did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no consideration, in comparison with this. and i add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction. but, leaving this part, i return to my journal. my condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind: and my thoughts being directed, by constantly reading the scripture and praying to god, to things of a higher nature, i had a great deal of comfort within, which, till now, i knew nothing of; also, as my health and strength returned, i bestirred me to furnish myself with every thing that i wanted, and make my way of living as regular as i could. from the 4th of july to the 14th, i was chiefly employed in walking about with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a time, as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness: for it is hardly to be imagined how low i was, and to what weakness i was reduced. the application which i made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps what had never cured an ague before; neither can i recommend it to any one to practise, by this experiment: and though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather contributed to weakening me; for i had frequent convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time: i learned from it also this, in particular; that being abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health that could be, especially in those rains which came attended with storms and hurricanes of wind; for as the rain which came in the dry season was almost always accompanied with such storms, so i found that this rain was much more dangerous than the rain which fell in september and october. i had now been in this unhappy island above ten months: all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and i firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place. having secured my habitation, as i thought, fully to my mind, i had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and to see what other productions i might find, which i yet knew nothing of. it was on the 15th of july that i began to take a more particular survey of the island itself. i went up the creek first, where, as i hinted, i brought my rafts on shore. i found, after i came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher; and that it was no more than a little brook of running water, very fresh and good: but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it; at least, not any stream. on the banks of this brook i found many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass: and on the rising parts of them, next to the higher grounds (where the water as it might be supposed, never overflowed,) i found a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a very great and strong stalk: and there were divers other plants, which i had no knowledge of, or understanding about, and that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which i could not find out. i searched for the cassava root, which the indians, in all that climate, make their bread of; but i could find none. i saw large plants of aloes, but did not understand them. i saw several sugar-canes, but wild; and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. i contented myself with these discoveries for this time; and came back, musing with myself what course i might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which i should discover; but could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, i had made so little observation while i was in the brazils, that i knew little of the plants in the field; at least, very little that might serve me to any purpose now in my distress. the next day, the 16th, i went up the same way again; and after going something farther than i had gone the day before, i found the brook and the savannahs begin to cease, and the country become more woody than before. in this part i found different fruits; and particularly i found melons upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees: the vines, indeed, had spread over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were now just in their prime, very ripe and rich. this was a surprising discovery, and i was exceedingly glad of them, but i was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them; remembering that when i was ashore in barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our englishmen, who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. i found, however, an excellent use for these grapes; and that was, to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept; which i thought would be (as indeed they were) as wholesome and as agreeable to eat, when no grapes were to be had. i spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation; which, by the way, was the first night, as i might say, i had lain from home. at night, i took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where i slept well; and the next morning proceeded on my discovery, travelling near four miles, as i might judge by the length of the valley; keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north sides of me. at the end of this march i came to an opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure, or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden. i descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts,) to think that this was all my own; that i was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and, if i could convey it, i might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in england. i saw here abundance of cocoa trees, and orange, lemon, and citron trees, but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit; at least not then. however, the green limes that i gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and i mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. i found now i had business enough to gather and carry home; and i resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for the wet season, which i knew was approaching. in order to this, i gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place; and a great parcel of limes and melons in another place; and, taking a few of each with me, i travelled homeward; and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what i could make to carry the rest home. accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, i came home (so i must now call my tent and my cave:) but before i got thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruits, and the weight of the juice, having broken and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: as to the limes, they were good, but i could bring only a few. the next day, being the 19th, i went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest; but i was surprised, when, coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when i gathered them, i found them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. by this i concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts which had done this, but what they were i knew not. however, as i found there was no laying them up in heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack; but that one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight; i took another course: i then gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out-branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, i carried as many back as i could well stand under. when i came home from this journey, i contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation; the security from storms on that side; the water and the wood: and concluded that i had pitched upon a place to fix my abode in, which was by far the worst part of the country. upon the whole, i began to consider of removing my habitation, and to look out for a place equally safe as where i was now situate; if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island. this thought ran long in my head; and i was exceeding fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me: but when i came to a nearer view of it, i considered that i was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me hither, might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that therefore i ought not by any means to remove. however, i was so enamoured of this place, that i spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month of july; and though, upon second thoughts, i resolved, as above stated, not to remove; yet i built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as i could reach, well staked, and filled between with brush-wood. here i lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together; always going over it with a ladder, as before: so that i fancied now i had my country and my sea-coast house. this work took me up till the beginning of august. i had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, when the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation: for though i had made a tent like the other, with a piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet i had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary. about the beginning of august, as i said, i had finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself. the 3d of august, i found the grapes i had hung up were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good raisins of the sun: so i began to take them down from the trees; and it was very happy that i did so, as the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and i should have lost the best part of my winter food; for i had above two hundred large bunches of them. no sooner had i taken them all down, and carried most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain: and from hence, which was the 14th of august, it rained, more or less, every day till the middle of october; and sometimes so violently, that i could not stir out of my cave for several days. in this season, i was much surprised with the increase of my family. i had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or, as i thought, had been dead; and i heard no more of her, till, to my astonishment, she came home with three kittens. this was the more strange to me, because, about the end of august, though i had killed a wild cat, as i called it, with my gun, yet i thought it was quite a different kind from our european cats: yet the young cats were the same kind of house-breed as the old one; and both of my cats being females, i thought it very strange. but from these three, i afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that i was forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible. from the 14th of august to the 26th, incessant rain; so that i could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. in this confinement, i began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, i one day killed a goat, and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me. my food was now regulated thus: i ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, broiled, for my dinner (for, to my great misfortune, i had no vessel to boil or stew any thing;) and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper. during this confinement in my cover by the rain, i worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on towards one side, till i came to the outside of the hill; and made a door, or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall: and so i came in and out this way. but i was not perfectly easy at lying so open: for as i had managed myself before, i was in a perfect enclosure; whereas now, i thought i lay exposed; and yet i could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that i had yet seen upon the island being a goat. _september_ 30. i was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. i cast up the notches on my post, and found i had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days. i kept this day as a solemn fast; setting it apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to god, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on me through jesus christ; and having not tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, i then ate a biscuit and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as i began it. i had all this time observed no sabbath-day; for as at first i had no sense of religion upon my mind, i had, after some time, omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for the sabbath-day, and so did not really know what any of the days were: but now having cast up the days, as above, i found i had been there a year; so i divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a sabbath: though i found, at the end of my account, i had lost a day or two in my reckoning. a little after this, my ink beginning to fail me, i contented myself to use it more sparingly; and to write down only the most remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other things. the rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me, and i learned to divide them so as to provide for them accordingly; but i bought all my experience before i had it; and what i am going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments that i had made at all. i have mentioned that i had saved the few ears of barley, and rice, which i had so surprisingly found sprung up, as i thought, of themselves. i believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley; and now i thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains; the sun being in its southern position, going from me. accordingly i dug a piece of ground, as well as i could, with my wooden spade; and dividing it into two parts, i sowed my grain; but, as i was sowing, it casually occurred to my thoughts that i would not sow it all at first, because i did not know when was the proper time for it; so i sowed about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of each: and it was a great comfort to me afterwards that i did so, for not one grain of what i sowed this time came to any thing; for the dry month following, and the earth having thus had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been but newly sown. finding my first seed did not grow, which i easily imagined was from the drought, i sought for a moister piece of ground to make another trial in; and i dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in february, a little before the vernal equinox. this having the rainy month of march and april to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having only part of the seed left, and not daring to sow all that i had, i got but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. but by this experiment i was made master of my business, and knew exactly when was the proper time to sow; and that i might expect two seed-times, and two harvests, every year. while this corn was growing, i made a little discovery, which was of use to me afterwards. as soon as the rains were over, and the weather began to settle, which was about the month of november, i made a visit up the country to my bower; where, though i had not been some months, yet i found all things just as i left them. the circle or double hedge that i had made was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which i had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out, and grown with long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head; but i could not tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut from. i was surprised, and yet very well pleased, to see the young trees grow; and i pruned them, and led them to grow as much alike as i could: and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years: so that, though the hedge made a circle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such i might now call them, soon covered it, and it was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge under all the dry season. this made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make me a hedge like this, in a semi-circle round my wall (i mean that of my first dwelling,) which i did; and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at about eight yards distance from my first fence, they grew presently; and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also; as i shall observe in its order. i found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus: from the middle of february to the middle of april, rainy; the sun being then on or near the equinox. from the middle of april till the middle of august, dry; the sun being then north of the line. from the middle of august till the middle of october, rainy; the sun being then come back to the line. from the middle of october till the middle of february, dry; the sun being then to the south of the line. the rainy seasons held sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, as the winds happened to blow; but this was the general observation i made. after i had found, by experience, the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain, i took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand, that i might not be obliged to go out: and i sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months. in this time i found much employment, and very suitable also to the time; for i found great occasion for many things which i had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant application: particularly, i tried many ways to make myself a basket: but all the twigs i could get for the purpose proved so brittle, that they would do nothing. it proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when i was a boy, i used to take great delight in standing at a basketmaker's in the town where my father lived, to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner how they worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, i had by these means full knowledge of the methods of it, so that i wanted nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind, that the twigs of that tree from whence i cut my stakes that grew might possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows, and osiers, in england; and i resolved to try. accordingly, the next day, i went to my country house, as i called it; and cutting some of the smaller twigs, i found them to my purpose as much as i could desire: whereupon i came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity, which i soon found, for there was great plenty of them. these i set up to dry within my circle or hedge; and when they were fit for use, i carried them to my cave: and here, during the next season, i employed myself in making, as well as i could, several baskets; both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing as i had occasion for. though i did not finish them very handsomely, yet i made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose: and thus, afterwards, i took care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, i made more; especially strong deep baskets, to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when i should come to have any quantity of it. having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it, i bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two other wants. i had no vessel to hold any thing that was liquid, except two runlets, which were almost full of rum; and some glass bottles, some of the common size, and others (which were case-bottles) square, for the holding of waters, spirits, &c. i had not so much as a pot to boil anything; except a great kettle, which i saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such use as i desired it, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. the second thing i would fain have had, was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible for me to make one; however, i found a contrivance for that too at last. i employed myself in planting my second row of stakes or piles, and also in this wicker-working, all the summer or dry season; when another business took me up more time than it could be imagined i could spare. i mentioned before, that i had a great mind to see the whole island; and that i had travelled up the brook, and so on to where i had built my bower, and where i had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the island. i now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore, on that side: so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual; with two biscuit-cakes, and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch, for my store; i began my journey. when i had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, i came within view of the sea, to the west; and it being a very clear day, i fairly descried land, whether an island or continent i could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from w. to w.s.w. at a very great distance; by my guess, it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off. i could not tell what part of the world this might be; otherwise than that i knew it must be part of america; and, as i concluded, by all my observations, must be near the spanish dominions; and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, if i should have landed, i had been in a worse condition than i was now. i therefore acquiesced in the dispositions of providence, which i began now to own and to believe ordered every thing for the best; i say, i quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there. besides, after some pause upon this affair, i considered that if this land was the spanish coast, i should certainly, one time or other, see some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was the savage coast between the spanish country and the brazils, whose inhabitants are indeed the worst of savages; for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all human beings that fall into their hands. with these considerations, walking very leisurely forward, i found this side of the island, where i now was, much pleasanter than mine; the open or savannah fields sweetly adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods. i saw abundance of parrots; and fain would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak to me. i did, after taking some pains, catch a young parrot: for i knocked it down with a stick, and, having recovered it, i brought it home: but it was some years before i could make him speak; however, at last i taught him to call me by my name very familiarly. but the accident that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place. i was exceedingly amused with this journey. i found in the low grounds hares, as i thought them to be, and foxes: but they differed greatly from all the other kinds i had met with; nor could i satisfy myself to eat them, though i killed several. but i had no need to be venturous: for i had no want of food, and of that which was very good too; especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise. with these, added to my grapes, leadenhall-market could not have furnished a table better than i, in proportion to the company; and though my case was deplorable enough, yet i had great cause for thankfulness; as i was not driven to any extremities for food; but had rather plenty, even to dainties. i never travelled on this journey above two miles outright in a day, or thereabouts; but i took so many turns and returns, to see what discoveries i could make, that i came weary enough to the place where i resolved to sit down for the night; and then i either reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes, set upright in the ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature could come at me without waking me. as soon as i came to the sea-shore, i was surprised to see that i had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island: for here indeed the shore was covered with innumerable turtles; whereas, on the other side, i had found but three in a year and a half. here was also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds; some of which i had seen, and some of which i had not seen before, and many of them very good meat; but such as i knew not the names of, except those called penguins. i could have shot as many as i pleased, but was very sparing of my powder and shot; and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat, if i could, which i could better feed on. but though there were many goats here, more than on my side the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that i could come near them; the country being flat and even, and they saw me much sooner than when i was upon a hill. i confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine; yet i had not the least inclination to remove; for as i was fixed in my habitation, it became natural to me, and i seemed all the while i was here to be as it were upon a journey, and from home. however, i travelled along the sea-shore towards the east, i suppose about twelve miles; and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, i concluded i would go home again; and that the next journey i took should be on the other side of the island, east from my dwelling, and so round till i came to my post again: of which in its place. i took another way to come back than that i went, thinking i could easily keep so much of the island in my view, that i could not miss my first dwelling by viewing the country: but i found myself mistaken; for being come about two or three miles, i found myself descended into a very large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with wood, that i could not see which was my way by any direction but that of the sun, nor even then, unless i knew very well the position of the sun at that time of the day. and it happened to my farther misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four days while i was in this valley; and not being able to see the sun, i wandered about very uncomfortable, and at last was obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the same way i went; and then by easy journies i turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things very heavy. in this journey, my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and running to take hold of it, i caught it, and saved it alive from the dog. i had a great mind to bring it home if i could; for i had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and shot should be all spent. i made a collar for this little creature, and with a string which i had made of some rope-yarn, which i always carried about me, i led him along, though with some difficulty, till i came to my bower, and there i enclosed him and left him; for i was very impatient to be at home, from whence i had been absent above a month. i cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. this little wandering journey, without a settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as i called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every thing about me so comfortable, that i resolved i would never go a great way from it again, while it should be my lot to stay on the island. i reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey: during which, most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my pol, who began now to be more domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me. then i began to think of the poor kid which i had penned within my little circle, and resolved to fetch it home, or give it some food: accordingly i went, and found it where i left it (for indeed it could not get out,) but was almost starved for want of food. i went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as i could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, i tied it as i did before, to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that i had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and as i continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it was from that time one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards. the rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and i kept the 30th of september in the same solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on the island; having now been there two years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day i came there. i spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments for the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. i gave humble and hearty thanks to god for having been pleased to discover to me, that it was possible i might be more happy even in this solitary condition, than i should have been in the enjoyment of society, and in all the pleasures of the world: that he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the wont of human society, by his presence, and the communications of his grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, and to hope for his eternal presence hereafter. it was now that i began sensibly to feel how much more happy the life i now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life i led all the past part of my days: and now i changed both my sorrows and my joys: my very desires altered, my affections changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or indeed for the two years past. before, as i walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the woods, the mountains, the deserts i was in; and how i was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. in the midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and weep like a child: sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work, and i would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two together: this was still worse to me; but if i could burst into tears, or give vent to my feelings by words, it would go off; and my grief being exhausted, would abate. but now i began to exercise myself with new thoughts; i daily read the word of god, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. one morning, being very sad, i opened the bible upon these words, "i will never leave thee, nor forsake thee:" immediately it occurred that these words were to me; why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when i was mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of god and man? "well then," said i, "if god does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should forsake me; seeing on the other hand, if i had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of god, there would be no comparison in the loss?" from this moment i began to conclude in my mind, that it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition, than it was probable i should ever have been in any other particular state in the world; and with this thought i was going to give thanks to god for bringing me to this place. i know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at that thought and i durst not speak the words. "how canst thou be such a hypocrite," said i, even audibly, "to pretend to be thankful for a condition, which, however thou mayest endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldest rather pray heartily to be delivered from?" here i stopped: but though i could not say i thanked god for being here, yet i sincerely gave thanks to god for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. i never opened the bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed god for directing my friend in england, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods; and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship. thus, and in this disposition of mind, i began my third year; and though i have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed, that i was very seldom idle; but having regularly divided my time, according to the several daily employments that were before me; such as, first, my duty to god, and the reading the scriptures, which i constantly set apart some time for, thrice every day: secondly, going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up three hours every morning, when it did not rain: thirdly, ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what i had killed or catched for my supply: these took up great part of the day; also it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time i could be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes i changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon. to this short time allowed for labour, i desire may be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing i did took up out of my time: for example, i was full two and forty days making me a board for a long shelf, which i wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half a day. my case was this; it was a large tree which was to be cut down, because my board was to be a broad one. this tree i was three days cutting down, and two more in cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log, or piece of timber. with inexpressible hacking and hewing, i reduced both the sides of it into chips, till it was light enough to move; then i turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board, from end to end; then turning that side downward, cut the other side, till i brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both sides. any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work; but labour and patience carried me through that, and many other things: i only observe this in particular, to show the reason why so much of my time went away with so little work, viz. that what might be a little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. notwithstanding this, with patience and labour i went through many things; and, indeed, every thing that my circumstances made necessary for me to do, as will appear by what follows. i was now in the months of november and december, expecting my crop of barley and rice. the ground i had manured or dug up for them was not great; for, as i observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity of half a peck, having lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season: but now my crop promised very well; when, on a sudden, i found i was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it was scarce possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and wild creatures which i called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and ate it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalk. i saw no remedy for this, but by making an enclosure about it with a hedge, which i did with a great deal of toil; and the more, because it required speed. however, as my arable land was but small, suited to my crop, i got it tolerably well fenced in about three weeks' time; and shooting some of the creatures in the day-time, i set my dog to guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace. but as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear: for going along by the place to see how it throve, i saw my little crop surrounded with fowls, i know not of how many sorts, who stood, as it were, watching till i should be gone. i immediately let fly among them (for i always had my gun with me;) i had no sooner shot, but there rose up a little cloud of fowls, which i had not seen at all, from among the corn itself. this touched me sensibly, for i foresaw that in a few days they would devour all my hopes; that i should be starved, and never be able to raise a crop at all; and what to do i could not tell: however, i resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though i should watch it night and day. in the first place, i went among it, to see what damage was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great, but that the remainder was likely to be a good crop, if it could be saved. i staid by it to load my gun, and then coming away, i could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waited till i was gone away; and the event proved it to be so; for as i walked off, as if gone, i was no sooner out of their sight, than they dropt down, one by one, into the corn again. i was so provoked, that i could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grain they eat now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me in the consequence; so coming up to the hedge, i fired again, and killed three of them. this was what i wished for; so i took them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in england, viz. hanged them in chains, for a terror to others. it is impossible to imagine that this should have such an effect as it had; for the fowls not only never came to the corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and i could never see a bird near the place as long as my scare-crows hung there. this i was very glad of, you may be sure; and about the latter end of december, which was our second harvest of the year, i reaped my corn. i was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down: and all i could do was to make one as well as i could, out of one of the broad swords, or cutlasses, which i saved among the arms out of the ship. however, as my first crop was but small, i had no great difficulty to cut it down: in short, i reaped it my way, for i cut nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which i had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my harvesting, i found that out of my half peck of seed i had near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my guess, for i had no measure. however, this was great encouragement to me; and i foresaw that, in time, it would please god to supply me with bread; and yet here i was perplexed again; for i neither knew how to grind, or make meal of my corn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet i knew not how to bake it: these things being added to my desire of having a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, i resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next season; and, in the mean tune, to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread. it might be truly said, that now i worked for my bread. it is a little wonderful, and what i believe few people have thought much upon, viz. the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one article of bread. i, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my daily discouragement, and was made more sensible of it every hour, even after i had got the first handful of seed-corn which, as i have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise. first, i had no plough to turn up the earth; no spade or shovel to dig it: well, this i conquered by making a wooden spade, as i observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made my work the harder, and performed it much worse. however, this i bore with, and was content to work it out with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. when the corn was sown, i had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it. when it was growing and grown, i have observed already how many things i wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, and save it: then i wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it; and yet all these things i did without, as shall be observed; and the corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me: all this, as i said, made every thing laborious and tedious to me, but that there was no help for; neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as i had divided it, a certain part of it, was every day appointed to these works; and as i resolved to use none of the corn for bread till i had a greater quantity by me, i had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all the operations necessary for making corn fit for my use. but now i was to prepare more land; for i had seed enough to sow above an acre of ground. before i did this, i had a week's work at least to make me a spade; which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to work with it: however, i went through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as i could find them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge; the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which i had set before, and knew it would grow; so that, in one year's time, i knew i should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but little repair. this work took me up full three months; because a great part of the time was in the wet season, when i could not go abroad. within doors, that is, when it rained, and i could not go out, i found employment on the following occasions; always observing, that while i was at work, i diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and i quickly learned him to know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, pol; which was the first word i ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. this, therefore, was not my work, but an assistant to my work; for now, as i said, i had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: i had long studied, by some means or other, to make myself some earthen vessels, which indeed i wanted much, but knew not where to come at them: however, considering the heat of the climate, i did not doubt but if i could find out any clay, i might botch up some such pot as might, being dried in the sun, be hard and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold any thing that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in the preparing corn, meal, &c. which was the thing i was upon, i resolved to make some as large as i could, and fit only to stand like jars, to hold what should be put into them. it would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell how many awkward ways i took to raise this pastil; what odd, misshapen, ugly things i made; how many of them fell in, and how many fell out, the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how many cracked by the over violent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how many fell in pieces with only removing, as well before as after they were dried: and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home, and work it, i could not make above two large earthen ugly things (i cannot call them jars) in about two months' labour. however, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, i lifted them very gently up, and set them down again in two great wicker baskets, which i had made on purpose for them, that they might not break; and as between the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, i stuffed it full of the rice and barley-straw; and these two pots being to stand always dry, i thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the meal, when the corn was bruised. though i miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet i made several smaller things with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun baked them very hard. but all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen pot to hold liquids, and bear the fire, which none of these could do. it happened some time after, making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when i went to put it out after i had done with it, i found a broken piece of one of my earthen-ware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as a tile. i was agreeably surprised to see it; and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken. this set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn some pots. i had no notion of a kiln, such as the potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though i had some lead to do it with; but i placed three large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one upon another, and placed my fire-wood all round it, with a great heap of embers under them. i plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the top, till i saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all: when i saw them clear red, i let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till i found one of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have run into glass, if i had gone on; so i slacked my fire gradually, till the pots began to abate of the red colour; and watching them all night, that i might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning i had three very good, i will not say handsome, pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand. after this experiment, i need not say that i wanted no sort of earthen-ware for my use; but i must needs say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, as i had no way of making them but as the children make dirt pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learned to raise paste. no joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when i found i had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and i had hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before i set one on the fire again, with some water in it, to boil me some meat, which it did admirably well; and with a piece of a kid i made some very good broth; though i wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to make it so good as i would have had it been. my next concern was to get a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of arriving to that perfection of art with one pair of hands. to supply this want i was at a great loss; for, of all trades in the world, i was as perfectly unqualified for a stonecutter, as for any whatever; neither had i any tools to go about it with. i spent many a day to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar; but could find none at all, except what was in the solid rock, and which i had no way to dig or cut out: nor, indeed, were the rocks in the island of sufficient hardness, as they were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would neither bear the weight of a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it with sand: so, after a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone, i gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of hard wood, which i found indeed much easier; and getting one as big as i had strength to stir, i rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet; and then, with the help of fire, and infinite labour, made a hollow place in it, as the indians in brazil make their canoes. after this, i made a great heavy pestle, or beater, of the wood called iron-wood; and this i prepared and laid by against i had my next crop of corn, when i proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound, my corn into meal, to make my bread. my next difficulty was to make a sieve, or searce, to dress my meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk, without which i did not see it possible i could have any bread. this was a most difficult thing, even but to think on; for i had nothing like the necessary thing to make it; i mean fine thin canvass or stuff, to searce the meal through. here i was at a full stop for many months; nor did i really know what to do; linen i had none left, but what was mere rags; i had goats'-hair, but neither knew how to weave it nor spin it; and had i known how, here were no tools to work it with: all the remedy i found for this was, at last recollecting i had, among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of calico or muslin, with some pieces of these i made three small sieves, proper enough for the work; and thus i made shift for some years: how i did afterwards, i shall show in its place. the baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how i should make bread when i came to have corn: for, first, i had no yeast: as to that part there was no supplying the want, so i did not concern myself much about it; but for an oven i was indeed puzzled. at length i found out an expedient for that also, which was this; i made some earthen vessels, very broad, but not deep, that is to say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep: these i burned in the fire, as i had done the other, and laid them by; and when i wanted to bake, i made a great fire upon my hearth, which i had paved with some square tiles, of my own making and burning also; but i should not call them square. when the fire-wood was burned into embers, or live coals, i drew them forward upon the hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there let them lie till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping away all the embers, i set down my loaf, or loaves, and covering them with the earthen pot, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, i baked my barley-loaves, and became, in a little time, a good pastry-cook into the bargain; for i made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; but made no pies, as i had nothing to put into them except the flesh of fowls or goats. it need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part of the third year of my abode here; for, it is to be observed, in the intervals of these things, i had my new harvest and husbandry to manage: i reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as i could, and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till i had time to rub it out; for i had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash it with. and now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, i really wanted to build my barns bigger: i wanted a place to lay it up in; for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that i had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of rice as much, or more, insomuch that now i resolved to begin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while: i resolved also to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once a year. upon the whole, i found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were much more than i could consume in a year; so i resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that i sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me with bread, &c. all the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which i had seen from the other side of the island; and i was not without some secret wishes that i was on shore there; fancying, that seeing the main land, and an inhabited country, i might find some way or other to convey myself farther, and perhaps at last find some means of escape. but all this while i made no allowance for the dangers of such a condition, and that i might fall into the hands of savages, and perhaps such as i might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers of africa; that if i once came in their power, i should run a hazard of more than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten; for i had heard that the people of the caribbean coast were cannibals, or man-eaters; and i knew, by the latitude, that i could not be far off from that shore. then supposing they were not cannibals, yet that they might kill me, as they had many europeans who had fallen into their hands, even when they have been ten or twenty together; much more i, who was but one, and could makee little or no defence; all these things, i say, which i ought to have considered well of, and did cast up in my thoughts afterwards, took up none of my apprehensions at first; yet my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting over to the shore. now i wished for my boy xury, and the long-boat with the shoulder-of-mutton sail, with which i sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of africa; but this was in vain: then i thought i would go and look at our ship's boat, which, as i have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way, in the storm, when we were first cast away. she lay nearly where she did at first, but not quite; having turned, by the force of the waves and the winds, almost bottom upward, against a high ridge of beachy rough sand; but no water about her, as before. if i had had hands to have refitted her, and to have launched her into the water, the boat would have done very well, and i might have gone back into the brazils with her easily enough; but i might have foreseen, that i could no more turn her and set her upright upon her bottom, than i could remove the island; however, i went to the woods, and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, resolving to try what i could do; suggesting to myself, that if i could but turn her down, and repair the damage she had received, she would be a very good boat, and i might venture to sea in her. i spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, i think, three or four weeks about it: at last, finding it impossible to heave her up with my little strength, i fell to digging away the sand, to undermine her, and so as to make her fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide her right in the fall. but when i had done this, i was unable to stir her up again, or to get under her, much less to move her forward towards the water; so i was forced to give it over: and yet, though i gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over the main increased, rather than diminished, as the means for it seemed impossible. at length, i began to think whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as i might say, without hands, of the trunk of a great tree. this i not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased myself extremely with the idea of making it, and with my having much more convenience for it than any of the negroes or indians; but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which i lay under more than the indians did, viz. the want of hands to move it into the water when it was made, a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them: for what could it avail me, if, after i had chosen my tree, and with much trouble cut it down, and might be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat of it; if, after all this, i must leave it just where i found it, and was not able to launch it into the water? one would imagine, if i had had the least reflection upon my mind of my circumstances while i was making this boat, i should have immediately thought how i was to get it into the sea: but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage in it, that i never once considered how i should get it off the land; and it was really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over forty-five miles of sea, than the forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. i went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did, who had any of his senses awake. i pleased myself with the design, without determining whether i was able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but i put a stop to my own inquiries into it, by this foolish answer: let me first make it; i warrant i will find some way or other to get it along when it is done. this was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed, and to work i went. i felled a cedar tree, and i question much whether solomon ever had such a one for the building of the temple at jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, where it lessened, and then parted into branches. it was not without infinite labour that i felled this tree; i was twenty days hacking and hewing at the bottom, and fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and the vast spreading head of it, cut off: after this, it cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought to do. it cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it: this i did, indeed, without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till i had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough to have carried six and twenty men, and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo. when i had gone through this work, i was extremely delighted with it. the boat was really much bigger than ever i saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life. many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure; and there remained nothing but to get it into the water; which, had i accomplished, i make no question but i should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken. but all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they cost me inexpressible labour too. it lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek. well, to take away this discouragement, i resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this i begun, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains; (but who grudge pains that have their deliverance in view?) when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for i could no more stir the canoe than i could the other boat. then i measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing i could not bring the canoe down to the water. well, i began this work; and when i began to enter upon it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, i found by the number of hands i had, having none but my own, that it must have been ten or twelve years before i could have gone through with it; for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep; this attempt, though with great reluctancy, i was at length obliged to give over also. this grieved me heartily; and now i saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. in the middle of this work, i finished my fourth year in this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much comfort as before; for, by a constant study and serious application to the word of god, and by the assistance of his grace, i gained a different knowledge from what i had before; i entertained different notions of things; i looked now upon the world as a thing remote, which i had nothing to do with, no expectation from, and, indeed, no desires about: in a word, i had nothing to do with it, nor was ever likely to have; i thought it looked, as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter, viz. as, a place i had lived in, but was come out of it; and well might i say, as father abraham to dives, "between me and thee is a great gulf fixed." in the first place, i was here removed from all the wickedness of the world; i had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, nor the pride of life. i had nothing to covet, for i had all that i was now capable of enjoying: i was lord of the whole manor; or, if i pleased, i might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which i had possession of; there were no rivals; i had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me: i might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but i had no use for it; so i let as little grow as i thought enough for my occasion. i had tortoise or turtle enough, but now and then one was as much as i could put to any use: i had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships; and i had grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when it had been built. but all i could make use of was all that was valuable: i had enough to eat and supply my wants, and what was the rest to me? if i killed more flesh than i could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if i sowed more corn than i could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees that i cut down were lying to rot on the ground; i could make no more use of them than for fuel, and that i had no other occasion for but to dress my food. in a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world, are of no farther good to us than for our use; and that whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more. the most covetous griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness, if he had been in my case; for i possessed infinitely more than i knew what to do with. i had no room for desire, except it was for things which i had not, and they were comparatively but trifles, though indeed of great use to me. i had, as i hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. alas! there the nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay: i had no manner of business for it; and i often thought within myself, that i would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, i would have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot seed from england, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. as it was, i had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave in the wet seasons; and if i had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same case,--they had been of no manner of value to me because of no use. i had now brought my state of life to be much more comfortable in itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body. i frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of god's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness: i learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what i enjoyed, rather than what i wanted: and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that i cannot express them; and which i take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what god has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. all our discontents about what we want, appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have. another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition with what i at first expected it would be; nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the good providence of god had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up near to the shore, where i not only could come at her, but could bring what i got out of her to the shore, for my relief and comfort; without which, i had wanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, and gunpowder and shot for getting my food. i spent whole hours, i may say whole days, in representing to myself, in the most lively colours, how i must have acted if i had got nothing out of the ship. i could not have so much as got any food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it was long before i found any of them, i must have perished; that i should have lived, if i had not perished, like a mere savage; that if i had killed a goat or a fowl, by any contrivance, i had no way to flay or open it, or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast. these reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes: and this part also i cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, is any affliction like mine? let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if providence had thought fit. i had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my mind with hopes; and this was comparing my present condition with what i had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of providence. i had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of god. i had been well instructed by my father and mother; neither had they been wanting to me, in their endeavours to infuse an early religious awe of god into my mind, a sense of my duty, and what the nature and end of my being required of me. but, alas! falling early into the seafaring life, which, of all lives, is the most destitute of the fear of god, though his terrors are always before them; i say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that little sense of religion which i had entertained was laughed out of me by my messmates; by a hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death, which grew habitual to me; by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with any thing but what was like myself, or to hear any thing that was good, or tending towards it. so void was i of every thing that was good, or of the least sense of what i was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverances i enjoyed (such as my escape from sallee, my being taken up by the portuguese master of a ship, my being planted so well in the brazils, my receiving the cargo from england, and the like,) i never had once the words, thank god, so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distress had i so much as a thought to pray to him, or so much as to say, lord, have mercy upon me! no, nor to mention the name of god, unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it. i had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as i have already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; and when i looked about me, and considered what particular providences had attended me since my coming into this place, and how god had dealt bountifully with me,--had not only punished me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me,--this gave me great hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that god had yet mercies in store for me. with these reflections, i worked my mind up, not only to a resignation to the will of god in the present disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition; and that i, who was yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing i had not the due punishment of my sins; that i enjoyed so many mercies which i had no reason to have expected in that place, that i ought never more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought; that i ought to consider i had been fed by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding elijah by ravens; nay, by a long series of miracles: and that i could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world where i could have been cast more to my advantage; a place where, as i had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so i found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous or poisonous creatures which i might feed on to my hurt; no savages to murder and devour me. in a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and i wanted nothing to make it a life of comfort, but to make myself sensible of god's goodness to me, and care over me in this condition; and after i did make a just improvement of these things, i went away, and was no more sad. i had now been here so long, that many things which i brought on shore for my help were either quite gone, or very much wasted, and near spent. my ink, as i observed, had been gone for some time, all but a very little, which i eked out with water, a little and a little, till it was so pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper. as long as it lasted, i made use of it to minute down the days of the month on which any remarkable thing happened to me: and, first, by casting up times past, i remember that there was a strange concurrence of days in the various providences which befel me, and which, if i had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, i might have had reason to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity. first, i had observed, that the same day that i broke away from my father and my friends, and ran away to hull, in order to go to sea, the same day afterwards i was taken by the sallee man of war, and made a slave: the same day of the year that i escaped out of the wreck of the ship in yarmouth roads, that same day-year afterwards i made my escape from sallee in the boat: and the same day of the year i was born on, viz. the 30th of september, that same day i had my life so miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when i was cast on shore in this island: so that my wicked life and my solitary life began both on one day. the next thing to my ink being wasted, was that of my bread, i mean the biscuit which i brought out of the ship; this i had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a day for above a year; and yet i was quite without bread for near a year before i got any corn of my own; and great reason i had to be thankful that i had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next to miraculous. my clothes, too, began to decay mightily: as to linen, i had none for a great while, except some chequered shirts which i found in the chests of the other seamen, and which i carefully preserved, because many times i could bear no clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to me that i had, among all the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozen of shirts. there were also, indeed, several thick watch-coats of the seamen's which were left, but they were too hot to wear: and though it is true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no need of clothes, yet i could not go quite naked, no, though i had been inclined to it, which i was not, nor could i abide the thought of it, though, i was all alone. the reason why i could not go quite naked was, i could not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin: whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and whistling under the shirt, was twofold cooler than without it. no more could i ever bring myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap or hat; the heat of the sun beating with such violence as it does in that place, would give me the head-ach presently, by darting so directly upon my head, without a cap or hat on, so that i could not bear it; whereas, if i put on my hat, it would presently go away. upon these views, i began to consider about putting the few rags i had, which i called clothes, into some order: i had worn out all the waistcoats i had, and my business was now to try if i could not make jackets out of the great watch-coats that i had by me, and with such other materials as i had; so i set to work a tailoring, or rather, indeed; a botching, for i made most piteous work of it. however, i made shift to make two or three new waistcoats, which i hoped would serve me a great while: as for breeches or drawers, i made but a very sorry shift indeed till afterwards. i have mentioned, that i saved the skins of all the creatures that i killed, i mean four-footed ones; and i had hung them up, stretched out with sticks, in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry and hard that they were fit for little, but others i found very useful. the first thing i made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this i performed so well, that after this i made me a suit of clothes wholly of the skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees, and both loose; for they were rather wanting to keep me cool than warm. i must not omit to acknowledge that they were wretchedly made; for if i was a bad carpenter, i was a worse tailor. however, they were such as i made very good shift with; and when i was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of my waistcoat and cap being uppermost, i was kept very dry. after this i spent a great deal of time and pains to make me an umbrella: i was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one; i had seen them made in the brazils, where they were very useful in the great heats which are there; and i felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox: besides, as i was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as the heats. i took a world of pains at it, and was a great while before i could make any thing likely to hold; nay, after i thought i had hit the way, i spoiled two or three before i made one to my mind; but at last i made one that answered indifferently well; the main difficulty i found was to make it to let down: i could make it spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was not portable for me any way but just over my head, which would not do. however, at last, as i said, i made one to answer, and covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that i could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than i could before in the coolest; and when i had no need of it, could close it, and carry it under my arm. thus i lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed by resigning to the will of god, and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of his providence. this made my life better than sociable; for when i began to regret the want of conversation, i would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as i hope i may say, with even god himself, by ejaculations, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world? i cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing happened to me, but i lived on in the same course, in the same posture and place, just as before; the chief things i was employed in, besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both which i always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of one year's provision beforehand; i say, besides this yearly labour, and my daily pursuit of going out with my gun, i had one labour, to make me a canoe, which at last i finished: so that by digging a canal to it of six feet wide, and four feet deep, i brought it into the creek, almost half a mile. as for the first, which was so vastly big, as i made it without considering beforehand, as i ought to do, how i should be able to launch it, so, never being able to bring it into the water, or bring the water to it, i was obliged to let it lie where it was, as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser the next time: indeed, the next time, though i could not get a tree proper for it, and was in a place where i could not get the water to it at any less distance than, as i have said, near half a mile, yet as i saw it was practicable at last, i never gave it over: and though i was near two years about it, yet i never grudged my labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last. however, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it was not at all answerable to the design which i had in view when i made the first; i mean, of venturing over to the _terra firma_, where it was above forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put an end to that design, and now i thought no more of it. as i had a boat, my next design was to make a cruise round the island; for as i had been on the other side in one place, crossing, as i have already described it, over the land, so the discoveries i made in that little journey made me very eager to see other parts of the coast; and now i had a boat, i thought of nothing but sailing round the island. for this purpose, that i might do every thing with discretion and consideration, i fitted up a little mast in my boat, and made a sail to it out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails which lay in store, and of which i had a great stock by me. having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, i found she would sail very well: then i made little lockers, or boxes, at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, ammunition, &c. into, to be kept dry, either from rain or the spray of the sea; and a little long hollow place i cut in the inside of the boat, where i could lay my gun, making a flap to hang down over it, to keep it dry. i fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning; and thus i every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but never went far out, nor far from the little creek. at last, being eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, i resolved upon my cruise; and accordingly i victualled my ship for the voyage, putting in two dozen of loaves (cakes i should rather call them) of barley bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice (a food i ate a great deal of,) a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder and shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, as i mentioned before, i had saved out of the seamen's chests; these i took, one to lie upon, and the other to cover me in the night. it was the 6th of november, in the sixth year of my reign, or my captivity, which you please, that i set out on this voyage, and i found it much longer than i expected; for though the island itself was not very large, yet when i came to the east side of it, i found a great ledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, some under it; and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league more, so that i was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double the point. when first i discovered them, i was going to give over my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea, and, above all, doubting how i should get back again; so i came to an anchor; for i had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken grappling which i got out of the ship. having secured my boat, i took my gun and went on shore, climbing up on a hill, which seemed to overlook that point, where i saw the full extent of it, and resolved to venture. in my viewing the sea from that hill where i stood, i perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, and even came close to the point; and i took the more notice of it, because i saw there might be some danger, that when i came into it, i might be carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island again: and, indeed, had i not got first upon this hill, i believe it would have been so; for there was the same current on the other side the island, only that it set off at a farther distance, and i saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so i had nothing to do but to get out of the first current, and i should presently be in an eddy. i lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing pretty fresh at e.s.e. and that being just contrary to the said current, made a great breach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because of the stream. the third day, in the morning, the wind having abated over-night, the sea was calm, and i ventured: but i am a warning piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was i come to the point, when i was not even my boat's length from the shore, but i found myself in a great depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it carried my boat along with it with such violence, that all i could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of it; but i found it hurried me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on my left hand. there was no wind stirring to help me, and all i could do with my paddles signified nothing: and now i began to give myself over for lost; for as the current was on both sides of the island, i knew in a few leagues distance they must join again, and then i was irrecoverably gone; nor did i see any possibility of avoiding it; so that i had no prospect before me but of perishing, not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving for hunger. i had indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as i could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and i had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no main land or island, for a thousand leagues at least? and now i saw how easy it was for the providence of god to make even the most miserable condition of mankind worse. now i looked back upon my desolate solitary island, as the most pleasant place in the world; and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. i stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes: "o happy desert!" said i, "i shall never see thee more. o miserable creature! whither am i going!" then i reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how i had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would i give to be on shore there again! thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it. it is scarce possible to imagine the consternation i was now in, being driven from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again. however, i worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my boat as much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the current which the eddy lay on, as possibly i could; when about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, i thought i felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from s.s.e. this cheered my heart a little, and especially when, in about half an hour more, it blew a pretty gentle gale. by this time i was got at a frightful distance from the island, and had the least cloudy or hazy weather intervened, i had been undone another way too; for i had no compass on board, and should never have known how to have steered towards the island, if i had but once lost sight of it; but the weather continuing clear, i applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out of the current. just as i had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch away, i saw even by the clearness of the water some alteration of the current was near; for where the current was so strong, the water was foul; but perceiving the water clear, i found the current abate; and presently i found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some rocks: these rocks i found caused the current to part again, and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rocks, and made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west, with a very sharp stream. they who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going to murder them, or who have been in such-like extremities, may guess what my present surprise of joy was, and how gladly i put my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also freshening, how gladly i spread my sail to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot. this eddy carried me about a league in my way back again, directly towards the island, but about two leagues more to the northward than the current which carried me away at first: so that when i came near the island, i found myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the island, opposite to that which i went out from. when i had made something more than a league of way by the help of this current or eddy, i found it was spent, and served me no farther. however, i found that being between two great currents, viz. that on the south side, which had hurried me away, and that on the north, which lay about a league on the other side; i say, between these two, in the wake of the island, i found the water at least still, and running no way; and having still a breeze of wind fair for me, i kept on steering directly for the island, though not making such fresh way as i did before. about four o'clock in the evening, being then within a league of the island, i found the point of the rocks which occasioned this disaster, stretching out, as is described before, to the southward, and casting off the current more southerly, had, of course, made another eddy to the north, and this i found very strong, but not directly setting the way my course lay, which was due west, but almost full north. however, having a fresh gale, i stretched across this eddy, slanting north-west: and, in about an hour, came within about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth water, i soon got to land. when i was on shore, i fell on my knees, and gave god thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing myself with such things as i had, i brought my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that i had spied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and fatigue of the voyage. i was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat: i had run so much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think of attempting it by the way i went out; and what might be at the other side (i mean the west side) i knew not, nor had i any mind to run any more ventures; so i only resolved in the morning to make my way westward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where i might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again, if i wanted her. in about three miles, or thereabouts, coasting the shore, i came to a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet or brook, where i found a very convenient harbour for my boat, and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her. here i put in, and having stowed my boat very safe, i went on shore, to look about me, and see where i was. i soon found i had but a little passed by the place where i had been before, when i travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and umbrella, for it was exceeding hot, i began my march. the way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as i had been upon, and i reached my old bower in the evening, where i found every thing standing as i left it; for i always kept it in good order, being, as i said before, my country house. i got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade, to rest my limbs, for i was very weary, and fell asleep: but judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise i must be in, when i was awaked out of my sleep by a voice, calling me by my name several times, "robin, robin, robin crusoe; poor robin crusoe! where are you, robin crusoe? where are you? where have you been!" i was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and with walking the latter part, that i did not wake thoroughly; but dozing between sleeping and waking, thought i dreamed that somebody spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat robin crusoe, robin crusoe, at last i began to wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, and started up in the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes open, but i saw my pol sitting on the top of the hedge; and immediately knew it was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language i had used to talk to him, and teach him; and he had learned it so perfectly, that he would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, "poor robin crusoe! where are you? where have you been? how came you here?" and such things as i had taught him. however, even though i knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before i could compose myself. first, i was amazed how the creature got thither, and then, how he should just keep about the place, and no where else: but as i was well satisfied it could be nobody but honest pol, i got over it; and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name, pol, the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do and continued talking to me, poor robin crusoe! and how did i come here? and where had i been? just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again: and so i carried him home along with me. i now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had enough to do for many days, to sit still, and reflect upon the danger i had been in. i would have been very glad to have had my boat again on my side of the island; but i knew not how it was practicable to get it about. as to the east side of the island, which i had gone round, i knew well enough there was no venturing that way; my very heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill, but to think of it; and as to the other side of the island, i did not know how it might be there; but supposing the current ran with the same force against the shore at the east as it passed by it on the other, i might run the same risk of being driven down the stream, and carried by the island, as i had been before of being carried away from it; so, with these thoughts, i contented myself to be without any boat, though it had been the product of so many months' labour to make it, and of so many more to get it into the sea. in this government of my temper i remained near a year, lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may well suppose; and my thoughts being very much composed, as to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning myself to the dispositions of providence, i thought i lived really very happily in all things, except that of society. i improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises which my necessities put me upon applying myself to; and i believe i could, upon occasion, have made a very good carpenter, especially considering how few tools i had. besides this, i arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthen-ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel, which i found infinitely easier and better; because i made things round and shapable, which before were filthy things indeed to look on. but i think i was never more vain of my own performance, or more joyful for any thing i found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though it was a very ugly clumsy thing when it was done, and only burnt red, like other earthen-ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke, i was exceedingly comforted with it, for i had been always used to smoke: and there were pipes in the ship, but i forgot them at first, not thinking that there was tobacco in the island; and afterwards, when i searched the ship again, i could not come at any pipes at all. in my wicker-ware also i improved much, and made abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention showed me; though not very handsome, yet they were such as were very handy and convenient for my laying things up in, or fetching things home. for example, if i killed a goat abroad, i could hang it up in a tree, flay it, dress it, and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket; and the like by a turtle: i could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a piece or two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. also large deep baskets were the receivers of my corn, which i always rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, and kept it in great baskets. i began now to perceive my powder abated considerably; this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply, and i began seriously to consider what i must do when i should have no more powder; that is to say, how i should do to kill any goats. i had, as is observed, in the third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and i was in hopes of getting a he-goat: but i could not by any means bring it to pass, till my kid grew an old goat; and as i could never find in my heart to kill her, she died at last of mere age. but being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as i have said, my ammunition growing low, i set myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether i could not catch some of them alive; and particularly, i wanted a she-goat great with young. for this purpose, i made snares to hamper them; and i do believe they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for i had no wire, and i always found them broken, and my bait devoured. at length i resolved to try a pitfall: so i dug several large pits in the earth, in places where i had observed the goats used to feed, and over those pits i placed hurdles, of my own making too, with a great weight upon them; and several times i put ears of barley and dry rice, without setting the trap; and i could easily perceive that the goats had gone in and eaten up the corn, for i could see the marks of their feet. at length i set three traps in one night, and going the next morning, i found them all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone; this was very discouraging. however, i altered my traps; and, not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps, i found in one of them a large old he-goat, and in one of the others three kids, a male and two females. as to the old one, i knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce, i durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to go about to bring him away alive, which was what i wanted: i could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it answer my end; so i even let him out, and he ran away, as if he had been frightened out of his wits. but i did not then know what i afterwards learnt, that hunger will tame a lion. if i had let him stay there three or four days without food, and then have carried him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids; for they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures, where they are well used. however, for the present i let him go, knowing no better at that time: then i went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, i tied them with strings together, and with some difficulty brought them all home. it was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame. and now i found that if i expected to supply myself with goat's flesh when i had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way; when, perhaps, i might have them about my house like a flock of sheep. but then it occurred to me, that i must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up: and the only way for this was, to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced, either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those without break in. this was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as i saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first work was to find out a proper piece of ground, where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. those who understand such enclosures will think i had very little contrivance, when i pitched upon a place very proper for all these (being a plain open piece of meadow land, or savannah, as our people call it in the western colonies,) which had two or three little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody; i say, they will smile at my forecast, when i shall tell them, i began my enclosing this piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale must have been at least two miles about. nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass, for if it was ten miles about, i was like to have time enough to do it in; but i did not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much compass as if they had had the whole island, and i should have so much room to chase them in, that i should never catch them. my hedge was begun and carried on, i believe about fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me; so i presently stopped short, and, for the first beginning, i resolved to enclose a piece of about 150 yards in length, and 100 yards in breadth; which, as it would maintain as many as i should have in any reasonable time, so, as my stock increased, i could add more ground to my enclosure. this was acting with some prudence, and i went to work with courage. i was about three months hedging in the first piece; and, till i had done it, i tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often i would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand: so that after my enclosure was finished, and i let them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn. this answered my end; and in about a year and a half i had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more, i had three and forty, besides several that i took and killed for my food. after that i enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, to take them as i wanted, and gates out of one piece of ground into another. but this was not all; for now i not only had goat's flesh to feed on when i pleased, but milk too; a thing which, indeed, in the beginning, i did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise: for now i set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. and as nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to make use of it, so i, that had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made, only when i was a boy, after a great many essays and miscarriages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and also salt (though i found it partly made to my hand by the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of the sea,) and never wanted it afterwards. how mercifully can our creator treat his creatures, even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! how can he sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons! what a table was here spread for me in a wilderness, where i saw nothing, at first, but to perish for hunger! it would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my little family sit down to dinner: there was my majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island; i had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; i could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away; and no rebels among all my subjects. then to see how like a king i dined too, all alone, attended by my servants! pol, as if he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. my dog, who was now grown very old and crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table, and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of special favour. but these were not the two cats which i brought on shore at first, for they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation by my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by i know not what kind of creature, these were two which i had preserved tame; whereas the rest run wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last; for they would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last i was obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length they left me.--with this attendance, and in this plentiful manner, i lived; neither could i be said to want any thing but society: and of that, some time after this, i was like to have too much. i was something impatient, as i have observed, to have the use of my boat, though very loth to run any more hazards; and therefore sometimes i sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times i sat myself down contented enough without her. but i had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island, where, as i have said, in my last ramble, i went up the hill to see how the shore lay, and how the current set, that i might see what i had to do: this inclination increased upon me every day, and at length i resolved to travel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. i did so; but had any one in england been to meet such a man as i was, it must either have frightened him, or raised a great deal of laughter: and as i frequently stood still to look at myself, i could not but smile at the notion of my travelling through yorkshire, with such an equipage, and in such a dress. be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows: i had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck: nothing being so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon the flesh, under the clothes. i had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes i had none, but had made me a pair of somethings, i scarce know what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes: but of a most barbarous shape, as inded were all the rest of my clothes. i had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which i drew together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet; one on one side, and one on the other. i had another belt, not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of goat's skin too; in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot. at my back i carried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun; and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella, but which, after all, was the most necessary thing i had about me, next to my gun. as for my face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the equinox. my beard i had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as i had both scissars and razors sufficient, i had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip, which i had trimmed into a large pair of mahometan whiskers, such as i had seen worn by some turks at sallee; for the moors did not wear such, though the turks did: of these mustachios or whiskers, i will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such as, in england, would have passed for frightful. but all this is by the bye; for, as to my figure, i had so few to observe me that it was of no manner of consequence; so i say no more to that part. in this kind of figure i went my new journey, and was out five or six days. i travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the place where i first brought my boat to an anchor, to get upon the rocks; and having no boat now to take care of, i went over the land, a nearer way, to the same height that i was upon before; when looking forward to the point of the rocks which lay out, and which i was obliged to double with my boat, as is said above, i was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in any other places. i was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but i was presently convinced how it was, viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters, from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current; and that according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, this current came nearer, or went farther from the shore; for waiting thereabouts till evening, i went up to the rock again, and then the tide of ebb being made, i plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore; whereas in my case, it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and my canoe along with it; which, at another time, it would not have done. this observation convinced me, that i had nothing to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and i might very easily bring my boat about the island again: but when i began to think of putting it in practice, i had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger i had been in, that i could not think of it again with any patience; but, on the contrary, i took up another resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious; and this was, that i would build, or rather make me another periagua or canoe; and so have one for one side of the island, and one for the other. you are to understand, that now i had, as i may call it, two plantations in the island; one, my little fortification or tent, with the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which, by this time, i had enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. one of these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all filled up with the large earthen pots, of which i have given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels each, where i laid up my stores of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw, and the other rubbed out with my hand. as for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view, of any habitation behind them. near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which i kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season: and whenever i had occasion for more corn, i had more land adjoining as fit as that. besides this, i had my country seat; and i had now a tolerable plantation there also: for, first, i had my little bower, as i called it, which i kept in repair; that is to say, i kept the hedge which encircled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside: i kept the trees, which at first were no more than my stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut so, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade; which they did effectually to my mind. in the middle of this i had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; and under this i had made me a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures i had killed, and with other soft things; and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which i had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here, whenever i had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, i took up my country habitation. adjoining to this i had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my goats; and as i had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground, i was so anxious to see it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that i never left off, till, with infinite labour, i had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through between them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like a wall,--indeed, stronger than any wall. this will testify for me that i was not idle, and that i spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support; for i considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese for me as long as i lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a degree, that i might be sure of keeping them together; which, by this method, indeed, i so effectually secured, that when these little stakes began to grow, i had planted them so very thick, that i was forced to pull some of them up again. in this place also i had my grapes growing, which i principally depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which i never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet: and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree. as this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the place where i had laid up my boat, i generally stayed and lay here in my way thither; for i used frequently to visit my boat; and i kept all things about, or belonging to her, in very good order: sometimes i went out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would i go, nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, i was so apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or any other accident. but now i come to a new scene of my life. it happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, i was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. i stood like one thunder-struck, or as if i had seen an apparition; i listened, i looked round me, but i could hear nothing, nor see any thing; i went up to a rising ground, to look farther; i went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one; i could see no other impression but that one. i went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot: how it came thither i knew not, nor could i 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 my 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 had called a door, i cannot remember; no, nor could i remember the next morning; for never frightened 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 marks were there of any other footsteps? and how was it possible a man should come there? but then to think that satan should take human shape upon him in such a place, where there could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could not be sure i should see it,--this was an amusement the other way. i considered that the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot; that as i lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one whether i should ever see it or not, and in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea, upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely: all this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the notions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the devil. abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all apprehensions of its being the devil; and i presently concluded then, that it must be some more dangerous creature, viz. that it must be some of the savages of the main land over against me, who had 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, and 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, 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 laziness, that would not sow any more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as if no accident would intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the ground; and this i thought so just a reproof, that i resolved for the future to have two or three years' corn beforehand; so that whatever might come, i might not perish for want of bread. how strange a chequer-work of providence is the life of man! and by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as different 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 to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of; this was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for i, whose only 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 foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so i was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as i was his creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit; and who, as i was a creature that 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 as god, who was not only righteous, but omnipotent, 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 so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in him, pray to him, and quietly to attend the dictates and directions of his daily providence. these thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, i may say, weeks and months; and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion i cannot omit: one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages, i found it discomposed me very much; upon which these words of the scripture came into my thoughts, "call upon me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but i was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to god for deliverance: when i had done praying, i took up my bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were, "wait on the lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, i say, on the lord." it is impossible to express the comfort this gave me. in answer, i thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion. in the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when i came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little too, and i began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot: and why might i not come that way from the boat, as well as i was going that way to the boat? again, i considered also, that i could by no means tell, for certain, where i had trod, and where i had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, i had played the part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are frightened at them more than any body. 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 provisions; 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. encouraging myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and that 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 frightened; and so, indeed, i had. however, as i went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, i began to be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but i could not persuade myself fully of this till i should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that i might be assured it was my own foot: but when i came to the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when i laid up my boat, i could not possibly be on shore any where thereabouts: secondly, when i came to 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 vapours again to the highest degree, so that i shook with cold like one in an ague; and i went home again, filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and i might be surprised before i was aware; and what course to take for my security i knew not. o what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! it deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their relief. the first thing i proposed to myself was, to throw down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the enemy should 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 corn fields, lest they should 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 cogitataions after i was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as above. thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes; and we find the burthen of anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious about: and, which was worse than all this, i had not that relief in this trouble from the resignation i used to practise, that i hoped to have. i looked, i thought, like saul, who complained not, only that the philistines were upon him, but that god had forsaken him; for i did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to god in my distress, and resting upon his providence, as i had done before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if i had done, i had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution. this confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the morning i fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been, as it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, i slept very soundly, and waked much better composed than i had ever been 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 main land than as i had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as i might imagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross winds, might come to this place; that i had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; and that if at any time they should be driven here, it was probable they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion; that the most i could suggest any danger from, was from any casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here against their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off again with all possible speed; seldom 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 semi-circle, at a distance from my wall, just where i had planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which i made mention: these trees having been planted so thick before, they wanted but few piles to be driven between them, that they might be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished: so that i had now a double wall; and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing i could think of, to make it strong; having in it seven little holes, about as big as i might put my arm out at. in the inside of this, i thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, with continually bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes i contrived to plant the muskets, of which i took notice that i had got seven on shore out of the ship; these i planted like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that held them like a carriage, so that i could fire all the seven guns in two minutes' time: this wall i was many a weary month in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it was done. when this was done, i stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great length every way, as full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-like wood, which i found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch, that i believe i might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, that i might have room to see an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer wall. thus, in two years' time, i had a thick grove; and in five or six years' time i had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrous thick and strong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no men, of what kind soever, would ever imagine that there was any thing beyond it, much less a habitation. as for the way which i proposed to myself to go in and out (for 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 doing himself mischief; and if they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall. thus i took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own preservation; and it will be seen, at length, that they were not altogether without just reason; though i foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere fear suggested to me. while this was doing, i was not altogether careless of my other affairs; for i had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats; they were not only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to be sufficient for 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. for 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 labour, i thought was the most rational design. accordingly, i spent some time to find out the most retired parts of the island; and i pitched upon one, which was as private, indeed, as my heart could wish for: it was a little damp piece of ground, in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, i almost lost myself once before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part of the island. here i found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so surrounded with woods, that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least, it did not want near so much labour to make it so as the other pieces of ground i had worked so hard at. i immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than a month's time i had so fenced it round, that my flock, or herd, call it which you please, who were not so wild now as at first they might be supposed to be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any farther delay, i removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece; and when they were there, i continued to perfect the fence, till i had made it as secure as the other; which, however, i did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by a great deal. all this labour i was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on the account of the print of a man's foot which i had seen; for, as yet, i never saw any human creature come near the island; and i had now lived two years under this uneasiness, which, indeed, made my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may be well 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 the more 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 a repentance on a sick bed; 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 to the west point of the island than i had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, i thought i saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. i had found a perspective-glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which i saved out of our ship, but i had it not about me; and this was so remote, that i could not tell what to make of it, though i looked at it till my eyes were not able to hold to look any longer: whether it was a boat or not, i do not know, but as i descended from the hill i could see no more of it; so i gave it over; only i resolved to go no more out without a perspective-glass in my pocket. when i was come down the hill to the end of the island, where, indeed, i had never been before, i was presently convinced that the seeing the print of a man's foot was not such a strange thing in the island as i imagined: and, but that it was a special providence that i was cast upon the side of the island where the savages never came, i should easily have known that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island for harbour: likewise, as they often met and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken any prisoners, would bring them over to this shore, where, according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which hereafter. when i was come down the hill to the shore, as i said above, being the s.w. point of the island, i was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and particularly, i observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where i supposed the savage wretches had 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 notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while: all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature, which, though i had heard of it 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 uncommon violence, i was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay in the place a moment; so i got me up the hill again with all the speed i could, and walked on towards my own habitation. when i came a little out of that part of the island, i stood still awhile, as amazed, and then recovering myself, i looked up with the utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave god thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where i was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though i had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it, that i had still more to give thanks for than to complain of: and this, above all, that i had, even in this 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, any thing here; and having often, no doubt, been up in the covered, woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. i knew i had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of human creature there before; and i might be eighteen years 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 as fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil himself. i did not so much as go to look after my boat 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 it. it was therefore a very good providence to me that i had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats, and that i had no need to hunt any more about the woods, or shoot at them; and if i did catch any of them after this, it was by traps and snares, as i had done before: so that for two years after this, i believe i never fired my gun once off, though i never went out without it; and, which was more, as i had saved three pistols out of the ship, i always carried them out with me, or at least two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt. i also furbished up one of the great cutlasses that i had out of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it on also; so that i was now a most formidable fellow to look at when i went abroad, if you add to the former description of myself, the particular of two pistols, and a great broad-sword hanging at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard. things going on thus, as i have said, for some time, i seemed, excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living. all these things tended to show 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 were 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 only 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, with all these things wanting, i verily believe, had not the frights and terrors i was in about the savages intervened, i had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too; for i seldom gave any thing over without accomplishing it, when once i had it in my head to begin it. but my invention now ran quite another way; for, night and day, i could think of nothing but how i might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody entertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they should bring hither to destroy. it would take up a larger volume than this whole work is intended to be, to set down all the contrivances i hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or at least frightening them so as to prevent their coming hither any more: but all this 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 thought of digging a hole under the place where they made their fire, and putting 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 unwilling to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of one barrel, so neither could i be sure of its going off at any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than just blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place: so i laid it aside; and then proposed that i would place myself in ambush in some convenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and, in the middle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when i should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my sword, i made no doubt but that if there were twenty i should kill them all. 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: but while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge, and 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, abetted 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 some thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely and there i might sit and observe all their bloody doings, and take my full aim at their heads, when they were so close together as that it would be next to impossible that i should miss my shot, or that i could fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot. in this place, then, i resolved to fix my design; and, accordingly, i prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. the two muskets i loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pistol-bullets; and the fowling-piece i loaded with near a handful of swan-shot, of the largest size: i also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each; and in this posture, well provided with ammunition for a second and third charge, i prepared myself for my expedition. after i had thus laid the scheme of my design, and, in my 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 towards it: but i began to tire of this hard duty, after i had, for two or three months, constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not, in all that time, been the least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach every way. as long as i kept my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also i kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all 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 the people of that 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 by heaven, and actuated 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 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 upon one another, i debated this very often with myself, thus: how do i know what god himself judges in this particular case? it is certain these people do not commit this as a crime; it is not against their own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching them; they do not know it to be an offence, and then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. they think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war, than we do to kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh, than we do to eat mutton. when i 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 although the usage they gave 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 i was yet out of their power, and they really had 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, 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 in europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to god or man; and 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 produce 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 my design, and to conclude i had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack the savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless they first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, to prevent; but that if i were discovered and attacked by them, i knew my duty. on the other hand, i argued with myself, that this really was the way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless i was sure to kill every one that not only should be on shore at that time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped to tell their country-people what had happened, they would come over again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and i should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, at present, i had no manner of occasion for. upon the whole, i concluded, that neither in principle 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 least signal to them to guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island, i mean of human shape. religion joined in with this prudential resolution; and i was convinced now, many ways, that i was perfectly out of my duty when i was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures, i mean innocent as to me. as to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, i had nothing to do with them; they were national, and i ought to leave them to the justice of god, who is the governor of nations, and knows how, by national punishments, to make a just retribution for national offences, and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a public manner, by such ways as best please him. this appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a greater satisfaction to me than that i had not been suffered to do a thing which i now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder, if i had committed it; 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 provoked, by any advantage which might present itself, to fall upon them: only this i did, i went and removed my boat, which i had on the other side of 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 whatever. with my boat i carried away every thing that i had left there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going thither, viz. a mast and sail which i had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be called either anchor or grapnel; 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 any thing 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. indeed, i looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been if i had chopped upon them and been discovered before that, when, naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often only with small shot, i walked every where, peeping and peering about the island to see what i could get; what a surprise should i have been in, if, when i discovered the print of a man's 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 should not only have been unable 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 would be very melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while; but i resolved it all, at last, into thankfulness to that providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and had kept from me those mischiefs which i could have no way been the agent in delivering myself from, because i had not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible. this renewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in former time, when first i began to see the merciful dispositions of heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a quandary, (as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this 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 over-rule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear, that had we gone that way which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. upon these, and many like reflections, i afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that whenever i found those secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doing any thing that presented, or going this way or that way, i never failed to obey the secret dictate; though i knew no other reason for it than that such a pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. i could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very likely i might have taken notice of, if i had seen with the same eyes then that i see 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 a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which i shall have occasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place. i believe the reader of this will not think it strange if i confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers i lived in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the contrivances that i had laid for my future accommodations and 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 might 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. for this reason i removed that part of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, &c. into my new apartment in the woods; where, after i had been some time, i found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, i dare say, no savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat. the mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where by mere accident (i would say, if i did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to providence,) i was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before i go on, i must observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus: i was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as i said before; and yet i could not live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so i contrived to burn some wood here, as i had seen done in england, under turf, till it became chark, or dry coal: and then putting the fire out, i preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services for which fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. but this is by the by:--while i was cutting down some wood here, i perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brush-wood, or under-wood, there was a kind of hollow place: i was curious to look in 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 that 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 to think, that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone; and that i might well think there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself. upon this, plucking up my courage, i took up a 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 frightened 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 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 every where, and was able to protect me, upon this i stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, i saw lying on the ground a most 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 frightened me, so he would certainly fright any of the savages, if any one of them should be so hardy as to come in there while he had any life in him. i was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when i found the cave was but very small, that is to say, it might be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor square, no hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mere nature. i observed also that there was a place at the farther side of it that went in further, but was so low that it required me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into it, and whither it went i knew not: so having no candle, i gave it over for that time; but resolved to come again the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, which i had made of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wild fire in the pan. accordingly, the next day i came provided with six large candles of my own making (for i made very good candles now of goats' tallow, but was hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, and sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles;) and going into this low place, i was obliged to creep upon all fours, as i have said, almost ten yards; which, by the way, i thought was a venture bold enough, considering that i knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyond it. when i had got through the strait, i found the roof rose higher up, i believe near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen in the island, i dare say, as it was, to look round the sides and roof of this vault or cave; the wall reflected an hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles. what it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious stones, or gold, which i rather supposed it to be, i knew not. the place i was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the floor was dry and level, and had a sort of a 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 all 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 happened to open the barrel of powder, which i took up out of the sea, and which had been wet; and i found that the water had penetrated about three or four inches into the powder on every side, which, caking, and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a kernel in the shell; so that i had near sixty pounds of very good powder in the centre of the cask: this was a very 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, that 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 offence to my nose. i was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island; and was so naturalized to the place, and 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 a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before: as, first, i had taught my pol, as i noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; for i believe no bird ever spoke plainer; and he lived with me no less than six and twenty years: how long he might have lived afterwards i know not, though i know they have a notion in the brazils that they live a hundred years. my dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old age. as for my cats, they multiplied, as i have observed, to that degree, that i was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring me and all i had; but, at length, when the two old ones i brought with me were gone, and after some time continually driving them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which i kept tame, and whose young, when they had any, i always drowned; and these were part of my family. besides these, i always kept two or three household kids about me, whom i taught to feed out of my hand; and i had two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call 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 sea-fowls, whose names i knew not, that 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 i could have been secured from the dread of the savages. but it was otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my story, to make this just observation from it, viz. how frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are, fallen into, 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 affliction 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, and not on the other side; but, to my great affliction, it was on my side of the island. i was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short within my grove, not daring to go out, lest i might be surprised, and yet i had no more peace within, from the apprehensions i had that if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing or cut, or any of my works and improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were people in the place, and would then never give over till they had found me out. in this 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 my cannon, as i called them, that is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously to commend myself to the divine protection, and earnestly to pray to god to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. i continued in this posture about two hours; and began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for i had no spies to send out. after sitting awhile longer, and musing what i should do in this, 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 were no less than nine naked savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being extremely 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 tell. 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 of the island, and so near me too; but when i considered their coming must be always with the current of the ebb, i began, afterwards, to be 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) away. i should have observed, that for an hour or more before they went off, they went a dancing; and i could easily discern their postures and gestures by my glass. i could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not the least covering upon them; but whether they were men or women, i could not distinguish. as soon as i saw them shipped and gone, i took two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by my side, without a scabbard, and with all the speed i was able to make, went away to the hill where i had discovered the first appearance of all; and as soon as i got thither, which was not in 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 at 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 as, going down to the shore, i could see the marks of horror, which the dismal work they had been about had left behind it, viz. the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh, of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and sport. i was so filled with indignation at the sight, that i now began to premeditate the destruction of the next that i saw there, let them be whom or how many soever. it seemed evident to me that the visits which they made thus to this island were 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; nor 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 of their coming upon me by surprise: from whence i observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation, or those apprehensions. during all this time i was in the murdering humour, and took up most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in 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 ten or a dozen, i was still the next day, or week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even _ad infinitum_, till i should be at length no less a murderer than they were in being man-eaters, and perhaps much more so. i spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that i should, one day or other, fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if i did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatest care and caution imaginable. and now i found, to my great comfort, how happy it was that i had provided 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 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 see them: but in the month of may, as near as i could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, i had a very strange encounter with them; of which in its place. the perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen months' interval, was very great; i slept unquiet, dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night: in the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind; and in the night, i dreamed often of killing the savages, and of the reasons why i might justify the doing of it. but, to wave all this for a while.--it was in 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 on the sixteenth of may that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was after it. i knew not what was the particular occasion of it, but as i was reading in the bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present condition, i was surprised with the noise of a gun, as i thought, fired at sea. this was, to be sure, a surprise quite of a 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 that 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 guns for signals of distress, and to obtain help. i had the presence of mind, at that minute, to think, that though i could not help them, it might be they might help me: so i brought together all the dry wood i could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, i set it on fire upon the hill. the wood was dry, and blazed freely; and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out, 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 daybreak; and when it was broad day, and the air cleared up, i saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail or a hull i could not distinguish, no, not with my glass; the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea. i looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so i presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, i took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south side of the island, to the rocks 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, 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.n.e. had they seen the island, as i must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as i thought, have endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as i imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts: first, i imagined that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and endeavoured 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, 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 times i fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away by the current that i had been formerly in, were carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perishing; and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another. as all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition i was in, i could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity them; which had still this good effect on my side, that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to god, who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships' companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared but mine. i learned here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence of god casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own. such certainly was the case of these men, of whom i could not so much as 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 sign 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: "o that there had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul, saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me, that i might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with!" in all the time of my solitary life, i never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it. there are some secret moving springs in the affections, which, when they are set a going by some object in view, or, 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. i believe i repeated the words, "o that it had been but one!" a thousand times; and my desires were so moved by it, that when i spoke the words my hands would clinch together, and my fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that if i had had any soft thing in my hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would strike together, and set against one another so strong, that for some time i could not part them again. let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and manner of them: all i can say to them is, to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me, when i found it, though i knew not from whence it proceeded: 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, forbade 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 no clothes on 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 pockets but two pieces-of-eight and a tobacco-pipe;--the last was to me of ten times more value than the first. it was now calm, and i had a great mind to venture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but i might find something on board that might be useful to me: but that did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose life i might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart, that i could not be quiet night or day, but i must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to god's providence, i thought the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and that i should be wanting to myself if i did not go. under the power of this impression, i hastened back to my castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for i had still a great deal of that left,) and a basket of raisins: and thus, loading myself with every thing necessary, i went down to my boat, got the water out of her, put her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again for more. my second cargo was a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot of fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese: all which, with great labour and sweat, i carried to my boat; and praying to god to direct my voyage, i put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe along the shore, came at last to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side. 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 great 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 inevitably 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 upon a 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 impracticable for so many hours. upon this, presently it occurred to me, that i should go up to the highest piece of ground i could find, and observe, if i could how the sets of the tide, or currents, lay when the flood came in, that i might judge whether, if i was driven one way out, i might not expect to be driven another way home, with the same rapidness of the currents. this thought was no sooner in my head than i cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently 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 side of the island in my return, and i should do well enough. encouraged with this observation, i resolved, the next morning, to set out with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in my canoe, under the great watch-coat i mentioned, i launched out. i first made 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 current on the south side had done before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, i went at a great rate directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours i came up to it. it was a dismal sight to look at: the ship, which, by its building, was spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of her were beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. when i came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried; and as soon as i called him, jumped into the sea to come to me; i took him into the boat, but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst. i gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured 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 cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. i concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water. besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor any goods, that i could see, but what were spoiled by the water. there were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy i knew not, which lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, i could see; but they were too big to meddle with. i saw several chests, which i believed belonged to some of the seamen; and i got two of them into the boat, without examining what was in them. had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the 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 from the course she steered, she must have been bound from buenos ayres, or the rio de la plata, in the south part of america, beyond the brazils, to the havanna, in the gulf of mexico, and so perhaps to spain. she had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to any body; and what became of her crew, 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 the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, i had no occasion for them, so i left them, but took the powder-horn. i took a fireshovel 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 harbour what i had got in my new cave, and not 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 the top, that the salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled. i found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. besides this, when i came to the till in the chest, i found there three great bags of pieces-of-eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold; i suppose they might all weigh near a pound. in the other chest were some clothes, but of little value; but, by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's mate; though there was no powder in it, except 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 stockings, which were things i greatly wanted, but had none on my feet for many years. i had indeed got two pair of shoes now, which i took off the feet of the two drowned men whom i saw in the wreck, and i found two pair more in one of the chests, which were very welcome to me; but they were not like our english shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we call pumps than shoes. i found in this seaman's chest about fifty pieces-of-eight in rials, but no gold: i suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some officer. well, however, i lugged this money home to my cave, and laid it up, as i had done that before which i brought from our own ship: but it was a great pity, as i said, that the other part of this ship had not come to my share; for i am satisfied i might have loaded my canoe several times over with money; and, thought i, if i ever escape to england, it might lie here safe enough till i may come again and fetch it. having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them, i went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her old harbour, where i laid her up, and made the best of my way to my old habitation, where i found every thing safe and quiet. i began now to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and, for a while, i lived easy enough, only that i was more vigilant than i used to be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and 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 it was born to make my body miserable, was all these 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 any where, i knew not whither. i have been, in all my circumstances, a _memento_ to those who are touched with the general plague of mankind, whence, for aught i know, one half of their miseries flow; i mean that of not being satisfied with the station wherein god and nature hath 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 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 remained, i might have been worth a hundred thousand moidores: and what business had i to leave a settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to guinea to fetch negroes, when patience and time would have so increased our stock at home, that we could have bought them at our own door from those whose business it was to fetch them? and though it had cost us something more, yet the difference of that price was by no means worth saving at so great a hazard. but as this is usually the fate of young heads, so reflection upon the folly of it is as commonly the exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought experience of time: so it was with me now; and yet so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that i could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the means and possibility of my escape from this place: and that i may, with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how, and upon what foundation i acted. i am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as usual, and my condition restored to what it was before; i had more wealth, indeed, than i had before, but was not at all the richer; for i had no more use for it than the indians of peru had before the spaniards came there. it was one of the nights in the rainy season in march, the four and twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island of solitude, i was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake; very well in health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, 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 impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great thoroughfare 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 that 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 in, ever since i had seen the print of a foot in the sand; not that i did not believe the savages had frequented the island even all the while, and might have been several hundreds of them at times on shore there; but i had never known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions about it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the same, and i was as happy in not knowing my danger as if i had never really been exposed to it. this furnished my thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and particularly this one: how infinitely good that providence is, which has provided, in its government of 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 the brow of a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been between me and the worst kind of destruction, viz. that of falling into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with the same view as i would on a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more a crime to kill and devour me, than i did of a pigeon or curlew. i would unjustly slander myself, if i should say i was not sincerely thankful to my great preserver, to whose singular protection i acknowledged, with great humility, 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 taken 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 as able to go over thither as they were to come to me? i never so much as troubled myself to consider what i should do with myself when i went thither; what would become of me, if i fell into the hands of the savages; or how i should escape from them, if they attacked me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and not be attacked by some or other of them, without any possibility of delivering myself; and if i should not fall into their hands, what i should do for provision, or whither i should bend my course: none of these thoughts, i say, so much as came in my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the main land. i looked upon my present condition as the most miserable that could possibly be; that i was not able to throw myself into any thing, but death, that could be called worse; and if i reached the shore of the main, i might perhaps meet with relief, or i might coast along, as i did on the african shore, till i came to some inhabited country, and where i might find some relief; and after all, perhaps, i might fall in with some christian ship that might take me in; and if the worst came to the worst, i could but die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once. pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made desperate, as it were, by the long continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments i had met in the wreck i had been on board of, and where i had been so near obtaining what i so earnestly longed for, viz. somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from them of the place where i was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. i was agitated wholly by these thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation to providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of heaven, seemed to be suspended; and i had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any thing but to the project of a voyage to the main; which came upon me with 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 if i had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervour of my mind about it, nature, as if i had been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. one would have thought i should have dreamed of it, but i did not, nor of any thing relating to it: out 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 others 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 him my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant: and that as soon as i had got this man, i said to myself, "now i may certainly venture to the main land; for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what places to venture into, and what to shun." i waked with this thought; and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointments which i felt upon coming to myself, and finding that it was no more than a dream, were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very great dejection of spirits. upon this, however, i made this conclusion; that my only way to go about to attempt 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 hither to kill. but these thoughts still 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 myself; 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 for 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 was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed was very difficult 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 what would be. with these resolutions in my thoughts, i set myself upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, that i was heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that i waited; and for great part of that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the island, almost every day, to look 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) 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 any time 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 a half after i entertained these notions (and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an occasion to put them into 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 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 any thing had presented. having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, i set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. here i observed, by the help of my perspective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed. how they had cooked it 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 fall, 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, and unbound, 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 frightened, i must acknowledge, when i perceived him 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 in the first part of my story, where 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 others, but went no farther, and soon after went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very well for him in the end. 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 the time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant, and that i was called plainly by providence to save this poor creature's life. i immediately ran down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both 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, placed 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 frightened at me as at them; but i beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in the mean time, i slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the 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 him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and i advanced apace 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 frightened 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 still to fly, than to come on. i hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way; then stopped again, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and i could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. i beckoned to him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that i could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving his life. i smiled at him, and looked 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 for ever. i took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him all i could. but there was more work to do yet; for i perceived the savage whom i knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself: so i pointed to him, and showed him the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me, and though i could not understand them, yet i thought they were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man's voice that i had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. but there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and i perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when i saw that, i presented my other piece at the man, as if i would shoot him: upon this my savage, for so i call him now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side, which i did. he no sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and, at one blow, cut off his head so 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, aye, and arms, and that at one blow too. when he had done this, he comes laughing to me, in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again, and with abundance of gestures, which i did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just before me. but that which astonished him most, was to know how i 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, turning him first on one side, then on the other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, which, it seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. he took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so i turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him that more might come after them. upon this, he made signs 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 to him again 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 by the other also: 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 and lie down to sleep, showing him a place where i had laid some rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which i used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay 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 reckon, 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 colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not 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 colour, 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 as white as ivory. after he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he awoke again, and came 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 a great 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 so 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 let 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 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 their canoes; so that it was plain they were gone, and had left their two comrades behind them, without any search after them. but i was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, i took my man friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which i found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and i two for myself; and away we marched to the place where these creatures had been; for i had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence of them. when i came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the spectacle; indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though friday made nothing of it. the place was covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, and 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 over their enemies. i saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and friday, by his signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between them and their next king, whose subject, it seems, he had been one of, and that they had taken a great number of prisoners; all which were carried to several places by those who had taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither. i caused friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them together in 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 he 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, which i found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very well: and then i made him a jerkin of goat's-skin, as well as my skill would allow (for i was now grown a tolerable good tailor;) and i gave him a cap, which i made of hare's-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 clothes at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him; and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, he took to them at length 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. as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, i made a formal framed door case, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the door to open in 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 opened at all, but would have fallen down, and make a great noise: as to weapons, i took them all into 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 souls 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 given to us; and that when he pleases to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed, than we are. this made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we make of all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the spirit of god, and by the knowledge of his word added to our understanding; and why it has pleased god to hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who, if i might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did. from hence, i sometimes was led too far, to invade the sovereignty of providence, and as it were arraign the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from both; but i shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did not know by what light and law these should be condemned; but that as god was necessarily, and, by the nature of his being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be, but 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, secondly, that still, as we all are the clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to him, "why hast thou formed me thus?" but to return to my new companion:--i was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him every thing that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when i spoke: and he was the aptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry, so 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. 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 where 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 it home and dress it; but as i was going, i saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. i catched hold of friday;--hold, said i; stand still; and made signs to him not to stir: immediately i presented my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. the poor creature, who had, at a distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, nor could imagine, how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed, that i thought he would have sunk down. he did not see the kid i shot at, or perceive i had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat, to feel whether 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 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. by and by, i saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sitting upon a tree, within shot; so, to let friday understand a little what i would do, i called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though i thought it had been a hawk; i say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see i would make it fall, i made him understand that i would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly, i fired, and bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. he stood like one frightened again, notwithstanding all i had said to him; and i found he was the more amazed, because he did not see me put any thing into the gun, but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any thing near or far off; and the astonishment this created in him was such, as could not wear off for a long time; and i believe, if i would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun. as for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days after; but he would speak to it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as i 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 staid some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell: however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as i had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, i took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that i might be ready for any other mark that might present; but nothing more offered at that time: so i brought home the kid, and the same evening i took the skin off, and cut it out as well as i could; and having a pot fit for that purpose, i boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth. after i had begun to eat some, i gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was strangest to him, was to see me eat salt with it. he made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it: on the other hand, i took some meat into my mouth without salt, and i pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt; but it would not do; he would never care for salt with his meat or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, and then but a very little. having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, i was resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid: this i did, by hanging it before the fire on 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, as well as he could, 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 the fence in the same manner as before, in which friday worked not only very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully: and i told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that i might have enough for him and myself too. he appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought i had much more labour upon me on his account, than i had for myself; and that he would work the harder for me, if i would tell him what to do. this was the pleasantest year of all the life i led in this place; friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost every thing i had occasion to call for, and of every place i had to send him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, i began now to have some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, i had very little occasion for before, that is to say, about speech. 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 any thing before. i had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own country again; and having taught him english so well that he could answer me almost any question, 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: _master_. you always fight the better; how came you to be taken prisoner then, friday? _friday_. my nation beat much for all that. _master_. how beat? if your nation beat them, how came you to be taken? _friday_. they more many than my nation in the place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand. _master_. but why did not your side recover you from the hands of your enemies then? _friday_. they run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time. _master_. well, friday, and what does your nation do with the men they take? do they carry them away and eat them, as these did? _friday_. yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up. _master_. where do they carry them? _friday_. go to other place, where they think. _master_. do they come hither? _friday_. yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place. _master_. have you been here with them? _friday_. yes, i have been here (points to the n.w. 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 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 in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over. i have told this passage, because it introduces what follows; that after i had this discourse with him, i asked him how far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. he told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that, after a little way out to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the morning, the other in the 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 draft and reflux of the mighty river oroonoko, in the mouth or gulf of which river, as i found afterwards, our island lay; and that this land which i perceived to the w. and n.w. was the great island trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. i asked friday a 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 west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which i mentioned before; and that they had killed much mans, that was his word: by all which i understood, he meant the spaniards, whose cruelties in america had been spread over the whole country, and were remembered by all the nations, from father to son. i inquired if he could tell me how i might go from this island and get among those white men; he told me, yes, yes, you may go in two canoe. i could not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what he meant by two canoe; till, at last, with great difficulty, i found he meant it must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. this part of friday's discourse began to relish with me very well; and from this time i entertained some hopes that, one time or 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. during the long time that friday had now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, i was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind: particularly i asked him one time, who made him? the poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought i had asked him who was his father: but i took it up by another handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills and woods? he told me, it was one old benamuckee, that lived beyond all; he could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon or the stars. i asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did not all things worship him? he looked very grave, and with a perfect look of innocence said, all things say o to him. i asked him if the people who die in his country went away any where? he said, yes; they all went to benamuckee: then i asked him whether these they eat up went thither too? he said, yes. from these things i began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true god: i told him that the great maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven; that he governed the world by the same power and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, and could do every thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us; and thus, by degrees, i opened his eyes. he listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion of jesus christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to god, and his being able to hear us, even in heaven. he told me one day, that if our god could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater god than their benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to him. i asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him? he said, no; they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men, whom he called their oowokakee; that is, as i made him explain it to me, their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say o (so he called saying prayers,) and then came back, and told them what benamuckee said. by this i observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, is not only to be found in the roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. i endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man friday; and told him, that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say 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 spake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit: and then i entered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original of him, his rebellion against god, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of god, and as god, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access to our passions and to our affections, and to adapt his snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice. i found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the devil, as it was about the being of a god: nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great first cause, and over-ruling, governing power, a secret, directing providence, and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us, and the like; but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too: and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and innocent, that i scarce knew what to say to him. i had been talking a great deal to him of the power of god, his omnipotence, his 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, "if god much stronger, much might as the devil, why god no kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked?" i was strangely surprised at this question; and, after all, though i was now an old man, yet i was but a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficulties; and, at first, i could not tell what to say; so i pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was too earnest for an answer, to forget his question, so that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. by this time i had recovered myself a little, and i said, "god will at last punish him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire." this did not satisfy friday; but he returns upon me, repeating my words, "_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 me, when we do wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and be pardoned." he mused some time on 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 but divine revelation can form the knowledge of jesus christ, and of redemption purchased for us, of a mediator of the new covenant, and of an intercessor at the footstool of god's throne; i say, nothing but a revelation from heaven can form these in the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our lord and saviour jesus christ, i mean the word of god, and the spirit of god, promised for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of god, and the means of salvation. i therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending him for something a good way off, i seriously prayed to god that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by his spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to 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 the redemption of man by the saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from heaven, viz. of repentance towards god, and faith in our blessed lord jesus. i then explained to him as well as i could; why our blessed redeemer took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no share in the redemption; that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of israel, and the like. i had, god knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods i took for this poor creature's instruction, and must 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 sat 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 to look up to heaven myself, and to seek to the hand that had brought me here, but was now to be made an instrument, under providence, to save the life, and, for aught i knew, the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the christian doctrine, that he might know christ jesus, in whom is life eternal; i say, when i reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and i frequently rejoiced that ever i was brought to this place, which i had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me. i continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and the conversation which employed the hours between friday and me was such, as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can he formed in a sublunary state. this savage was now a good christian, a much better than i; though i have reason to hope, and bless god for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. we had here the word of god to read, and no farther off from his spirit to instruct, than if we had been in england. i always applied myself, in reading the scriptures, to let him know, as well as i could, the meaning of what i read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me, as i said before, a much better scholar in the scripture-knowledge than i should ever have been by my own mere private reading. another thing i cannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retired part of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of god; and of the doctrine of salvation by christ jesus, is so plainly laid down in the word of god, so easy to be received and understood, that, as the bare reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all god's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor, i mean human; so the same plain instruction 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, wrangling, strife, and contention which have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and, for aught i can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the world. we had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the word of god; and we had, blessed be god, comfortable views of the spirit of god teaching and instructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. and i cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of 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 pretty fluently, though in broken english, to me, i acquainted him with my own history, or at least so much of it as related to my coming to this place; how i had lived here, 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, 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 farther into it, i understood by him, that a boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where he lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. i 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 their 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 were 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 the sight of my island, as i now called it; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved 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 on. i asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them? he said, "no, they make brother with them;" that is, as i understood him, a truce; and then he added, "they no eat mans but when make the war 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 upon the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as i have said, i had, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of america, friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the main land, and, in a kind of surprise, fells 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. this observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so easy about my new man friday as i was before; and i made no doubt but that if friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me, and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war. but i wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which i was very sorry 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 every thing 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, no; they no kill me, they willing love learn." he meant by this, they would be willing to learn. he added, they learned much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. then i asked him if he would go back to them. he smiled at that, and told me that he could not swim so far. i told him, i would make a canoe for him. he told me he would go, if i would go with him. "i go!" says i, "why, they will eat me if i come there."--"no, no," says he, "me make they no eat you; me make they much love you," he meant, he would tell them how i had killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. then he told me, as well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore there in distress. from this time, i confess i had a mind to venture over, and see if i could possibly join with those bearded men, who, i made no doubt, were spaniards and 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 water,) i brought it out, showed it him, and we both went into it. i found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and would make it go almost as swift again as i could. so when he was in, i said to him, "well, now, friday, shall we go to your nation?" he looked very dull at my saying so; which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too small to go so far: i then told him i had a bigger; so the next day i went to the place where the first boat lay which i had made, but which i could not get into the water. he said that was big enough: but then, as i had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, that, it was in a manner rotten. friday told me such a boat would do very well, and would carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread;" that was his way of talking. upon the whole, i was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent, that i told him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. he answered not one word, but looked very grave and sad. i asked him what was the matter with him? he asked me again, "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!" says he, repeating the words several times, "why send friday home away to my nation?"--"why," says i, "friday, did not you say you wished you were there?"--"yes, yes," says he, "wish be both there; no wish friday there, no master there." in a word, he would not think of going there without me. "i go there, friday!" says i, "what shall i do there?" he returned very quick upon me at this: "you do great deal much good," says he; "you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know god, pray god, and live new life."--"alas! friday," says i, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; i am but an ignorant man myself."--"yes, yes," says he, "you teachee me good, you teachee them good."--"no, no, 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, 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, or canoes, but even of good large vessels: but the main thing i looked at was, to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake i committed at first. at last, friday pitched upon a tree; for 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 colour and smell. friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but i showed him how to cut it with tools; which, after i had showed him how to use, he did very handily: and in about a month's hard labour we finished it, and made it very handsome; especially when, with our axes, which i showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. after this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers into the water; but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great 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, "we venture over in her very well, though great blow wind." however, i had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and a sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. as to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so i pitched upon a straight young cedar tree, which i found near the place, and which there were great plenty of in the island: and i set friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and order it. but as to the sail, that was my particular care. i knew i had old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as i had had them now six and twenty years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not imagining that i should ever have this kind of use for them, i did not doubt but they were all rotten, and, indeed, most of them were so. however, i found two pieces, which appeared pretty good, and with these i went to work; and with a great deal of pains, and awkward stitching, you may be sure, for want of needles, i, at length, made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in england a shoulder of mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships' long-boats sail with, and such as i best knew how to manage, as it was such a one i had to the boat in which i made my escape from barbary, as related in the first part of my story. i was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for i finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail, or fore-sail, to it, to assist, if we should turn to windward; and, which was more than all, i fixed a rudder to the stern of her to steer with. 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 labour as making the boat. after all this was done, 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 gibbed, 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 seasons, 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. i went on, however, with my husbandry; digging, planting, and fencing, as usual. i gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before. the rainy season was, in the mean time, upon me, when i kept more within doors than at other times. we 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 as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of november and december, in which i designed to make my adventure. when the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather, i was preparing daily for the voyage: and the first thing i did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage: and intended, in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. i 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 this way of speaking, i concluded there were six; but, on inquiry, i found it was but three. "well, friday," says i, "do not be frightened." so i heartened him up as well as i could: however, i saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so, that i scarce knew what to do with him. i comforted him as well as i could, and told him i was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him. "but," says i, "friday, we must resolve to fight them. can you fight, friday!"--"me shoot," says he; but there come many great number."--no matter for that," said i, again; "our guns will fright them that we do not kill." so i asked him whether, if i resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as i bid him. he said, "me die, when you bid die, master." so i went and fetched 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 drank it, i made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, and loaded 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 almost close 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 had now got 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 and divided the arms which i had charged, as before, between us: i gave friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and i took one pistol, and the other three guns, 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 bullets; and, as to orders, i charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do any thing, till i bid him; and, in the mean time, not to speak a word. in this posture, i fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood, so that i might come within shot of them before i should be discovered, which i had seen, by my glass, it was easy to do. while i was making this march, my former thoughts returning, i began to abate my resolution: i 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 mean time, 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 myself. 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 weariness and silence, friday following close at my heels, i marched till i came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to them, only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them. here i called softly to friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the wood, i bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they were doing. he did so; and came immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which, he said, they would kill next, and which fired the very soul within me. he told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. i was filled with horror at the very naming the white-bearded man; and, going to the tree, i saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that he was an european, and had clothes on. there was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where i was, which, by going a little way about, i saw i might come at undiscovered, and that then i should be within half a 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 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 stooping down to untie the bands at his feet. i turned to friday--"now, friday," said i, "do as i bid thee." friday said he would. "then, friday," says i, "do exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing." so i set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the ground, and friday did the like by his; and with the other musket i took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do the like: then asking him if he was ready, he said, "yes." "then 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 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 saw 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 loaden with what i called swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop, but so many were wounded, that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them miserably wounded, 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 loaden, "follow me;" which he did with a great deal of courage; upon which i rushed out of the wood, and showed myself, and friday close at my foot. as soon as i perceived they saw me, i shouted as loud as i could, and bade friday do so too; and running as fast as i could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaded with arms as i was, i made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as i said, lying upon, the beach, or shore, between the place where they sat and the sea. the two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way. i turned to friday, and bade him step forwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards, to be nearer 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 vigour 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 frightened with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for mere amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot: and that was the case of those five that friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright. i kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to keep my charge ready, because i had given the spaniard my pistol and sword: so i called to friday, and bade-him run up to the tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that had been discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him my musket, i sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted. while i was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement between the spaniard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same-like weapon that was to have killed him before, if i had not prevented it. the spaniard, who was as bold and brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand; when the spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before i, who was running to help him, could come near him. friday being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches, with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched those three, who, as i said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with: and the spaniard coming to me for a gun, i gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but, as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where friday pursued them, and killed one of them, but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam, with all his might, off to those two who were left in the canoe, which three in the canoe, with one wounded, that we knew not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands of one and twenty; the account of the whole is as follows: three killed at our first shot from the tree; two killed at the next shot; two killed by friday in the boat; two killed by friday of those at first wounded; one killed by friday in the wood; three killed by the spaniard; four killed, being found dropped here and there, of their wounds, or killed by friday in his chase of them; four escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.--twenty-one in all. those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot, and though friday made two or three shots at them, i did not find that he hit any of them. friday would fain have had me take one of their canoes, and pursue them; and, indeed, i was very anxious about their escape, lest carrying the news home to their people, they should come back perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes, and devour us by mere multitude; so i consented to pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes, i jumped in, and bade friday follow me; but when i was in the canoe, i was surprised to find another poor creature lie there, bound hand and foot, as the spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what was the matter; for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but little life in him. i immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had bound him with, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that he was only unbound in order to be killed. when friday came to him, i bade him speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance; and, pulling out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram; which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. but when friday came to hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one to tears to have seen how friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung; then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head; and then sung and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. it was a good while before i could make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but when he came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father. it is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his father, and of his being delivered from death; nor, indeed, can i describe half the extravagances of his affection after this; for he went into the boat, and out of the boat, a great many times: when he went in to him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's head close to his bosom for many minutes together, to nourish it; then he took his arms and ancles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and i, perceiving what the case was, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a great deal of good. this affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other savages, who were now got almost out of sight; and it was happy for us that we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and before they could be got a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all night, and that from the north-west, which was against them, that i could not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached their own coast. but, to return to friday; he was so busy about his father, that i could not find in my heart to take him off for some time: but after i thought he could leave him a little, i called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme; then i asked him if he had given his father any bread. he shook his head, and said, "none; ugly dog eat all up self," i then gave him a cake of bread, out of a little pouch i carried on purpose; i also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to his father. i had in my pocket two or three bunches of raisins, so i gave him a handful of them for his father. he had no sooner given his father these raisins, but i saw him come out of the boat, and run away, as if he had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate; for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that ever i saw: i say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though i called, and hallooed out too, after him, it was all one, away he went; and in a quarter of an hour i saw him come back again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, i found his pace slacker, because he had something in his hand. when he came up to me, i found he had been quite home for an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water, and that he had two more cakes or loaves of bread; the bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father; however, as i was very thirsty too, i took, a little sup of it. the water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits i had given him, for he was just fainting with thirst. when his father had drank, i called to him to know, if there was any water left: he said, "yes;" and i bade him give it to the poor spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and i sent one of the cakes, that friday brought, to the spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with. when i saw that, upon friday's coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began to eat, i went to him and gave him a handful of raisins: he looked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but was really not able, his ancles were so swelled and so painful to him; so i bade him sit still, and caused friday to rub his ancles, and bathe them with rum, as he had done his father's. i observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turn his head about, to see if his father was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and at last he found he was not to be seen; at which he started up, and, without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went: but when he came, he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs, so friday came back to me presently; and then i spoke to the spaniard to let friday help him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling, where i would take care of him: but friday, a lusty strong fellow, took the spaniard quite up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and then lifting him quite in, he set him close to his father; and presently stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it along the shore faster than i could walk, though the wind blew pretty hard too: so he brought them both safe into our creek, and leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch the other canoe. as he passed me, i spoke to him, and asked him whither he went. he told me, "go fetch more boat:" so away he went like the wind, for sure never man or horse ran like him; and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as i got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did; but they were neither of them able to walk, so that poor friday knew not what to do. to remedy this, i went to work in my thought, and calling to friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, i soon made a kind of a hand-barrow to lay them on, and friday and i carried them both up together upon it, between us. but when we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get them over, and i was resolved not to break it down: so i set to work again; and friday and i, in about two hours' time, made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being in the space without our outward fence, and between, that and the grove of young wood which i had planted: and here we made them two beds of such things as i had, viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it, to lie on, and another to cover them, on each bed. my island was now peopled, and i thought myself very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which i frequently made, how like a king i looked. first of all, the whole country was my own mere property, so that i had an undoubted right of dominion. secondly, my people were perfectly subjected; i was absolutely lord and lawgiver; they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion for it, for me. it was remarkable, too, i had but three subjects, and they were of three different religions: my man friday was a protestant, his father was a pagan and a cannibal, and the spaniard was a papist: however, i allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions:--but this is by the way. as soon as i had secured my two weak rescued prisoners, and given them shelter, and a place to rest them upon, i began to think of making some provision for them; and the first thing i did, i ordered friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat, out of my particular flock, to be killed; when i cut off the hinder-quarter, and chopping it into small pieces, i set friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made them a very good dish, i assure you, of flesh and broth, having put some barley and rice also into the broth: and as i cooked it without doors, for i made no fire within my inner wall, so i carried it all into the new tent, and having set a table there for them, i sat down, and eat my dinner also with them, and, as well as i could, cheered them, and encouraged them. friday was my interpreter, especially to his father, and, indeed, to the spaniard too; for the spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well. after we had dined, or rather supped, i ordered friday to take one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other fire-arms, which, for want of time, we had left upon the place of battle: and, the next day, i ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun, and would presently be offensive. i also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which i knew were pretty much, and which i could not think of doing myself; nay, i could not bear to see them, if i went that way; all which he punctually performed, and effaced the very appearance of the savages being there; so that when i went again, i could scarce know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the place. i then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new subjects: and, first, i set friday to inquire of his father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we might expect a return of them, with a power too great for us to resist. his first opinion was, that the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which blew that night they went off, but must, of necessity, be drowned, or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned, if they were cast away: but, as to what they would do, if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not; but it was his opinion, that they were so dreadfully frightened with the manner of their being attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed they would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and lightning, not by the hand of man; and that the two which appeared, viz. friday and i, were two heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to destroy them, and not men with weapons. this, he said, he knew; because he heard them all cry out so, in their language, one to another; for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill at a distance, without lifting up the hand, as was done now: and this old savage was in the right; for, as i understood since, by other hands, the savages never attempted to go over to the island afterwards, they were so terrified with the accounts given by those four men (for, it seems, they did escape the sea,) that they believed whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods. this, however, i knew not; and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard, with all my army: for, as there were now four of us, i would have ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any time. in a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of their coming wore off; and i began to take my former thoughts of a voyage to the main into consideration; being likewise assured, by friday's father, that i might depend upon good usage from their nation, on his account, if i would go. but my thoughts were a little suspended when i had a serious discourse with the spaniard, and when i understood that there were sixteen more of his countrymen and portuguese, who, having been cast away, and made their escape to that side, lived there at peace, indeed, with the savages, but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life. i asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and found they were a spanish ship, bound from the rio de la plata to the havanna, being directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back what european goods they could meet with there; that they had five portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned, when first the ship was lost, and that these escaped, through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast, where they expected to have been devoured every moment. he told me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly useless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder, but a little, which they used, at their first landing, to provide themselves some food. i asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if they had formed any design of making their escape. he said they had many consultations about it; but that having neither vessel, nor tools to build one, nor provisions of any kind, their councils always ended in tears and despair. i asked him how he thought they would receive a proposal from me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether, if they were all here, it might not be done. i told him with freedom, i feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if i put my life in their hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man, nor did men always square their dealings by the obligations they had received, so much as they did by the advantages they expected. i told him it would be very hard that i should be the instrument of their deliverance, and that they should afterwards make me their prisoner in new spain, where an englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity, or what accident soever brought him thither; and that i had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the inquisition. i added, that otherwise i was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all away, either to the brazils, southward, or to the islands, or spanish coast, northward; but that if, in requital, they should, when i had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their own people, i might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make my case worse than it was before. he answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuousness, that their condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of it, that, he believed, they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that should contribute to their deliverance; and that if i pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it and return again, and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath, that they should be absolutely under my leading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear upon the holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me, and go to such christian country as that i should agree to, and no other, and to be directed wholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed safely in such country as i intended; and that he would bring a contract from them, under their hands, for that purpose. then he told me he would first swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long as he lived, till i gave him orders; and that he would take my side to the last drop of his blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith among his countrymen. he told me they were all of them very civil, honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country; and that he was sure, if i would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me. upon these assurances, i resolved to venture to relieve them, if possible, and to send the old savage and this spaniard over to them to treat. but when we had got all things in readiness to go, the spaniard himself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it, on one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that i could not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. the case was thus: he had been with us now about a month, during which time i had let him see in what manner i had provided, with the assistance of providence, for my support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice i had laid up; which, though it was more than sufficient for myself, yet it was not sufficient, without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increased to four; but much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he said, sixteen, still alive, should come over; and, least of all, would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a voyage to any of the christian colonies of america; so he told me he thought it would be more adviseable to let him and the other two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as i could spare seed to sow, and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his countrymen, when they should come; for want might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another. "you know," says he, "the children of israel, though they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out of egypt, yet rebelled even against god himself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in the wilderness." his caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that i could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as i was satisfied with his fidelity: so we fell to digging all four of us, as well as the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed two and twenty bushels of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short, all the seed we had to spare: nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own food, for the six months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say, reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country. having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had been very great, we went freely all over the island, whenever we found occasion; and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of it out of mine. for this purpose, i marked out several trees which i thought fit for our work, and i set friday and his father to cutting them down; and then i caused the spaniard, to whom i imparted my thoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work. i showed them with what indefatigable pains i had hewed a large tree into single planks, and i caused them to do the like, till they had made about a dozen large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labour it took up, any one may imagine. at the same time, i contrived to increase my little flock of tame goats as much as i could; and, for this purpose, i made friday and the spaniard go out one day, and myself with friday the next day (for we took our turns,) and by this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added them to our flock. but, above all, the season for curing the grapes coming on, i caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, i believe, had we been at alicant, where the raisins of the sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with our bread, was a great part of our food, and was very good living too, i assure you, for it is exceeding nourishing. it was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the most plentiful increase i had seen in the island, but, however, it was enough to answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in and threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen spaniards had been on shore with me; or if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world, that is to say, any part of america. when we had thus housed and secured our magazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware, viz. great baskets, in which we kept it; and the spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this part, and often blamed me that i did not make some things for defence of this kind of work; but i saw no need of it. and now having a full supply of food for all the guests i expected, i gave the spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could do with those he had left behind them there. i gave him a strict charge not to bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the presence of himself and the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or attack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind as to send for them in order to their deliverance; but that they would stand by him, and defend him against all such attempts, and wherever they went, would be entirely under and subjected to his command; and that this should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. how they were to have done this, when i knew they had neither pen nor ink, was a question which we never asked. under these instructions, the spaniard and the old savage, the father of friday, went away in one of the canoes which they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. i gave each of them a musket, with a firelock on it, and about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasions. this was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me, in view of my deliverance, for now twenty-seven years and some days. i gave them provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves for many days, and sufficient for all the spaniards for about eight days' time; and wishing them a good voyage, i saw them go; agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at their return, by which i should know them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they came on shore. they went away with a fair gale, on the day that the moon was at full, by my account in the month of october; but as for an exact reckoning of days, after i had once lost it, i could never recover it again; nor had i kept even the number of years so punctually as to be sure i was right; though, as it proved, when i afterwards examined my account, i found i had kept a true reckoning of years. it was no less than eight days i had waited for them, when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not perhaps been heard of in history. i was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "master, master, they are come, they are come!" i jumped up, and, regardless of danger, i went out as soon as i could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; i say, regardless of danger, i went without my arms, which was not my custom to do: but i was surprised, when turning my eyes to the sea, i presently saw a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore, with a shoulder of mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also i observed presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of the island. upon this, i called friday in, and bade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. in the next place, i went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what i could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, i climbed up to the top of the hill, as i used to do when i was apprehensive of any thing, and to take my view the plainer, without being discovered. i had scarce set my foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, s.s.e. but not above a league and a half from the shore. by my observation, it appeared plainly to be an english ship, and the boat appeared to be an english long-boat. i cannot express the confusion i was in; though the joy of seeing a ship, and one that i had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as i cannot describe; but yet i had some secret doubts hung about me, i cannot tell from whence they came, bidding me keep upon my guard. in the first place, it occurred to me to consider what business an english ship could have in that part of the world, since it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the english had any traffic; and i knew there had been no storms to drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they were really english, it was most probable that they were here upon no good design; and that i had better continue as i was, than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers. let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being real. that such hints and notices are given us, i believe few that have made any observations of things can deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question,) and that they are given for our good? the present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this reasoning; for had i not been made cautious by this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, i had been undone inevitably, and in a far worse condition than before, as you will see presently. i had not kept myself long in this posture, but i saw the boat draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of landing; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where i formerly landed my rafts, but run their boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my door, as i may say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all i had. when they were on shore, i was fully satisfied they were englishmen, at least most of them; one or two i thought were dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all eleven men, whereof three of them i found were unarmed, and, as i thought, bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three out of the boat, as prisoners: one of the three i could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, i could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned, indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. i was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be. friday called out to me in english, as well as he could, "o master! you see english mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans."--"why, friday," says i, "do you think they are going to eat them then?"--"yes," says friday, "they will eat them."--"no, no," says i, "friday; i am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may be sure they will not eat them." all this while i had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once i saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and i expected to see him fall every moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins. i wished heartily now for my spaniard, and the savage that was gone with him, or that i had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of them, that i might have rescued the three men, for i saw no fire-arms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. after i had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, i observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the country. i observed that the three other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair. this put me in mind of the first time when i came on shore, and began to look about me; how i gave myself over for lost; how wildly i looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions i had; and how i lodged in the tree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. as i knew nothing, that night, of the supply i was to receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which i have since been so long nourished and supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and really they were in a condition of safety, at the same time that they thought themselves lost, and their case desperate. so little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great maker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitue, but that, in the worst circumstances, they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction. it was just at the top of high water when these people came on shore; and partly while they rambled about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. they had left two men in the boat, who, as i found afterwards, having drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a little sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed out for the rest, who were straggling about; upon which they all soon came to the boat: but it was past all their strength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. in this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps the least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled about the country again; and i heard one of them say aloud to another, calling them off from the boat, "why, let her alone, jack, can't you? she'll float next tide:" by which i was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of what countrymen they were. all this while i kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of my castle, any farther than to my place of observation, near the top of the hill; and very glad i was to think how well it was fortified. i knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat could float again, and by that time it would be dark, and i might be at more liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had any. in the mean time, i fitted myself up for a battle, as before, though with more caution, knowing i had to do with another kind of enemy than i had at first. i ordered friday also, whom i had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. i took myself two fowling-pieces, and i gave him three muskets. my figure, indeed, was very fierce; i had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap i have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder. it was my design, as i said above, not to have made any attempt till it was dark: but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, i found that, in short, they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as i thought, laid down to sleep. the three poor distressed men, too anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as i thought, out of sight of any of the rest. upon this i resolved to discover myself to them, and learn something of their condition; immediately i marched in the figure as above, my man friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as i, but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as i did. i came as near them undiscovered as i could, and then, before any of them saw me, i called aloud to them in spanish, "what are ye, gentlemen?" they started up at the noise; but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that i made. they made no answer at all, but i thought i perceived them just going to fly from me, when i spoke to them in english: "gentlemen," said i, "do not be surprised at me: perhaps you may have a friend near, when you did not expect it."--"he must be sent directly from heaven then," said one of them very gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our condition is past the help of man."--"all help is from heaven, sir," said i: "but can you put a stranger in the way how to help you? for you seem to be in some great distress. i saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to make application to the brutes that came with you, i saw one of them lift up his sword to kill you." the poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, "am i talking to god or man? is it a real man or an angel?"--"be in no fear about that, sir," said i; "if god had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and armed after another manner than you see me: pray lay aside your fears; i am a man, an englishman, and disposed to assist you: you see i have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? what is your case?"--"our case," said he, "sir, is too long to tell you, while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, i was commander of that ship, my men have mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me; and at last have set me on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me, one my mate, the other a passenger, where we expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it."--"where are these brutes, your enemies?" said i: "do you know where they are gone?"--"there they lie, sir," said he, pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainly murder us all."--"have they any fire-arms?" said i. he answered, "they had only two pieces, one of which they left in the boat." "well then," said i, "leave the rest to me; i see they are all asleep, it is an easy thing to kill them all: but shall we rather take them prisoners?" he told me there were two desperate villains among them, that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to their duty. i asked him which they were? he told me he could not at that distance distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in any thing i would direct. "well," says i, "let us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve further." so they willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us from them. "look you, sir," said i, "if i venture upon your deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions with me?" he anticipated my proposals, by telling me, that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly directed and commanded by me in every thing; and, if the ship was not recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the world soever i would send him; and the two other men said the same. "well," says i, "my conditions are but two: first, that while you stay in this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if i put arms in your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this island; and, in the mean time, be governed by my orders: secondly, that if the ship is, or may be recovered, you will carry me and my man to england, passage free." he gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of man could devise, that he would comply with these most reasonable demands; and, besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all occasions, as long as he lived. "well then," said i, "here are three muskets for you, with powder and ball: tell me next what you think is proper to be done." he showed all the testimonies of his gratitude that he was able, but offered to be wholly guided by me. i told him i thought it was hard venturing any thing; but the best method i could think of was to fire upon them at once, as they lay, and if any were not killed at the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon god's providence to direct the shot. he said very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if he could help it: but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on board and bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all. "well then," says i, "necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives." however, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, i told him they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. in the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. i asked him if either of them were the heads of the mutiny? he said, no. "well then," said i, "you may let them escape; and providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save themselves.--now," says i, "if the rest escape you, it is your fault." animated with this, he took the musket i had given him in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand; the two men who were with him going first, made some noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, for the moment he cried out they fired; i mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. they had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon god to forgive his villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more: there were three more in the company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. by this time i was come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. the captain told them he would spare their lives, if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to jamaica, from whence they came. they gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which i was not against, only that i obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were on the island. while this was doing, i sent friday with the captain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sails, which they did: and by and by three straggling men, that were (happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing the captain, who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so our victory was complete. it now remained that the captain and i should inquire into one another's circumstances: i began first, and told him my whole history, which he heard with an attention even to amazement; and particularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected him deeply. but when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how i seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more. after this communication was at an end, i carried him and his two men into my apartment, leading them in just where i came out, viz. at the top of the house, where i refreshed them with such provisions as i had, and showed them all the contrivances i had made, during my long, long inhabiting that place. all i showed them, all i said to them, was perfectly amazing; but, above all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly i had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been now planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than in england, was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was impassable in any part of it, but at that one side where i had reserved my little winding passage into it. i told him this was my castle and my residence, but that i had a seat in the country, as most princes have, whither i could retreat upon occasion, and i would show him that too another time: but at present our business was to consider how to recover the ship. he agreed with me as to that; but told me, he was perfectly at a loss what measures to take, for that there were still six and twenty hands on board, who having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation, and would carry it on, knowing that, if they were subdued, they would be brought to the gallows as soon as they came to england, or to any of the english colonies; and that, therefore, there would be no attacking them with so small a number as we were. i mused for some time upon what he had said, and found it was a very rational conclusion, and that, therefore, something was to be resolved on speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. upon this, it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship's crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their other boat, to look for them; and that then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed to be rational. upon this, i told him the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off: and taking every thing out of her, leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim: accordingly we went on board, took the arms which were left on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvass (the sugar was five or six pounds;) all which was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which i had none left for many years. when we had carried all these things on shore, (the oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away before, as above,) we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat. indeed, it was not much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover the ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, i did not much question to make her fit again to carry us to the leeward islands, and call upon our friends the spaniards in my way; for i had them still in my thoughts. while we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main strength, heaved the boat upon the beach so high, that the tide would not float her off at high water mark, and besides, had broke a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board: but no boat stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the boat. at last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her; and that they had fire-arms with them. as the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed, and where the boat lay; by this means, i say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, it seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperate in their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too powerful for us. i smiled at him, and told him that men in our circumstances were past the operation of fear; that seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance, i asked him what he thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for? "and where, sir," said i, "is your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little while ago? for my part," said i, "there seems to me but one thing amiss in all the prospect of it."--"what is that?" says he. "why," said i, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among them, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part of the crew i should have thought god's providence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes ashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." as i spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, i found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business. we had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them effectually. two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, i sent with friday, and one of the three delivered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have delivered themselves: here they left them bound, but gave them provisions; and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their escape, they should be put to death without mercy. they promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them; for friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood centinel over them at the entrance. the other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but the other two were taken into my service, upon the captain's recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them and the three honest men we were seven men well armed; and i made no doubt we should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming, considering that the captain had said there were three or four honest men among them also. as soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which i was glad to see; for i was afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor, some distance from the shore, with some hands in her, to guard her, and so we should not be able to seize the boat. being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom. after they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring; but it was all one; those in the cave we were sure could not hear, and those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them. they were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again, to their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their boat again, and got all of them on board. the captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believing they would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frightened the other way. they had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived them all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look for their fellows. this was a great disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do; as our seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us, if we let the boat escape; because they would then row away to the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost. however, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things might present. the seven men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat. those that came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive us. we could have been very glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we might have come abroad. but when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree, to consider of it. had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other part of them had done, they had done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither. the captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and they would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. i liked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough to come up to them before they could load their pieces again. but this event did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute what course to take. at length i told them there would be nothing done, in my opinion, till night; and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore, and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. we waited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and were very uneasy, when, after long consultations, we saw them all start up, and march down towards the sea: it seems they had such dreadful apprehensions upon them of the danger of the place, that they resolved to go on board the ship again, give their companions over for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage with the ship. as soon as i perceived them to go towards the shore, i imagined it to be, as it really was, that they had given over their search, and were for going back again; and the captain, as soon as i told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it: but i presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a tittle. i ordered friday and the captain's mate to go over the little creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on shore when friday was rescued, and as soon as they came to a little rising ground, at about half a mile distance, i bade them halloo out, as loud as they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again; and then keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering when the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and among the woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to me, by such ways as i directed them. they were just going into the boat when friday and the mate hallooed: and they presently heard them, and answering, run along the shore westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were presently stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to come up and set them over; as, indeed, i expected. when they had set themselves over, i observed that the boat being gone a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land, they took one of the three men out of her, to go along with them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore. this was what i wished for; and immediately leaving friday and the captain's mate to their business, i took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two men before they were aware; one of them lying on the shore, and the other being in the boat. the fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man. there needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men upon him, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join very sincerely with us. in the mean time, friday and the captain's mate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them where they were very sure they could not reach back to the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves also, by the time they came back to us. we had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them. it was several hours after friday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling to those behind to come along; and could also hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and not able to come any faster; which was very welcome news to us. at length they came up to the boat: but it is impossible to express their confusion when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. we could hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were got into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured. they hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a great many times; but no answer. after some time, we could see them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing their hands like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat, to rest themselves: then come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again. my men would fain have had me give them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but i was willing to take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as i could; and especially i was unwilling to hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the others were very well armed. i resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and, therefore, to make sure of them, i drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet, as close to the ground as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before they offered to fire. they had not been long in that posture, when the boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them, with two more of the crew: the captain was so eager at having this principal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tongue before: but when they came nearer, the captain and friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at them. the boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after; and the third run for it. at the noise of the fire, i immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now eight men, viz. myself, generalissimo; friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners of war, whom we had trusted with arms. we came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and i made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if i could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be very willing to capitulate. so he calls out as loud as he could, to one of them, "tom smith! tom smith!" tom smith answered immediately, "is that robinson?" for it seems he knew the voice. the other answered, "aye aye; for god's sake, tom smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead men this moment."--"who must we yield to? where are they?" says smith again. "here they are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him; have been hunting you these two hours: the boatswain is killed, will fry is wounded, and i am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, you are all lost."--"will they give us quarter then?" says tom smith, "and we will yield."--"i'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says robinson: so he asked the captain; and the captain himself then calls out, "you, smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms immediately, and submit, you shall have your lives, all but will atkins." upon this will atkins cried out, "for god's sake, captain, give me quarter; what have i done? they have all been as bad as i:" which, by the way, was not true neither; for, it seems, this will atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied, and used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injurious language. however, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor's mercy: by which he meant, me, for they all called me governor. in a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their lives; and i sent the man that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty men, which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight, came up and seized upon them, and upon their boat; only that i kept myself and one more out of sight for reasons of state. our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship: and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, and at length upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainly it must bring them to misery and, distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows. they all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives. as for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, but the commander's of the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased god so to direct them, that it was inhabited, and that the governor was an englishman; that he might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he supposed he would send them to england, to be dealt with there as justice required, except atkins, whom he was commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he would be hanged in the morning. though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired effect: atkins fell upon his knees, to beg the captain to intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for god's sake, that they might not be sent to england. it now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so i retired in the dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the captain to me: when i called, as at a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "captain, the commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "tell his excellency i am just a coming." this more perfectly amused them, and they all believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men. upon the captain's coming to me, i told him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning. but, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, i told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. this was committed to friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain. they conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a dismal place, especially to men in their condition. the others i ordered to my bower, as i called it, of which i have given a full description; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour. to these in the morning i sent the captain, who was to enter into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. he talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were brought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to england, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if they would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the governor's engagement for their pardon. any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, and promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and would go with him all over the world; that they would own him as a father as long as they lived. "well," says the captain, "i must go and tell the governor what you say, and see what i can do to bring him to consent to it." so he brought me an account of the temper he found them in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful. however, that we might be very secure, i told him he should go back again and choose out those five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men, that he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that the governor would keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the castle (my cave) as hostages for the fidelity of those five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore. this looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest: however, they had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty. our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the captain, his mate, and passenger: second, then the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, i had given their liberty, and trusted them with arms: third, the other two that i had kept till now in my bower pinioned, but, on the captain's motion, had now released: fourth, these five released at last: so that they were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages. i asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on board the ship: but as for me and my man friday, i did not think it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with victuals. as to the five in the cave, i resolved to keep them fast, but friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and i made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where friday was to take it. when i showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who told them i was the person the governor had ordered to look after them: and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir any where but by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see me as a governor, i now appeared as another person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions. the captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. he made his passenger captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and five more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. as soon as they came within call of the ship, he made robinson hail them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate entering first, with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the but end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their men; they secured all the rest that were upon the mainland quarterdecks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below; when the other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. when this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, who having taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody. the mate calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word more: upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost. as soon as the ship was thus secured, the: captain ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of his success, which you may be sure i was very glad to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in the morning. having thus heard the signal plainly, i laid me down; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, i slept very sound, till i was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, i heard a man call me by the name of governor, governor, and presently i knew the captain's voice; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms. "my dear friend and deliverer," says he, "there's your ship, for she is all your's, and so are we, and all that belong to her." i cast my eyes to the ship, and there she rode within little more than half a mile of the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her, and the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where i at first landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door, i was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for i saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither i pleased to go. at first, for some time, i was not able to answer him one word; but as he had taken me in his arms, i held fast by him, or i should have fallen to the ground. he perceived the surprise, and immediately pulls a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me. after i had drank it, i sat down upon the ground; and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before i could speak a word to him. all this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as i, only not under any surprise, as i was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things to me, to compose and bring me to myself: but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion; at last it broke out into tears; and in a little while after i recovered my speech. i then took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together. i told him i looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of providence governing the world, and an evidence that the eye of an infinite power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased. i forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven; and what heart could forbear to bless him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed? when we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if i had been one that was not to be carried away with them, but as if i had been to dwell upon the island still. first, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of madeira wine, (the bottles held two quarts each,) two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about an hundred weight of biscuit: he also brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bottles of lime juice, and abundance of other things. but, besides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little; in a word, he clothed me from head to foot. it was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at first. after these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues, that there was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first english colony he could come at; and i found that the captain himself was very anxious about it. upon this i told him, that if he desired it, i would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the island. "i should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with all my heart."--"well," says i, "i will send for them up, and talk with them for you," so i caused friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; i say, i caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till i came. after some time, i came thither dressed in my new habit; and now i was called governor again. being all met, and the captain with me, i caused the men to be brought before me, and i told them i had got a full account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were, preparing to commit farther robberies, but that providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had dug for others. i let them know that by my direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might see, by and by, that their new captain had received the reward of his villany, and that they would see him hanging at the yard-arm: that as to them, i wanted to know what they had to say why i should not execute them as pirates, taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt but i had authority so to do. one of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. but i told them i knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself, i had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for england; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to england other than as prisoners, in irons, to be tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that i could not tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired that, as i had liberty to leave the island, i had some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. they seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay there than be carried to england to be hanged: so i left it on that issue. however, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he durst not leave them there. upon this i seemed a little angry with the captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that seeing i had offered them so much favour, i would be as good as my word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it i would set them at liberty, as i found them; and if he did not like it, he might take them again if he could catch them. upon this they appeared very thankful, and i accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods to the place whence they came, and i would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well, if they thought fit. upon this i prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain i would stay that night to prepare my things, and desired him to go on board, in the mean time, and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore next day for me; ordering him, at all events, to cause the new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might see him. when the captain was gone, i sent for the men up to me to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances. i told them i thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain had carried them away, they would certainly be hanged. i showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had nothing less to expect. when they had all declared their willingness to stay, i then told them i would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into the way of making it easy to them: accordingly, i gave them the whole history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my fortifications, the way i made my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. i told them the story also of the seventeen spaniards that were to be expected, for whom i left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common with themselves. here it may be noted, that the captain had ink on board, who was greatly surprised that i never hit upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water, or of something else, as i had done things much more difficult. i left them my fire-arms, viz. five-muskets, three fowling-pieces; and three swords. i had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for after the first year or two i used but little, and wasted none. i gave them a description of the way i managed the goats, and directions to milk and fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese: in a word, i gave them every part of my own story; and told them i should prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden seeds, which i told them i would have been very glad of: also i gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them. having done all this, i left them the next day, and went on board the ship. we prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night. the next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side, and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship, for god's sake, for they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on board, though he hanged them immediately. upon this, the captain pretended to have no power without me; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled: after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows. some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being up, with the things promised to the men; to which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they took, and were very thankful for. i also encouraged them, by telling them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, i would not forget them. when i took leave of this island, i carried on board, for reliques, the great goat-skin cap i had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also i forgot not to take the money i formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless, that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; as also the money i found in the wreck of the spanish ship. and thus i left the island, the 19th of december, as i found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after i had been upon it eight and twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity the same day of the month that i first made my escape in the long-boat, from among the moors of sallee. in this vessel, after a long voyage, i arrived in england the 11th of june, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent. when i came to england, i was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if i had never been known there. my benefactor and faithful steward, whom i had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second time, and very low in the world. i made her very easy as to what she owed me, assuring her i would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude for her former care and faithfulness to me, i relieved her as my little-stock would afford; which, at that time, would indeed allow me to do but little for her; but i assured her i would never forget her former kindness to me; nor did i forget her when i had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its proper place. i went down afterwards into yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except that i found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers; and as i had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me: so that, in a word, i found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that the little money i had would not do much for me as to settling in the world. i met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which i did not expect; and this was, that the master of the ship whom i had so happily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very handsome account to the owners of the manner how i had saved the lives of the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost £200 sterling. but after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, i resolved to go to lisbon, and see if i might not come by some information of the state of my plantation in the brazils, and of what was become of my partner, who, i had reason to suppose, had some years past given me over for dead. with this view i took shipping for lisbon, where i arrived in april following; my man friday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. when i came to lisbon, i found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off the shore of africa. he was now grown old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship, and who still used the brazil trade. the old man did not know me; and, indeed, i hardly knew him: but i soon brought him to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when i told him who i was. after some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, i inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. the old man told me he had not been in the brazils for about nine years; but that he could assure me, that when he came away my partner was living; but the trustees, whom i had joined with him to take cognizance of my part, were both dead: that, however, he believed i would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation; for that upon the general belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case i never came to claim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of st. augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the indians to the catholic faith; but that if i appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that the steward of the king's revenue from lands, and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they had duly received my moiety. i asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth looking after; or whether, on my going thither, i should meet with any obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety. he told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his part of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year: that as to my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the register of the country; also he told me, that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed i would hot only have their assistance for putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years. i showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that i had made my will, and had made him, the portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c. he told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should come of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote: that it was true he had registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of the ingeino, (so they called the sugar-house) and have given his son, who was now at the brazils, orders to do it. "but," says the old man, "i have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account with me, in your name, for six or eight of the first years' profits, which i received. there being at that time great disbursements for increasing the works, building an ingeino, and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced: however," says the old man, "i shall give you a true account of what i have received in all, and how i have disposed of it." after a few days' farther conference with this ancient friend, he brought me an account of the first six years' income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always delivered in goods, viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and i found, by this account, that every year the income considerably increased; but, as above, the disbursements being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been shipwrecked coming home to lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving the place. the good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship. "however, my old friend," says he, "you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied." upon this, he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty portugal moidores in gold; and giving the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was gone to the brazils in, of which he was a quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest. i was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, i could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to me; therefore i asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would not straiten him? he told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and i might want it more than he. every thing the good man said was full of affection, and i could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, i took one hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them: then i returned him the rest, and told him if ever i had possession of the plantation, i would return the other to him also, (as, indeed, i afterwards did;) and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's ship, i would not take it by any means; but that if i wanted the money, i found he was honest enough to pay me; and if i did not, but came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, i would never have a penny more from him. when this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a method to make my claim to my plantation? i told him i thought to go over to it myself. he said i might do so if i pleased; but that if i did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the river of lisbon just ready to go away to brazil, he made me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that i was alive, and that i was the same person who took up the land for the planting the said plantation at first. this being regularly attested by a notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return. never was any thing more honourable than the proceedings upon this procuration; for in less than seven months i received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account i went to sea, in which were the following particular letters and papers enclosed. first, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be one thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour. secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred and forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two hundred and forty moidores. thirdly, there was the prior of augustine's account, who had received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being to account for what was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged to my account: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing. there was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estate was improved, and what it produced a year; with a particular of the number of squares or acres that it contained, how planted, how many slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many _ave marias_ to thank the blessed virgin that i was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of my own; and, in the mean time, to give him orders to whom he should deliver my effects, if i did not come myself; concluding with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent me, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems, received from africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither, and who, it seems, had made a better voyage than i. he sent me also five chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores. by the same fleet, my two merchant-trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole account in gold. i might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of job was better than the beginning. it is impossible to express the flutterings of my very heart when i found all my wealth about me; for as the brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods: and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. in a word, i turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, i believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and i had died upon the spot: nay, after that, i continued very ill, and was so some hours till a physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood; after which i had relief, and grew well: but i verily believe, if i had not been eased by a vent given in that manner to the spirits, i should have died. i was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an estate, as i might well call it, in the brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in england; and, in a word, i was in a condition which i scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it. the first thing i did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. i showed him all that was sent to me; i told him, that next to the providence of heaven, which disposed all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to reward him, which i would do a hundredfold: so i first returned to him the hundred moidores i had received of him; then i sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge from the four hundred and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me, in the fullest and firmest manner possible. after which i caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to account with him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores a year to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores a year to his son after him, for his life: and thus i requited my old man. i was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do with the estate that providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed, i had more care upon my head now than i had in my silent state of life in the island, where i wanted nothing but what i had, and had nothing but what i wanted; whereas i had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. i had never a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on the contrary, i knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. my old patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge i had. in the next place, my interest in the brazils seemed to summon me thither; but now i could not tell how to think of going thither till i had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. at first i thought of my old friend the widow, who i knew was honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and, for aught. i knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, i had no way but to go back to england myself, and take my effects with me. it was some months, however, before i resolved upon this; and therefore, as i had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, so i began to think of my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor. so the first thing i did, i got a merchant in lisbon to write to his correspondent in london, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money a hundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her she should, if i lived, have a further supply: at the same time i sent my two sisters in the country a hundred pounds, each, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances; one having been married and left a widow; and the other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be. but among all my relations or acquaintances, i could not yet pitch upon one to whom i durst commit the gross of my stock, that i might go away to the brazils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed me. i had once a mind to have gone to the brazils, and have settled myself there, for i was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but i had some little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back. however, it was not religion that kept me from going there for the present; and as i had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the country all the while i was among them, so neither did i yet; only that, now and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly, when i began to think of living and dying among them, i began to regret my having professed myself a papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to die with. but, as i have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going to the brazils, but that really i did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me; so i resolved, at last, to go to england with it, where, if i arrived, i concluded i should make some acquaintance, or find some relations that would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, i prepared to go to england with all my wealth. in order to prepare tilings for my going home, i first, the brazil fleet being just going away, resolved to give answers suitable to the just and faithful account of things i had from thence; and, first, to the prior of st. augustine i wrote a letter full of thanks for their just dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores which were undisposed of, which i desired might be given, five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and the like. i wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as for sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion for it. lastly, i wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock of the, works; giving him instructions for his future government of my part, according to the powers i had left with my old patron, to whom i desired him to send whatever became due to me, till he should hear from me more particularly; assuring him that it was my intention not only to come to him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. to this i added a very handsome present of some italian silks for his wife and two daughters, for such the captain's son informed me he had; with two pieces of fine english broad-cloth, the best i could get in lisbon, five pieces of black baize, and some flanders lace of a good value. having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go to england: i had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet i had a strange aversion to go to england by sea at that time; and though i could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, that though i had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet i altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times. it is true; i had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be some of the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which i had singled out to go in, i mean more particularly singled out than any other, having put my things on board one of them, and in the other to have agreed with the captain; i say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one was taken by the algerines, and the other was cast away on the start, near torbay, and all the people drowned, except three; so that in either of those vessels i had been made miserable. having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom i communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but either to go by land to the groyne, and cross over the bay of biscay to rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to paris, and so to calais and dover; or to go up to madrid, and so all the way by laud through france. in a word, i was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from calas to dover, that i resolved to travel all the way by land; which, as i was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way: and to make it more so, my old captain brought an english gentleman, the son of a merchant in lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which we picked up two more english merchants also, and two young portuguese gentlemen, the last going to paris only; so that in all there were six of us, and five servants; the two merchants and the two portuguese contenting themselves with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, i got an english sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a servant on the road. in this manner i set out from lisbon; and our company being very well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me the honour to call me captain, as well because i was the oldest man, as because i had two servants, and, indeed, was the original of the whole journey. as i have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so i shall trouble you now with none of my land journal; but some adventures that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey i must not omit. when we came to madrid, we being all of us strangers to spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court of spain, and to see what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastened away, and set out from madrid about the middle of october; but when we came to the edge of navarre, we were alarmed, at several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was fallen on the french side of the mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on. when we came to pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, that had been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where i could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable: nor, indeed, was it more painful than surprising, to come but ten days before out of old castile, where the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the pyrenean mountains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes. poor friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before in his life. to mend the matter, when we came to pampeluna, it continued snowing with so much violence, and so long, that the people said winter was come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in the northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of being buried alive every step. we stayed no less than twenty days at pampeluna; when seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest winter all over europe that had been known in the memory of man, i proposed that we should all go away to fontarabia, and there take shipping for bourdeaux, which was a very little voyage. but while i was considering this, there came in four french gentlemen, who having been stopped on the french side of the passes, as we were on the spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the country near the head of languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with the snow; for where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. we sent, for this guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild beasts; for, he said, upon these great snows it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow. we told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which, we were told, we were in most danger from, especially on the french side of the mountains. he satisfied us that there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreed to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some french, some spanish, who, as i said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again. accordingly, we set out from pampeluna, with our guide, on the 15th of november; and, indeed, i was surprised, when, instead of going forward, he came directly back with us on the same road that we came from madrid, about twenty miles; when having passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to his left, he approached the mountains another way: and though it is true the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that we insensibly passed the height of the mountains without being much encumbered with the snow; and, all on a sudden, he showed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of languedoc and gascony, all green and flourishing, though, indeed, at a great distance, and we had some rough way to pass still. we were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day and a night so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy; we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and so depending upon our guide, we went on. it was about two hours before night, when our guide being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood: two of the wolves made at the guide, and had he been far before us, he would have been devoured before we could have helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence, that he had not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. my man friday being next me, i bade him ride up, and see what was the matter. as soon as friday came in sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, "o master! o master!" but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head. it was happy for the poor man that it was my man friday; for he having been used to such creatures in his country, he had no fear upon him, but went close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any other of us would have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the man. but it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than i; and, indeed, it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of friday's pistol, we heard on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves; and the noise, redoubled by the echo of the mountains, appeared to us as if there had been a prodigious number of them; and perhaps there was not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions: however, as friday had killed this wolf, the other that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately, and fled, without doing him any damage, having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth. but the man was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice, once in the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and though he had made some defence, he was just as it were tumbling down by the disorder of his horse, when friday came up and shot the wolf. it is easy to suppose that at the noise of friday's pistol we all mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the way, which was very difficult, would give us leave, to see what was the matter. as soon as we came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been the case, and how friday had disengaged the poor guide, though we did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed. but never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising manner, as that which followed between friday and the bear, which gave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the greatest diversion imaginable. as the bear is a heavy clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions: first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, (he does not usually attempt them, except they first attack him, unless he be excessive hungry, which it is probable might now be the case, the ground being covered with snow,) if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way, and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in point of honour;--this is his first quality: the next is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave yon, night nor day, till he has his revenge, but follows, at a good round rate, till he overtakes yon. my man friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him, he was helping him off from his horse, for the man was both hurt and frightened, when, on a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the wood, and a vast monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever i saw. we were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance: "o, o, o!" says friday, three times, pointing to him; "o master! you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good laugh." i was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased; "you fool," says i, "he will eat you up,"--"eatee me up! eatee me up!" says friday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me' makee you good laugh; you all stay here, me show you good laugh." so down he sits, and gets off his boots in a moment, and puts on a pair of pumps, (as we call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket,) gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind. the bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, till friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understand him, "hark ye, hark ye," says friday, "me speakee with you." we followed at a distance; for now being come down on the gaseony side of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country was plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and there. friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh, as he called it. as soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling gallop: away runs friday, and takes his course as if he run towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man; though i was angry at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way: and especially i was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and then run away; and i called out, "you dog, is this your making us laugh? come away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature." he heard me, and cried out, "no shoot, no shoot; stand still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear's one, he turned on a sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. the bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. i was amazed at the folly, as i thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode near to him. when we came to the tree, there was friday got out to the small end of a large branch, and the bear got about half way to him. as soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker,--"ha!" says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he falls a jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. but friday had not done with him by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak english, "what, you come no farther? pray you come farther:" so he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he fell a jumping again, and the bear stopped again. we thought now was a good time to knock him in the head, and called to friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly, "o pray! o pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then;" he would have said by and by. however, to shorten the story, friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last. but friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "well, well," says friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me come to you:" and upon this he goes out to the smaller end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, and stands still. "well," said i to him, "friday, what will you do now? why don't you shoot him?"--"no shoot," says friday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. at this juncture, and just before he could set his hind foot on the ground, friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, by our looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. "so we kill bear in my country," says friday. "so you kill them?" says i: "why, you have no guns."--"no," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." this was a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew: the howling of wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise i once heard on the shore of africa, of which i have said something already, i never heard any thing that filled me with so much horror. these things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went forward on our journey. the ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too. we had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide told us, if there were more wolves in the country we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge. it was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain; we met with nothing in the first wood, except that, in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. upon this our guide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a coming. we kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain. as soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us: the first object we met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before. we did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us. friday would have let fly at them, but i would not suffer him by any means; for i found we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of. we were not gone half over the plain, when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. i scarce knew in what manner to receive them, but found, to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment: but that we might not have, too much interval, i ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and then that those who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand ready every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time: however, at present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire; four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. i found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that i had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, i caused all the company to halloo as loud as we could; and i found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retire, and turn about. i then ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods. this gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that we might lose no time, we kept going: but we had but little more than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood, on our left, only that it was farther onward, the same way we were to go. 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 in 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 hard trot. in this manner we came in view of the entrance of a wood, through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance. on a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and 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; 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 carcasses of another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard 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 were 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 way from it, there lay some large timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and i suppose lay there for carriage. i drew my little troop in among those trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, i advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. we did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place. they came on with a growling kind of 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. i ordered our men to fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so sure, that 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 a second volley of our fusees, we thought they stopped a little, and i hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment, for others came forward again; so we fired two volleys of our pistols; and i believe in these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again. i was loath to spend our shot too hastily; so i called my servant, not my man friday, for he was better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he had charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged; but, as i said, i called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder, i bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train. he did so; and had but just time to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and some got upon it, when i, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire: those that were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or rather jumped in among us, with the force and fright of the fire; we dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frightened with the light, which the night, for it was now very near dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little; upon which i ordered our last pistols to be fired 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, that 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 threescore of them; and had it been daylight, we had killed many more. the field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to go. we heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went, several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain: 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, the night before, the wolves and some bears had broke into the village, and put them in such terror, that 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 so much with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide here, and go to thoulouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor any thing like them: but when we told our story at thoulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but they inquired much what kind of a guide we had got, who would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season; and told us it was surprising 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 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 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 so much for their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and being so many in number. for my part, i was never so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing above three hundred 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 was sure to meet with a storm once a week. i have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through france, nothing but what other travellers have given an account of, with much more advantage than i can. i travelled from thoulouse to paris, and without any considerable stay came to calais, and landed safe at dover, the 14th of jan. after having 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 counsellor was my good ancient widow; who, in gratitude for the money i had sent her, thought no pains too much, nor care too great, to employ for me; and i trusted her so entirely with every thing, that i was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects: and, indeed, i was very happy from the beginning, and now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman. and now having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the brazils, i wrote to my old friend at lisbon; who having offered it to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the brazils, they accepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand pieces-of-eight to a correspondent of theirs at lisbon, to pay for it. in return, i signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent from lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces-of-eight 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 his life, which i had promised them; and which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. and thus i have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show the like of: beginning foolishly, but 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, nor 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 that 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. 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 mean time, i in part settled myself here; for, first of all, i married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my 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 their lives, and of the villains i left there; how at first they insulted the poor spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were subjected to the spaniards; how honestly the spaniards used them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part: particularly also as to their battles with the caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself; and how five of them made an attempt upon the main land, 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 lands 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 could not perform: the fellows proved very honest and diligent, after they were mastered, and had their properties set apart for them. i sent them also from the 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 one of them killed; but at last a storm destroying their enemies canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island. all these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, i shall give a farther account of in another volume. end of, vol.i. editorial notes: daniel defoe's tale of robinson crusoe was first published in 1719. numerous--almost countless- versions were published subsequently. several are available in project gutenberg's library, including our e-books #521, 561, 5902, 6328, 6936, and 11239 (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/521 etc.). various tales have been included in the different versions, usually under the names of "the adventures of robinson crusoe," "the further adventures of robinson crusoe," and "robinson crusoe's vision of the angelic world." even an account of the adventures of alexander selkirk, who was marooned for four years on an island in the pacific ocean, has been incorporated into some versions of the robinson crusoe stories. all of these tales are incorporated into this e-book taken from an 1801 edition. project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see 11866-h.htm or 11866-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11866/11866/11866.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11866/11866.zip) transcriber's note: several pages (23, 90, 134, and 224-226) of the original book were unavailable for scanning. page images of the identical text were subsequently made available by the university of florida baldwin library of historical children's literature and have been added to this e-book. the page images can be seen by the reader at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/ufdc.aspx?s=defoe&m=hd1j&i=53904 the life and most surprising adventures of robinson crusoe, of york, mariner. who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island, on the coast of america, near the mouth of the great river oroonoque, including an account of his deliverance thence, and his after surprising adventures. with his vision of the angelic world. an improved edition, illustrated with eight engravings, from original designs. to which is annexed, the remarkable history of alexander selkirk; who lived four years and four months in a state of solitude, on the island of juan fernandez, in the pacific ocean, 1801 frontispiece. [illustration: i was wrapt up in contemplation and often lifted up my hands, with the profoundest humility, to the divine powers, for saving my life, when the rest of my companions were all drowned. _dr. and eng. by a. carse; edin_.] preface. if ever the story of any private man's adventures in the world were worth making public, and were acceptable when published, the editor of this account thinks this will be so. the wonders of this man's life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the life of one man being scarce capable of a greater variety. the story is told with modesty, with seriousness, and with a religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always apply them, viz. to the instruction of others by this example, and to justify and honour the wisdom of providence in all the variety of our circumstances, let them happen how they will. the editor believes this narrative to be a just history of fact; neither is their any appearance of fiction in it: and though he is well aware there are many, who on account of the very singular preservations the author met with, will give it the name of romance; yet in which ever of these lights it shall be viewed, he imagines, that the improvement of it, as well as the diversion, as to the instruction of the reader, will be the same; and as such, he thinks, without farther compliment to the world, he does them a great service in the publication. the life and adventures of robinson crusoe. i was born at york, in the year 1632, of a reputable family. my father was a native of bremen, who by merchandizing at hull for some time, gained a very plentiful fortune. he married my mother at york, who received her first breath in that country: and as her maiden name was robinson, i was called _robinson kreutznaer_: which not being easily pronounced in the english tongue, we are commonly known by the name of crusoe. i was the youngest of three brothers. the eldest was a lieutenant colonel in lochart's regiment, but slain by the spaniards: what became of the other, i could never learn. no charge or pains were wanting in my education.--my father designed me for the law; yet nothing would serve me but i must go to sea, both against the will of my father, the tears of my mother, and the entreaties of friends. one morning my father expostulated very warmly with me: what reason, says he, have you to leave your native country, where there must be a more certain prospect of content and happiness, to enter into a wandering condition of uneasiness and uncertainty? he recommended to me augur's wish, "neither to desire poverty nor riches:" that a middle state of life was the most happy, and that the high towering thoughts of raising our condition by wandering abroad, were surrounded with misery and danger, and often ended with confusion and disappointment. i entreat you, nay, i command you, (says he) to desist from these intentions. consider your elder brother, who laid down his life for his honour, or rather lost it for his disobedience to my will. if you will go (added he) my prayers shall however be offered for your preservation; but a time may come, when, desolate, oppressed, or forsaken, you may wish you had taken your poor despised father's counsel.--he pronounced these words with such a moving and paternal eloquence, while floods of tears ran down his aged cheeks, that it seemed to stem the torrent of my resolutions. but this soon wore, off, and a little after i informed my mother, that i could not settle to any business, my resolutions were so strong to see the world; and begged she would gain my father's consent only to go one voyage; which, if i did not prove prosperous, i would never attempt a second. but my desire was as vain as my folly in making. my mother passionately expressed her dislike of this, proposal, telling me, "that as she saw i was bent upon my own destruction, contrary to their will and my duty, she would say no more; but leave me to do whatever i pleased." i was then, i think, nineteen years old, when one time being hull; i met a school-fellow of mine, going along with his father, who was master of a ship, to london; and acquainted him with my wandering desires; he assured me of a free passage, and a plentiful share of what was necessary. thus, without imploring a blessing, or taking farewell of my parents, i took shipping on the first of september 1651. we set sail soon after, and our ship had scarce left the humber astern, when there arose so violent a storm, that, being extremely sea-sick, i concluded the judgment of god deservedly followed me for my disobedience to my dear parents. it was then i called to mind, the good advice of my father; how easy and comfortable was a middle state of life; and i firmly resolved, if it pleased god to set me on dry land once more, i would return to my parents, implore their forgiveness, and bid a final adieu to my wandering inclinations. such were my thoughts while the storm continued: but these good resolutions decreased with the danger; more especially when my companion came to me, clapping me on the shoulder: "what, bob!" said he, "sure you was not frightened last night with scarce a capful of wind?"--"and do you" cried i, "call such a violent storm a capful of wind?"--"a storm, you fool you," said he, "this is nothing; a good ship and sea-room always baffles such a foolish squall of wind as that: but you're a fresh water sailor: come boy, turn out, see what fine weather we have now, and a good bowl of punch will drown all your past sorrows." in short, the punch was made, i was drunk and in one night's time drowned both my repentance and my good resolutions, forgetting entirely the vows and promises i made in my distress: and whenever any reflections would return on me, what by company, and what by drinking, i soon mastered those fits, as i deridingly called them. but this only made way for another trial, whereby i could not but see how much i was beholden to kind providence. upon the sixth day we came to an anchor in harwich road, where we lay wind bound with some newcastle ships; and there being good anchorage, and our cables found, the seamen forgot their late toil and danger, and spent the time as merry as if they had been on shore. but on the eight day there arose a brisk gale of wind, which prevented our tiding it up the river; and still increasing, our ship rode forecastle in, and shipped several large seas. it was not long before horror seized the seamen themselves, and i heard the master express this melancholy ejaculation, "lord have mercy upon us, we shall be all, lost and undone!" for my part, sick unto death, i kept my cabin till the universal and terribly dreadful apprehensions of our speedy fate made me get upon deck; and there i was affrighted indeed. the sea went mountains high: i could see nothing but distress around us; two ships had cut their masts on board, and another was foundered; two more that had lost their anchors, were forced out to the mercy of the ocean; and to save our lives we were forced to cut our foremast and mainmast quite away. who is their so ignorant as not to judge of my dreadful condition? i was but a fresh-water sailor and therefore it seemed more terrible. our ship was very good, but over-loaded; which made the sailors often cry out, "she would founder!" words i then was ignorant of. all this while the storm continuing, and rather increasing, the master and the most sober part of his men went to prayers, expecting death every moment. in the middle of the night one cried out, "we had sprung a leak;" another, "that there was four feet water in the hold." i was just ready to expire with fear, when immediately all hands were called to the pump; and the men forced me also in that extremity to share with them in their labour. while thus employed, the master espying some light colliers, fired a gun as a signal of distress; and i, not understanding what it meant, and thinking that either the ship broke, or some dreadful thing happened, fell into a swoon. even in that common condition of woe, nobody minded me, excepting to thrust me aside with their feet, thinking me dead, and it was a great while before i recovered. happy it was for us, when, upon the signal given, they ventured out their boats to save our lives. all our pumping had been in vain, and vain had all our attempts been, had they not come to our ship's side, and our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, which after great labour they got hold of, and we hauling them up to us got into their boat, and left our ship which we perceived sink within less than a quarter of an hour; and thus i learned what was meant by _foundering at sea._ and now the men incessantly laboured to recover their, own ship; but the sea ran so high, and the wind blew so hard, that they thought it convenient to hale within shore; which, with great difficulty and danger, at last we happily effected landing at a place called _cromer_, not far from winterton lighthouse; from whence we all walked to yarmouth, where, as objects of pity, many good people furnished us with necessaries to carry us either to hull or london. strange, after all this, like the prodigal son, i did not return to my father; who hearing of the ship's calamity, for a long time thought me entombed in the deep. no doubt but i should have _shared on his fatted calf_, as the scripture expresseth it; but my ill fate still pusheth me on, in spite of the powerful convictions of reason and conscience. when we had been at yarmouth three days, i met my old companion, who had given me the invitation to go on board along with his father. his behaviour and speech were altered, and in a melancholy manner asked me how i did, telling his father who i was, & how i had made this voyage only for a trial to proceed further abroad. upon which the old gentleman turning to me gravely, said, "young man, you ought never to go to sea any more, but to take this for a certain sign that you never will prosper in a sea-faring condition." "sir" answered i, "will you take the same resolution?" "it is a different case," said he, "it is my calling, and consequently my duty; but as you have made this voyage for a trial, you see what ill success heaven has set before your eyes; and perhaps our miseries have been on your account, like _jonah_ in the ship of _tarshish_. but pray what are you, and on what account did you go to sea?" upon which i very freely declared my whole story: at the end of which he made this exclamation: "ye sacred powers: what had i committed, that such a wretch should enter into my ship to heap upon me such a deluge of miseries!" but soon recollecting his passion, "young man" said he, "if you do not go back, depend upon it, wherever you go, you will meet with disasters and disappointments till your father's words are fulfilled upon you." and so we parted. i thought at first to return home; but shame opposed that good motion, as thinking i should be laughed at by my neighbours and acquaintance. so strange is the nature of youth, who are not ashamed to sin, but yet ashamed to repent; and so far from being ashamed of those actions for which they may be acounted fools, they think it folly to return to their duty, which is the principal mark of wisdom. in short i travelled up to london, resolving upon a voyage, and a voyage i soon heard of, by my acquaintance with a captain who took a fancy to me, to go to the coast of guinea. having some money, and appearing like a gentleman, i went on board, not as a common sailor or foremast man; nay, the commander agreed i should go that voyage with him without any expence; that i should be his messmate and companion, and i was very welcome to carry any thing with me, and make the best merchandise i could. i blessed my happy fortune, and humbly thanked my captain for this offer; and acquainting my friends in yorkshire, forty pounds were sent me, the greatest part of which my dear father and mother contributed to, with which i bought toys and trifles, as the captain directed me. my captain also taught me navigation, how to keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation, and led me into the knowledge of several useful branches of the mathematics. and indeed this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for i brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure which produced, at my return to london, almost three hundred pounds. but in this voyage i was extremely sick, being thrown into a violent calenture through the excessive heat, trading upon the coast from the latitude of fifteen degrees north, even to the line itself. but alas! my dear friend the captain soon departed this life after his arrival. this was a sensible grief to me; yet i resolved to go another with his mate, who had now got command of the ship. this proved a very unsuccessful one; for though i did not carry quite a hundred pounds of my late acquired wealth, (so that i had two hundred pounds left, which i reposed with the captain's widow, who was an honest gentlewoman) yet my misfortunes in this unhappy voyage were very great. for our ship sailing towards the canary islands, we were chased by a salee rover; and in spite of all the haste we could make by crowding as much canvas as our yards could spread, or our masts carry, the pirate gained upon us, to that we prepared ourselves to fight. they had eighteen guns, and we had but twelve. about three in the afternoon there was a desperate engagement, wherein many were killed and wounded on both sides; but finding ourselves overpowered with numbers, our ship disabled and ourselves too impotent to have the least hopes of success, we were forced to surrender; and accordingly were all carried prisoners into the port of salee. our men were sent to the emperor's court to be sold there, but the pirate captain taking notice of me, kept me to be his own slave. in this condition, i thought myself the most miserable creature on earth, and the prophecy of my father came afresh into my thoughts. however, my condition was better than i thought it to be, as will soon appear. some hopes indeed i had that my new patron would go to sea again, where he might be taken by a spanish or portuguese man of war, and then i should be set at liberty. but in this i was mistaken; for he never took me with him, but left me to look after his little garden, and do the drudgery of his house, and when he returned from sea, would make, me lie in the cabin, and look after the ship. i had no one that i could communicate my thoughts to, which were continually meditating my escape; no englishman, irishman, or scotchman here but myself; and for two years i could see nothing practicable, but only pleased myself with the imagination. after some length of time, my patron, as i found, grew; so poor that he could not fit out his ship as usual; and then he used constantly, once or twice a week, if the weather was fair, to go out a fishing, taking me and a young moresco boy to row the boat; and to much pleased was he with me for my dexterity in catching the fish, that he would often send me with a moor, who was one of his kinsemen, and the moresco youth, to catch a dish of fish for him. one morning, as we were at the sport, there arose such a thick fog that we lost sight of the shore; and rowing we knew not which way, we laboured all the night, and in the morning found ourselves in the ocean, two leagues from land. however, we attained there at length, and made the greater haste, because our stomachs were exceedingly sharp and hungry. in order to prevent such disasters for the future, my patron ordered a carpenter to build a little state room or cabin in the middle of the long-boat, with a place behind it to steer and hale home the main-sheet, with other conveniences to keep him from the weather, as also lockers to put in all manner of provisions, with a handsome shoulder of mutton sail, gibing over the cabin. in this he frequently took us out a fishing: and one time inviting two or three persons of distinction to go with him, made provision extraordinary, providing also three fusees with powder and shot, that they might have some sport at fowling along the sea-coast. the next morning the boat was made clean, her ancient and pendants on, and every thing ready: but their minds altering, my patron ordered us to go a fishing, for that his guests would certainly sup with him that night. and now i began to think of my deliverance indeed. in order to this i persuaded to moor to get some provisions on board, as not daring to meddle with our patron's: and he taking my advice, we stored ourselves with rusk biscuit, and three jars of water. besides, i privately conveyed into the boat a bottle or brandy, some twine, thread, a hammer, hatchet, and a saw; and, in particular, some bees wax, which was a great comfort to me, and served to make candles. i then persuaded muley (for so was the moor called) to procure some powder and shot, pretending to kill sea curlues, which he innocently and readily agreed to. in short, being provided with all things necessary, we sailed out, resolving for my own part to make my escape, though it should cost me my life. when we had passed the castle, we fell a fishing; but though i knew there was a bite, i dissembled the matter, in order to put out further to sea. accordingly we ran a league further; when giving the boy the helm, and pretending to stoop for something, i seized muley by surprise and threw him overboard. as he was an excellent swimmer, he soon arose and made towards the boat; upon which i took out a fusee, and presented at him: "muley" said i, "i never yet designed to do you any harm, and seek nothing now but my redemption. i know you are able enough to swim to shore, and save your life: but if you are resolved to follow me to the endangering of mine, the very moment you proceed, i will shoot you through the head." the harmless creature at these words, turned himself from me, and i make no doubt got safe to land. them turning to the boy xury, i perceived he trembled at the action: but i put him out of all fear, telling him, that if he would be true and faithful to me, i would do well by him. "and therefore," said i, "you must stroke your face to be faithful: and, as the turks have learned you, swear by mahomet, and the beard of your father, or else i will throw you into the sea also." so innocent did the child then look, and with such an obliging smile consented, that i readily believed him, and from that day forward began to love him entirely. we then pursued our voyage: and least they should think me gone to the straits' mouth, i kept to the southward to the truly barbarian coast; but in the dusk of the evening, i changed my course, and steering directly s. and by e. that i might keep near the shore: and, having a fresh gale of wind, with a pleasant smooth sea, by three o'clock next day i was one hundred and fifty miles beyond the emperor of morocco's dominions. yet still having the dreadful apprehensions of being retaken, i continued sailing for five days successively, till such time as the wind shifting to the southward, made me conclude, that if any vessel was in the chase of me, they would proceed no farther. after so much fatigue and thought, i anchored at the mouth of a little river, i knew not what or where: neither did i then see, any people. what i principally wanted was fresh water; and i was resolved about dusk to swim ashore. but no sooner did the gloomy clouds of night begin to succeed the declining day, when we heard such barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, that one might have thought the very strongest monsters of nature, or infernal spirits had their residence there. poor xury, almost dead with fear, entreated me not to go on shore that night. "supposing i don't, xury," said i, "and in the morning we should see men who are worse than those we fear, what then?" "o den we may give dem de shoot gun," replied xury, laughing, "and de gun make dem all run away." the wit and broken english which the boy had learned among the captives of our nation, pleased me entirely: and, to add to his cheerfulness i gave him a dram of the bottle: we could get but little sleep all the night for those terrible howlings they made; and, indeed, we were both very much affrighted, when, by the rollings of the water, and other tokens, we justly concluded one of these monsters made towards our boat. i could not see till it came within two oars length, when taking my fusee, i let fly at him. whether i hit him or no, i cannot tell; but he made towards the shore, and the noise of my gun increased the stupendious noise of the monsters. the next morning i was resolved to go on shore to get fresh water, and venture my life among the beasts or savages should either attack me. xury said, he would take one of the jars and bring me some. i asked him why he would go and not i? the poor boy answered, "if wild mans come they eat me, you go away." a mind scarcely now to be imitated, so contrary to self-preservation, the most powerful law of nature. this indeed increased my affection to the child. "well, dear xury," said i, we will both go ashore, both kill wild mans, and they "shall eat neither of us." so giving xury a piece of rusk-bread to eat, and a dram, we waded ashore, carrying nothing with us but our arms, and two jars for water. i did not go out of sight of the boat, as dreading the savages coming down the river in their canoes; but the boy seeing a low descent or vale about a mile in the country, he wandered to it: and then running back to me with great precipitation, i thought he was pursued by some savage or wild beast; upon which i approached, resolving to perish or protect him from danger. as he came nearer to me, i saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature he had shot like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were glad of it, for it proved wholesome, and nourishing meat: but what added to our joy was, my boy assured me there was plenty of water, and that he _see no wild mans. _and greater still was our comfort when we found fresh water in the creek where we were when the tide was out, without going so far up into the country. in this place i began to consider that the canary and cape de verde islands lay not for off: but having no instrument, i knew not what latitude, or when to stand off to sea for them; yet my hopes were, i should meet some of the english trading vessels, who would relieve and take us in. the place i was in was no doubt that wild country, inhabited only by a few, that lies between the emperor of morocco's dominions and the negroes. it is filled with wild beasts and the moors use it for hunting chiefly.--from this place i thought i saw the top of the mountain teneriff in the canaries: which made me try twice to attain it: but as often was i drove back, and so forced to pursue my fortune along shore. early one morning we came to an anchor under a little point of land, but pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay ready to go further in--but xury, whose youthful and penetrating eyes were sharper then mine, in a soft tone, desired me to keep far from land, lest we should be devoured, "for look yonder, mayter," said he, "and see de dreadful monster fast asleep on de side of de hill." accordingly looking where he pointed, i espied a fearful monster indeed. it was a terrible great lion that lay on shore, covered as it were by a shade of a piece of the hill. "xury," said i, "you shall go on shore and kill him." but the boy looked amazed: "me kill him!" says he, "he eat me at one mouth:" meaning one mouthful. upon which i bid him lie still, and charging my biggest gun with two slugs, and a good charge of powder, i took the best aim i could to shoot him through the head, but his leg lying over his nose, the slug broke his knee-bone. the lion awaking with the pain, got up, but soon fell down, giving the most hideous groan i ever heard: but taking my second piece, i shot him through the head, and then he lay struggling for life. upon this xury took heart and desired my leave to go on shore. "go then," said i. upon which taking a little gun in one hand, he swam to shore with the other, and coming close to the lion, put a period to his life, by shooting him again through the head. but this was spending our ammunition in vain, the flesh not being good to eat. xury was like a champion, and comes on board for a hatchet, to cut of the head of his enemy: but not having strength to perform it, he cut off and brought me a foot. i bethought me, however, that his skin would be of use. this work cost xury and me a whole day: when spreading it on the top of our cabin, the hot beams of the sun effectually dried it in two days time, and it afterwards served me for a bed to lie on. and now we sailed southerly, living sparingly on our provisions, and went no oftener on shore than we were obliged for fresh water. my design was to make the river gambia or senegal, or any where about the cape de verde, in hopes to meet some european ship. if providence did not so favour me, my next course was to seek for the islands, or lose my life among the negroes. and in a word, i put my whole stress upon this, "either that i must meet with some ship or certainly perish." one day as we were sailing along, we saw people stand on the shore looking at us: we could also perceive they were black and stark naked. i was inclined to go on shore, but xury cried, "no, no:" however, i approached nearer, and i found they run along the shore by me a good way. they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who held a long stick, which xury told me was a lance, with which they could kill at a great distance. i talked to them by signs and made them sensible i wanted something to eat: they beckoned to me to stop my boat, while two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dried flesh, and some corn, which we kindly accepted; and to prevent any fears on either side, they brought the food to the shore, laid it down, then went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again. but while we were returning thanks to them, being all we could afford, two mighty creatures came from the mountains: one as it were pursuing the other with great fury, which we were the rather inclined to believe as they seldom appear but in the night: and both these swiftly passing by the negroes, jumped into the sea, wantonly swimming about, as tho' the diversion of the waters had put a stop to their fierceness. at last one of them coming nearer to my boat than i expected or desired, i shot him directly through the head; upon which he sunk immediately, and yet rising again, would have willingly made the shore: but between the wound and the strangling of the water, he died before he could reach it. it is impossible to express the consternation the poor negroes were in at the firing of my gun; much less can i mention their surprise, when they perceived the creature to be slain by it. i made signs to them to draw near it with a rope, and then gave it them to hale on shore. it was a beautiful leopard, which made me desire its skin: and the negroes seeming to covet the carcase, i freely gave it to them. as for the other leopard, it made to shore, and ran with prodigious swiftness out of sight. the negroes having kindly furnished me with water, and with what roots and grains their country afforded, i took my leave, and, after eleven days sail, came in sight of the cape de verde, and those islands called by its name. but the great distance i was from it, and fearing contrary winds would prevent my reaching them, i began to grow melancholy and dejected, when, upon a sudden, xury cried out, "master! master! a ship with a sail!" and looked as affrighted as if it was his master's ship sent in search of us. but i soon discovered she was a portuguese ship, as i thought bound to the coast of guinea for negroes. upon which i strove for life to come up to them. but vain had it been, if through their perspective glasses they had not perceived me and shortened their sail to let me come up. encouraged at this, i set up my patron's ancient, and fired a gun, both as signals of distress; upon which they very kindly lay to, so that in three hours time i came up with them. they spoke to me in portuguese, spanish, and french, but neither of these did i understand; till at length a scots sailor called, and then i told him i was an englishman, who had escaped from the moors at sallee: upon which they took me kindly on board, with all my effects. surely none can express the inconceivable joy i felt at this happy deliverance! who from being a late miserable and forlorn creature was not only relieved, but in favour with the master of the ship, to whom, in return for my deliverance, i offered all i had. "god forbid," said he, "that i should take any thing from you. every thing shall be delivered to you when you come to brazil. if i have saved your life it is no more than i should expect to receive myself from any other, when in the same circumstances i should happen to meet the like deliverance. and should i take from you what you have, and leave you at brazil, why, this would be only taking away a life i had given. my charity teaches me better. those effects you have will support you there, and provide you a passage home again." and, indeed, he acted with the strictest justice in what he did, taking my things into his possession, and giving me an exact inventory, even to my earthen jars. he bought my boat of me for the ship's use, giving me a note of eighty pieces of eight, payable at brazil; and if any body offered more, he would make it up. he also gave me 60 pieces for my boy xury. it way with great reluctance i was prevailed upon to sell the child's liberty, who had served me so faithfully; but the boy was willing himself; and it was agreed, that after ten years he should be made free, upon his renouncing mahometanism, and embracing christianity. having a pleasant voyage to the brazils, we arrived in the bay de todos los santos, or all saints bay, in twenty-two days after. and here i cannot forget the generous treatment of the captain. he would take nothing for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and thirty for the lion's. every thing he caused to be delivered, and what i would sell he bought. in short i made about 220 pieces of my cargo; and with this stock i entered once more, as i may say into the scene of life. being recommended to an honest planter, i lived with him till such time as i was informed of the manner of their planting and making sugar; and seeing how well they lived, and how suddenly they grew rich, i was filled with a desire to settle among them, and resolved to get my money remitted to me, and to purchase a plantation. to be brief, i bought a settlement next door to an honest and kind neighbour, born at lisbon, of english parents, whose plantation joining to mine, we improved it very amicably together. both our stocks were low, and for two years we planted only for food: but the third year we planted some tobacco, and each of us dressed a large piece of ground the ensuing year for planting canes. but now i found how much i wanted assistance, and repented the loss of my dear boy xury. having none to assist me, my father's words came into my mind; and i used to ask myself, if what i sought was only a middle station of life, why could it not as well be obtained in england as here? when i pondered on this with regret, the thoughts of my late deliverance forsook me. i had none to converse with but my neighbour; no work to be done but by my own hands; it often made me say, my condition was like to that of a man cast upon a desolate island. so unhappy are we in our reflections, so forgetful of what good things we receive ourselves, and so unthankful for our deliverance from these calamities that others endure. i, was in some measure settled, before the captain who took me up departed from the brazils. one day i went to him, and told him what stock i had in london, desiring his assistance in getting it remitted; to which the good gentleman readily consented, but would only have me send for half my money, lest it should miscarry; which, if it did, i might still have the remainder to support me: and so taking letters of procuration of me, bid me trouble myself no farther about it. and indeed wonderful was his kindness towards me; for he not only procured the money i had drawn for upon my captain's widow, but sent me over a servant with a cargo proportionable to my condition. he also sent me over tools of all sorts, iron-work, and utensils necessary for my plantation, which proved to be of the greatest use to me in my business. wealth now accumulating on me, and uncommon success crowning my prosperous labours, i might have rested happy in that middle state of life my father had so often recommended, yet nothing would content me, such was my evil genius, but i must leave this happy station, for a foolish ambition in rising; and thus, once more, i cast myself into the greatest gulph of misery that ever poor creature fell into. having lived four years in brazil, i had not only learned the language, but contracted acquaintance with the most eminent planters, and even the merchants of st. salvadore; to whom, once, by way of discourse, having given account of my two voyages to the coast of guinea and the manner of trading there for mere trifles, by which we furnish our plantations with negroes, they gave such attention to what i said, that three of them came one morning to me, and told me they had a secret proposal to make. after enjoining me to secrecy (it being an infringement on the powers of the kings of portugal and spain) they told me they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to guinea, in order to stock the plantation with negroes, which as they could not be publicly sold, they would divide among them: and if i would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part, i should have ah equal share of the negroes, without providing any stock. the thing indeed was fair enough, had i been in another condition. but i, born to be my own destroyer, could not resist the proposal, but accepted the offer upon condition of their looking after my plantation. so making a formal will, i bequeathed my effects to my good friend the captain, as my universal heir; but obliged him to dispose of my effects as directed, one half of the produce to himself, and the other to be shipped to england. the ship being fitted out, and all things ready, we set sail the first of september, 1659, being the same day eight-years i left my father and, mother in yorkshire. we sailed northward upon the coast, in order to gain africa, till we made cape augustine; from whence going farther into the ocean, out of sight of land, we steered as though we were bound for the isle fernand de norenba, leaving the islands on the east; and then it was that we met with a terrible tempest, which continued for twelve days successively, so that the wind carried us wheresoever they pleased. in this perplexity one of our men died, and one man and a boy were washed overboard. when the weather cleared up a little, we found ourselves eleven degrees north latitude, upon the coast of guinea. upon this the captain gave reasons for returning; which i opposed, counselling him to stand away for barbadoes, which as i supposed, might be attained in fifteen days. so altering our course, we sailed north-west and by west, in order to reach the leeward islands; but a second storm succeeding, drove us to the westward; so that we were justly afraid of falling into the hands of cruel savages, or the paws of devouring beasts of prey. in this great distress, one of our men, early in the morning cried out, _land, land!_ which he had no sooner cried out, but our ship struck upon a sand bank, and in a moment the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately. we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land we were driven; whether an island or the main, inhabited or not inhabited; and we could not so much as hope that the ship would hold out many minutes, without breaking in pieces, except the wind by a miracle should turn about immediately. while we stood looking at one another, expecting death every moment, the mate lay a hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest got her flung over the ship's side, and getting all into her, being eleven of us, committed ourselves to god's mercy and the wild sea. and now we saw that this last effort would not be a sufficient protection from death; so high did the sea rise, that it was impossible the boat should live. as to making sail, we had none; neither if we had, could we make use of any. so that when we had rowed, or rather were driven about a league and a half, a raging wave, like a lofty mountain, came rolling astern of us, and took us with such fury, that at once it overset the boat. thus being swallowed up in a moment, we had hardly time to call upon the tremendous name of god; much less to implore, in dying ejaculations, his infinite mercy to receive our departing souls. men are generally counted insensible, when struggling in the pangs of death; but while i was overwhelmed with water, i had the most dreadful apprehensions imaginable. for the joys of heaven and the torments of hell, seemed to present themselves before me in these dying agonies, and even small space of time, as it were, between life and death. i was going i thought i knew not whither, into a dismal gulf unknown, and as yet unperceived, never to behold my friends, nor the light of this world any more! could i even have thought of annihilation, or a total dissolution of soul as well as body, the gloomy thoughts of having no further being, no knowledge of what we hoped for, but an eternal _quietus_, without life or sense: even that, i say, would have been enough to strike me with horror and confusion! i strove, however, to the last extremity, while all my companions were overpowered and entombed in the deep: and it was with great difficulty i kept my breath till the wave spent itself, and retiring back, left me on the shore half dead with the water i had taken in. as soon as i got on my feet, i ran as fast as i could, lest another wave should pursue me, and carry me back again. but for all the haste i made, i could not avoid it: for the sea came after me like a high mountain, or furious enemy; so that my business was to hold my breath, and by raising myself on the water, preserve it by swimming. the next dreadful wave buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep, but at the same time carried me with a mighty force and swiftness toward the shore: when raising myself, i held out as well as possible, till at length the water having spent itself, began to return, at which i struck forward, and feeling ground with my feet, i took to my heels again. thus being served twice more, i was at length dashed against a piece of a rock, in such a manner as left me senseless; but recovering a little before the return of the wave, which, no doubt, would then have overwhelmed me, i held fast by the rock till those succeeding waves abated; and then fetching another run, was overtaken by a small wave, which was soon conquered. but before any more could overtake me, i reached the main land, where clambering up the cliffs of the shore, tired and almost spent i sat down on the grass, free from the dangers of the foaming ocean. no tongue can express the ecstasies and transports that my soul felt at the happy deliverance. it was like a reprieve to a dying malefactor, with a halter about his neck, and ready to be turned off. i was wrapt up in contemplation and often lifted up my hands, with the profoundest humility, to the divine powers, for saving, my life, when the rest of my companions were all drowned. and now i began to cast my eyes around, to behold what place i was in and what i had next to do. i could see no house nor people; i was wet, yet had no clothes to shift me; hungry and thirsty, yet had nothing to eat or drink; no weapon to destroy any creature for my sustenance; nor defend myself against devouring beasts; in short, i had nothing but a knife, a tobacco pipe, and a box half filled with tobacco. the darksome night coming on upon me, increased my fears of being devoured by wild creatures; my mind was plunged in despair, and having no prospect, as i thought, of life before me, i prepared for another kind of death then what i had lately escaped. i walked about a furlong to see if i could find any fresh water, which i did, to my great joy: and taking a quid of tobacco to prevent hunger, i got up into a thick bushy tree, and seating myself so that i could not fall, a deep sleep overtook me, and for that night buried my sorrows in a quiet repose. it was broad day the next morning before i awaked; when i not only perceived the tempest was ceased, but law the ship driven almost as far as the rock before-mentioned, which the waves had dashed me against, and which was about a mile from the place where i was. when i came down from my apartment in the tree, i perceived the ship's boat two miles distant on my right-hand, lying on shore, as the waves had cast her. i thought to have got to her; but there being an inlet of water of about half a mile's breadth between it and me, i returned again towards the ship, as hoping to find something for my more immediate subsistence. about noon, when the sea was calm, that i could come within a quarter of a mile of her, it was to my grief i perceived, that, if we had kept on board all our lives had been saved. these thoughts, and my solitude drew tears from my eyes, though all in vain. so resolving to get to the ship, i stripped and leapt into the water, when swimming round her, i was afraid i should not get any thing to lay hold of; but it was my good fortune to espy a small piece of rope hang down by the fore chains, so low that, by the help of it, though with great difficulty, i got into the forecastle of the ship. here i found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold: her stern was lifted up against a bank, and her head almost to the water. all her quarter and what was there, was free and dry. the provisions i found in good order, with which i crammed my pockets, and losing no time, ate while i was doing other things: i also found some rum, of which i took a hearty dram: and now i wanted for nothing except a boat, which indeed was all, to carry away what was needful for me. necessity occasions quickness of thought. we had several spare yards, a spare topmast or two, and two or three large spars of wood. with these i fell to work, and flung as many of them overboard as i could manage, tying every one of them with a rope, that they might not drive away. this done, i went down to the ship's side, and tyed four of them fast together at both ends, in form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them crosswise, i found it would bear me, but not any considerable weight. upon which i went to work again, cutting a spare topmast into three lengths, adding them to my raft with a great deal of labour and pains. i then considered what i should load it with, it being not able to bear a ponderous burden. and this i soon thought of, first laying upon it all the planks and boards i could get; next i lowered down three of the seamen's chests, after i had filled them with bread, rice, three dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh, and some european corn, what little the rats had spared: and for liquors, i found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were some cordial waters, and four or five gallons of rack, which i stowed by themselves. by this time the tide beginning to flow, i perceived my coat, waistcoat, and shirt, swim away, which i had left on the shore; as for my linen breeches and stockings, i swam with them to the ship; but i soon found clothes enough, though i took no more than i wanted for the present. my eyes were chiefly on tools to work with; and after a long search, i found out the carpenter's chest, which i got safe down on my raft. i then looked for arms and ammunition, and in the great cabin found two good fowling pieces, two pistols, several powder horns filled, a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. i likewise found three barrels of powder, two of which were good, but the third had taken water, also two or three broken oars, two saws, an ax, and a hammer. i then put to sea, and in getting to shore had three encouragements. 1. a smooth calm sea. 2. the tide rising and letting in to shore. 3. the little wind there was blew towards the land. after i had sailed about a mile, i found the raft to drive a little distance from the place where i first landed; and then i perceived a little opening of the land, with a strong current of the tide running into it: upon which i kept the middle of the stream. but great was my concern, when on a sudden the fore part of my raft ran a ground, so that had i not, with great difficulty, for near half an hour, kept my back straining against the chests to keep my effects in their places, all i had would have gone into the sea. but after some time, the rising of the water caused the raft to float again, and coming up a little river with land on both sides, i landed in a little cove, as near the mouth as possible, the better to discover a sail, if any such providentially passed that way. not far off, i espied a hill of stupendous height, surounded with lesser hills about it, and thither i was resolved to go and view the country that i might see what part was best, to fix my habitation. accordingly, arming myself with a pistol a fowling piece, powder and ball, i ascended the mountain. there i perceived i was in an island, encompassed by the sea; no distant lands to be seen but scattering rocks that lay to the west: that it seemed to be a barren place, and, as i thought, inhabited only by wild beasts. i perceived abundance of fowls, but ignorant of what kind, or whether good for nourishment; i shot one of them at my return, which occasioned a confused screaming among the other birds, and i found it, by its colours and beak, to be a kind of a hawk, but its flesh was perfect carrion. when i came to my raft, i brought my effects on shore, which work spent that day entirely; and fearing that some cruel beasts might devour me in the night time while i slept, i made a kind of hut or barricade with the chests and boards i had brought onshore. that night i slept very comfortably; and the next morning my thoughts were employed to make a further attempt on the ship, and bring away what necessaries i could find, before another storm should break her to pieces. accordingly i got on board as before, and prepared a second raft far more nice then the first, upon which i brought away the carpenter's stores, two or three bags full of nails, a great jack-screw, a dozen or two of hatchets, and a grind-stone. i also took away several things that belonged to the gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, two barels of musket-bullets, another fowling-piece, a small quantity of powder, and a large bagful of small shot. besides these, i took all the men's clothes i could find, a spare fore topsail, a hammock, and some bedding; and thus completing my second cargo, i made all the haste to shore i could, fearing some wild beast might destroy what i had there already. but i only found a little wild cat sitting on one of the chests, which seeming not to fear me or the gun that i presented at her, i threw her a piece of biscuit, which she instantly ate, and departed. when i had gotten these effects on shore, i went to work in order to make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which i had cut for that purpose; and having finished it, what things might be damaged by the weather i brought in, piling all the empty chests and calks in a circle, the better to fortify it against any sudden attempt of man or beast. after this, i blocked up the doors with some boards, and an empty chest, turned the long way out. i then charged my gun and pistol, and laying my bed on the ground, slept as comfortably, till next morning, as though i had been in a christian country. now, though i had enough to subsist me a long time, yet despairing of a sudden deliverance, or that both ammunition and provision might be spent before such a thing happened, i coveted as much as i could; and so long as the ship remained in that condition, i daily brought away one necessary or other; particularly the rigging, sails, and cordage, some twine, a barrel of wet powder, some sugar, a barrel of meal, 3 calks of rum, &, what indeed was most welcome to me, a whole hogshead of bread. the next time i went i cut the cables in pieces, carried off a hawser whole, with a great deal of iron work, and made another raft with the mizen and sprit-sail-yard; but this being so unwieldy, by the too heavy burden i had upon it, and not being able so dextrously to guide it, as the former, both my cargo and i were overturned. for my part, all the damage i sustained was a wet skin; and, at low water, after much labour in diving, i got most of the cables, and some pieces of iron. thirteen days i had now been in the island, and eleven times on board, bringing away all that was possible, and, i believe, had the weather been calm, i should have brought away the whole ship piece by piece. as i was going the twelfth time, the wind began to rise; however, i ventured at low water, and rummaging the cabin, in a locker i found several razors, scissors, and some dozens of knives and forks; and in another thirty-six pounds in pieces of eight, silver and gold. _ah! simple vanity_ said i _whom this world so much dotes on, where is now thy virtue, thy excellency to me? you cannot procure me one thing needful, nor remove me from this desolate island to a place of plenty. one of these knives, so meanly esteemed, is to me more preferable than all this heap. e'en therefore remain where thou art to sink in the deep as unregarded, even as a creature whose life is not worth preserving._ yet, after all this exclamation, i wrapt it up in a piece of canvas, and began to think of making another raft, but i soon perceived the wind began to arise, a fresh gale blowing from the shore, and the sky overcast with clouds and darkness; so thinking a a raft to be in yaw, i let myself into the water with what things i had about me, and it was with much difficulty i got ashore, when soon after it blew a fearful storm. that night i slept very contentedly in my little tent, surrounded with all my effects; but when i looked out in the morning no more ship was to be seen. this much surprised me for the present; yet, when i considered i had lost no time, abated no pains and had got every thing useful out of her, i comforted myself in the best manner, and entirely submitted to the will of providence. my next thoughts were, how i should defend and secure myself from savages and wild beasts, if any such were in the island. at one time i thought of digging a cave, at another i was for erecting a tent; and, at length, i resolved to do both: the manner or form of which will not, i hope, be unpleasing to describe. when i considered the ground where i was, that it was moorish, and had no fresh water near it, my resolutions were to search for a soil healthy and well watered, where i might not only be sheltered from the sun's scorching heat, but be more conveniently situated, as well to be secured from wild men and beasts of prey, as more easily to discover any distant sail, should it ever happen. and, indeed, it was not long before i had my desire. i found a little plain near a rising hill, the front towards which being as steep as a house side, nothing could descend on me from the top. on the side of this rock, was a little hollow place, resembling the entrance or door of a cave. just before this place; on the circle of the green, i resolved my tent should stand. this plain did not much exceed a hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, like a delightful green, before my door, with a pleasing, though an irregular descent every way to the low grounds by the sea-side, lying on the n. w. side of the hill, so that it was sheltered from the excessive heat of the sun. after this, i drew a semi-circle, containing ten yards in a semi-diameter, and twenty yards in the whole, driving down two rows; of strong stakes, not 6 inches from each other. then with the pieces of cable which i had cut on board, i regularly laid them in a circle between the piles up to their tops, which were more than five feet out of the earth, and after drove another row of piles looking within side against them, between two or three feet high, which made me conclude it a little impregnable castle against men and beasts. and for my better security i would have no door, but entered in and came out by the help of a ladder, which i also made. [illustration: robinson crusoe building his castle. _dr. & eng. by a. carse, edin._] here was my fence and fortress, into which i carried all my riches, ammunition, and stores. after which, working on the rock, what with dirt and stones i dug out, i not only raised my ground two feet, but made a little cellar to my mansion-house; and this cost me many days labour and pains. one day in particular a shower of rain falling, thunder and lighting ensued, which put me in terror lest my powder should take fire, and not only hinder my necessary subsistence, by killing me food, but even blow up me and my habitation. to prevent which, i fell to making boxes and bags, in order to separate it, having by me near 150lb. weight. and thus being established as king of the island, every day i went out with my gun to see what i could kill that was fit to eat. i soon perceived numbers of goats but very shy, yet having watched them narrowly, and seeing i could better shoot off the rocks than when in the low grounds, i happened to shoot a she-goat suckling a young kid; which not thinking its dam slain, stood by her unconcerned; and when i took the dead creature up, the young one followed me even to the inclosure. i lifted the kid over the pales, and would willingly have kept it alive; but finding it could not be brought to eat, i was forced to slay it also for my subsistence. thus entered into as strange a scene of life as ever any man was in, i had most melancholy apprehensions concerning my deplorable condition: and many times the tears would plentifully run down my face, when i considered how i was debarred from all communications with human kind. yet while these disponding cogitations would seem to make me accuse providence, other good thoughts would interpose and reprove me after this manner: well, supposing you are desolate, it is not better to be so than totally perish? why, were you singled out to be saved and the rest destroyed? why should you complain, when not only your life is preserved, but the ship driven into your reach, in order to take what was necessary out of her for your subsistence? but to proceed, it was, by the account i kept, the 30th of september, when i first landed on this island. about twelve days after, fearing lest i should lose my reckoning of time, nay, even forget the sabbath days, for want of pen, ink, and paper, i carved with a knife upon a large post, in great letters; and set it up: in the similitude of a cross, on the seashore where i landed, i came on shore, _sept._ 30 1659. every day i cut a notch with my knife on the sides of the square post, and this on the sabbath was as long again as the rest; and every first day of the month as long again as that long one. in this manner i kept my calendar, weekly, monthly or yearly reckoning of time. but had i made a more strict search (as afterwards i did) i needed not have set up this mark; for among the parcels belonging to the gunner, carpenter, and captain's mate, i found those very things i wanted; particularly pens, ink, and paper. so i found two or three compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials, perspective glasses, books of navigation, three english bibles, and several other good books, which i carefully put up.--here i cannot but call to mind our having a dog and two cats on board, whom i made inhabitants with me in my castle. though one might think i had all the necessities that were desirable, yet still i found several things wanting. my ink was daily wasting; i wanted needles, pins, and thread to mend or keep my clothes together; and particularly a spade, pickax, or shovel, to remove the earth. it was a year before i finished my little bulwark; and having some intervals of relaxation, after my daily wandering abroad for provision, i drew up this plan, alternately, as creditor and debtor, to remind me of the miseries and blessings of my life, under so many various circumstances. e v i l i am cast upon a desolate island, having no hopes, no prospects of a welcome deliverance. thus miserably am i singled out from the enjoyment or company of all mankind. like an hermit (rather should i say a lonely anchorite) am i forced from human conversation. my clothes after some time will be worn out; and then i shall have none to cover me. when my ammunition is wasted, then shall i remain without any defence against wild men and beasts. i have no creature, no soul to speak to; none to beg assistance from. some comfort would it be to resound my woes where i am understood, and beg assistance where i might hope for relief. good but yet i am preserved, while my companions are perished in the raging ocean. yet set apart to be spared from death. and he, who has so preserved me, can deliver me from this condition. however, i have food to eat, and even a happy prospect of subsistence while life endures. at present i enjoy what is absolutely needful; and the climate is so hot, that had i never so many, i would hardly wear them. yet if it does, i see no danger of any hurt to me, as in africa; and what if i had been cast away, upon that coast. is there not god to converse to, and is not he able to relieve thee? already has he afforded thee sustenance, and put it in thy power to provide for thyself till he sends thee a deliverance. and now easing my mind a little by these reflections, i began to render my life as easy as possible. i must here add, to the description i have given of my habitation, that having raised a turf wall against the outside of it, i thatched it so close as might keep it from the inclemency of the weather; i also improved it within, enlarged my cave, and made a passage and door in the rock, which came out beyond the pale of my fortification. i next proceeded to make a chair and a table, and so began to study such mechanical arts as seemed to me practicable. when i wanted a plank or board i hewed down a tree with my hatchet, making it as thin with my ax as possible, and then smooth enough with an adz to answer my designs: yet though i could make no more this way than one board out of a tree, in length of time i got boards enough to shelter all my stores, every thing being regularly placed, and my guns securely hanging against the side of the rock. this made it a very pleasant sight to me, as being the result of vast labour and diligence; which leaving for a while, and me to the enjoyment of it, i shall give the reader an account of my journal from the day of my landing, till the fixing and settling of my habitation, as heretofore shown. * * * * * journal. _september 30, 1659_. i unhappy robinson crusoe, having suffered shipwreck, was driven on this desolate island, which i named the _desolate island of despair_, my companions being swallowed up in the tempestous ocean. the next day i spent in consideration of my unhappy circumstances, having no prospect but of death, either to be starved with hunger, or devoured with beasts or merciless savages. _oct. 1_. that morning, with great comfort, i beheld the ship drove ashore. some hopes i had, that when the storm was abated i might be able to get some food and necessaries out of her, which i conceived were not damaged, because the ship did stand upright. at this time i lamented the loss of my companions, and our misfortune in leaving the vessel. when i perceived the ship as it were lay dry, i waded through the sands, then swam aboard, the weather being very rainy, and with scarcely any wind. to the 14th of this month, my time was employed in making voyages, every tide getting what i could out of the ship. the weather very wet and uncertain. _oct. 20_. my raft and all the goods thereon were overset: yet i recovered most again at low water. _oct. 25_. it blew hard, and rained night and day, when the ship went in pieces, so that nothing was seen of her but the wreck at low water. this day i secured my goods from the inclemency of the weather. _oct. 26_. i wandered to see where i could find a place convenient for my abode. i fixed upon a rock in the evening, marked out a half-moon, intending to erect a wall, fortified with piles, lined within with pieces of cables, and covered with turf. _nov. 1_. i erected my tent under a rock, and took up my lodgings very contentedly in a hammock that night. _nov._ 2. this day i fenced myself in with timber, chests, and boards. _nov._ 3. i shot two wild fowl, resembling ducks, which were good to eat, and in the afternoon made me a table. _nov._ 4. i began to live regularly. in the morning i allowed myself two or three hours to walk out with my gun; i then worked till near eleven o'clock, and afterwards refreshed myself, with what i had to eat. from twelve to two i would lie down to sleep. extremely sultry weather. in the evening go to work again. _nov._ 5. went out with my gun and dog, shot a wild cat with a soft skin, but her flesh was good for nothing. the skins of those i killed, i preserved. in my return, i perceived many wild birds, and was terrified by some seals which made off to sea. _nov._ 6. completed my table. _nov._ 7. fair weather. i worked till the 12th, but omitted the 11th, which, according to my calculation, i supposed to be sunday. _nov._ 13. rain in abundance, which, however, much cooled the air; with thunder and lightening, caused in me a terrible surprise. the weather clearing, i secured my powder in separate parcels. _nov._ 14--16. i made little boxes for my powder, lodging them in several places. i also shot a large fowl, which proved excellent meat. _nov._ 17. i began to dig in the rock, yet was obliged to desist for want of a pickax, shovel, and wheel-barrow. iron crows i caused to supply the place of the first; but with all my art i could not make a wheel-barrow. _nov._ 18. it was my fortune to find a tree, resembling what brazilians call an iron tree. i had like to have spoiled my ax with cutting it, being very hard and exceedingly heavy; yet with much labour & industry, i made a sort of a spade out of it. _nov._ 21. these tools being made, i daily carried on my business; eighteen days i allowed for enlarging my cave, that it might serve me, not only for a warehouse, but kitchen, parlour, and cellar. i commonly lay in the tent, unless the weather was rainy that i could not lie dry. so wet would it be at certain seasons, that i was obliged to cover all within the pale with long poles, in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and loaded them with flags and large leaves of trees, resembling a thatch. _dec._ 10. no sooner did i think my habitation finished, but suddenly a great deal of the top broke in, so that it was a mercy i was not buried in the ruins. this occasioned a great deal of pains and trouble to me, before i could make it firm and durable. _dec_ 17. i nailed up some shelves and drove nails and staples in the wall and posts to hang things out of the way. _dec_ 20. every thing i got into its place, then made a sort of a dresser, and another table. _dec._ 24. 25. rain in abundance. _dec._ 26. very fair weather. _dec._ 27. i chanced to light on some goats, shot one and wounded another. i led it home in a string, bound up its leg, and cured it in a little time; at length it became so tame and familiar as to feed before the door, and follow me where i pleased. this put me in mind to bring up tame creatures, in order to supply me with food after my ammunition was spent. _dec._ 28, 29, 30. the weather being excessively hot, with little air, obliged me for the most part, to keep within doors. _jan_ 1. still sultry, however, obliged by necessity, i went out with my gun, and found a great store of goats in the valleys; they were exceedingly shy, nor could my dog hunt them down. _jan._ 3 to 14. my employment this time was to finish the wall before described, and search the island. i discovered a kind of pigeons like our house-pigeons in a nest among the rocks. i brought them home, nursed them till they could fly, and then they left me. after this, i shot some, which proved excellent food. some time i spent vainly in contriving to make a cask; i may well say it was vain, because i could neither joint the staves; nor fix the heads, so as to make it tight: so, leaving that, took some goat's tallow i had about me, and a little okum for the wick, and provided myself with a lamp, which served me instead of candles. but now a very strange event happened. for being in the height of my search, what should come into my hand, but a bag, which was used to hold corn (as i supposed) for the fowls; so immediately resolving to put gunpowder in it, i shook all the hulks and dirt upon one side of the rock, little expecting what the consequences would be. the rain had fallen plentifully a few days before; and about a month after, to my great amazement something began to lock out very green and flourishing; and when i came to view it more nicely, every day as it grew, i found about ten or twelve ears of green barley appeared in the very same shape and make as that in england. i can scarce express the agitations of my mind at this sight. hitherto i had looked upon the actions of this life no otherwise than only as the events of blind chance and fortune. but now the appearance of this barley, flourishing in a barren soil, and my ignorance in not conceiving how it should come there, made me conclude _that miracles were not yet ceased:_ nay, i even thought that god had appointed it to grow there without any seed, purely for my sustenance in this miserable and desolate island. and indeed such great effect this had upon me, that it often made me melt into tears, through a grateful sense of god's mercies; and the greater still was my thankfulness, when i perceived about this little field of barley some rice stalks, also wonderfully flourishing. while thus pleased in mind, i concluded there must be more corn in the island; and therefore made a diligent search narrowly among the rocks; but not being able to find any, on a sudden it came into my mind, how i had shaken the husks of corn out of the bag, and then my admiration ceased, with my gratitude to the divine being, _as thinking it was but natural_, and not to be conceived a miracle; though even the manner of its preservation might have made me own it as a wonderful event of god's kind providence. it was about the latter end of june when the ears of this corn ripened, which i laid up very carefully together with 20 or 30 stalks of rice, expecting one day i should reap the fruit of my labour; yet four years were expired before i could allow myself to eat any barley-bread, and much longer time before i had any rice. after this, with indefatigable pains and industry for three or four months, at last i finished my wall on the 14th, of april, having no way to go into it, but by ladder against the wall. _april_ 16. i finished my ladder, and ascended it; afterwards pulled it up, then let it down on the other side, and descended into my new habitation, where i had space enough, and so fortified that nothing could attack me, without scaling the walls. but what does all human pains and industry avail, if the blessing of god does not crown our labours? or who can stand before the almighty, when he stretcheth forth his arm? for one time as i was at the entrance of my cave, there happened such a dreadful earthquake, that not only the roof of the cave came rumbling about my ears, but the posts seemed to crack terribly at the same time. this put me in great amazement; and running to the ladder, and getting over the wall, i then plainly knew it was an earthquake, the place i stood on sustaining three terrible shocks in less than three minutes. but judge of my terror when i saw the top of a great rock roll into the sea; i then expected the island would be swallowed up every moment: and what made the scene still more dreadful, was to see the sea thrown into the most violent agitations and disorders by this tremendous accident. for my part i stood like a criminal at the place of execution ready to expire. at the moving of the earth, i was, as it were, sea-sick; and very much afraid lest the rock, under which was my fence and habitation, should overwhelm it and myself in a lasting tomb. when the third dreadful shock had spent itself, my spirits began to revive; yet still i would not venture to ascend the ladder, but continued fitting, not knowing what i should do. so little grace had i then, as only to say _lord have mercy upon me!_ and no sooner was the earthquake over, but that pathetic prayer left me. it was not long after, when a horrible tempest arose, at the same time attended with a huricane of wind. the sea seemed mountains high, and the waves rolled so impetously, that nothing could be perceived but froth and foam. three hours did this storm continue, and in so violent a manner, as to tear the very trees up by the roots, which was succeeded by abundance of rain. when the tempest was over i went to my tent: but the rain coming on in a furious manner, i was obliged to take shelter in the cave, where i was forced to cut a channel through my fortification to let the water out. it continued raining all that night, and some time the next day. these accidents made me resolve, as soon as the weather cleared up, to build me a little hut in some open place, walled round to defend me from wild creatures and savages; not doubting but at the next earthquake, the mountain would fall upon my habitation and me, and swallow up all in its bowels. _april_ 16--20. these days i spent in contriving how and in what manner i should fix my place of abode. all this while i was under the most dreadful apprehensions. when i looked round my habitation, every thing i found in its proper place. i had several resolutions whether i should move or not; but at length resolved to stay where i was, till i found out a convenient place where i might pitch my tent. _april_ 22. when i began to put my resolutions in practice, i was stopt for want of tools and instruments to work with. most of my axes and hatchets were useless, occasioned by cutting the hard timber that grew on the island. it took me up a full week to make my grind-stone of use to me, and at last i found out a way to turn it about with my foot, by help of a wheel and a string. _april_ 28--29. these days were spent in grinding my tools. _april_ 30. my bread falling short, i allowed myself but one biscuit a day. _may_ 1. as i walked along the sea shore i found a barrel of gunpowder, and several pieces of the wreck, the sea had flung up. having secured those, i made to the ship, whose stern was torn off, and washed a great distance ashore; but the rest lay in the sands. this i suppose was occasioned by the earthquake. i now resolved to keep my old place of abode; and also to go to the ship that day, but then found it impossible. _may_ 3. this day i went on board, and with my saw sawed off one of the beams, which kept her quarter-deck. i then cleared the sand till flood. _may_ 4. i caught some fish, but they were not wholesome, the same day i also catched a young dolphin. _may 5._ 'this day i also repaired to the wreck, and sawed another piece of timber, and when the flood came, i made a float of three great planks, which were driven ashore by the tide. _may 6, 7, 8, 9._ these days i brought off the iron bolts, opened the deck with the iron crow, and carried two planks to land, having made a way into the very middle of the wreck. _may 10, 11, 12, 13, 14._ all this time i spent in bringing off great quantities of iron and timber. _may 15._ took with me two hatchets on purpose to cut off some lead from the roll, but all in vain, for it lay too low under water. _may 16._ i omitted going to the wreck this day, for employing myself in looking for pigeons, i outstaid my time. _may 17._ i perceived several pieces of the wreck driven ashore, which i found belonged to the head of the ship. _may 24._ to this day i worked on the wreck, and with great difficulty loosened some things so much with the crow, that at the first flowing tide several casks floated out, and many of the seamen's chests, yet that day nothing came to land but pieces of timber, and a hogshead which had some brazil pork in it. i continued working to the 15th of june; (except necessary times for food and rest) and had i known how to have built a boat, i had timber and planks enough; i had also near 100 weight of sheet lead. _june 16._ as i was wandering towards the sea-side, i found a large tortoise or turtle, being the first i had seen on the island, though, as i afterwards found, there were many on the other side of it. _june 17._ this day i spent in cooking it, found in her threescore eggs, and her flesh the most savoury and pleasant i ever tasted in my life. _june 18._ i staid within this day, there being a continual rain; and it was somewhat more chilly and cold than usual. _june 19._ exceedingly bad, being taken with a trembling and shivering. _june 20._ awake all night, my head racked with pain and feverish. _june 21._ sick unto death, and terrified with the dismal apprehensions of my condition. prayed to god more frequently, but very confusedly. _june 22._ something better, but still uneasy in my mind. _june 23._ again relapsed much as before. _june 24._ mended a second time. _june 25._ a violent ague for seven hours, cold and hot fits succeeded with faint sweats. _june 26._ better, but very weak, yet i scrambled out, shot a she-goat, brought it home and broiled some of it; i would willingly have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pod. _june 27_ all this day i was afflicted with an ague; thirsty, yet i could not help myself to water: prayed to god in these words: _lord, in pity look upon me: lord, have mercy upon me: have mercy upon me!_ after this i fell asleep, which i found had much refreshed me when i awaked. i fell fast asleep a second time, and fell into this strange and terrible sort of dream. methought i was sitting on the same spot of ground at the outside of the wall where i sat when the storm blew after the earthquake; and that i saw a man descending from a great black cloud, and alight upon the ground. he was all over as bright as a flash of fire that a little before surrounded him; his countenance inconceivably terrible; the earth as it were trembled when he stept upon the ground, and flashes of fire seemed to fill all the air. no sooner i thought him landed upon the earth, but with a long spear, or other weapon, he made towards me; but first ascending a rising ground, his voice added to my amazement, when i thought i heard him pronounce these dreadful words, _unhappy wretch! seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, thou shalt immediately die._ in pronouncing this dreadful sentence, i thought he went to kill me with the spear that was in his hand. any body may think it impossible for me to express the horrors of my mind at this vision: and even when i awaked, this very dream made a deep impression upon my mind. the little divine knowledge i had, i received from my father's instructions, and that was worn out by an uninterrupted series of sea-faring impiety for eight years space. except what sickness forced from me, i do not remember i had one thought of lifting up my heart towards god, but rather had a certain stupidity of soul, not having the least sense or fear of the omnipotent being when in distress, nor of gratitude to him for his deliverances. nay, when i was on the desperate expedition on the desert african shore, i cannot remember i had one thought of what would become of me, or to beg his consolation and assistance in my sufferings and distress. when the portugal captain took me up and honorably used me, nay, farther, when i was even delivered from drowning by escaping to this island, i never looked upon it as a judgment, but only said i was an unfortunate dog, and that's all. indeed some secret transports of soul i had, which was not through grace but only a common flight of joy, that i was yet alive, when my companions were all drowned, and no other joy could i conceive but what is common with the sailors over a bowl of punch, after they have escaped the greatest dangers. the likelihood of wanting for neither food nor conveniences, might have called upon me for a thankful acknowledgment to providence. indeed, the growth of my corn touched with some sense, but that soon wore off again. the terrible earthquake pointed to me, as it were, the finger of god, but my dreadful amazement continued no longer than its duration. but now, when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper, and i could leisurely view the miseries of death present themselves before my eyes, then my awakened conscience began to reproach me with my past life, in which i had so wickedly provoked the justice of god to pour down his vengeance upon me. such reflections as these oppressed me even in the violence of distemper. some prayers i uttered, which only proceeded from the fear of death. but when i considered my father's advice and prophecy, i could not forbear weeping; for he told me, _that if i did persist in my folly, i should not only be deprived of god's blessing, but have time enough to reflect upon my despising his instructions, and this, in a wretched time, when none could help me_. and now concluding it to be fulfilled, having no soul in the island to administer any comfort to me, i prayed earnestly to the lord, that he would help me in this great calamity. and this, i think, was the first time i prayed in sincerity for many years. but now i must return to my journal. _june_ 28. something refreshed with sleep, and the fit quite off, i got up. my dream still occasioned in me a great consternation; and, fearing that the ague might return the succeeding day, i concluded it time to get something to comfort me. i filled a case bottle with water, and set it within reach of my bed; and, to make it more nourishing and less chilly, i put some rum in it. the next thing i did was to broil me a piece of goat's flesh, of which i ate but little. i was very weak; however, walked about, dreading the return of my distemper; and at night i supped on three of the turtle's eggs, which i roasted and ate, begging god's blessing therewith. after i had eaten, i attempted to walk again out of doors with my gun; but was so weak, that i sat down, and looked at the sea, which was smooth and calm. while i continued here, these thoughts came into my mind. in what manner is the production of the earth and sea, of which i have seen so much? from whence came myself, and all other creatures living, and of what are they made? our beings were assuredly created by some almighty invisible power, who framed the earth the sea, and air, and all therein. but what is that power? certainly it must follow that god has created it all. yet, said i, if god has made all this he must be the ruler of them all, and what is relating thereto; for certainly the power that makes, must indisputably have a power to guide and direct them. and if this be so, (as certainly it must) nothing can happen without his knowledge and appointment. then, surely, if nothing happens without god's appointment, certainly god has appointed these my sufferings to befal me. and here i fixed my firm belief that it was his will that it should be so; and then proceeded to enquire, why should god deal with me in this manner? or what have i done thus to deserve his indignation. here conscience flew in my face, reprehending me as a blasphemer; crying with a loud and piercing voice, _unworthy wretch! how dare you ask what you have done? look on your past life, and see what you have left undone? ask thyself, why thou wert not long ago in the merciless hands of death? why not drowned in yarmouth roads, or killed in the fight, when the ship was taken by the sallee man of war? why not entombed in the bowels of wild beasts on the african coast, or drowned here when all thy companions suffered shipwreck in the ocean._ struck dumb with these reflections, i rose up in a pensive manner, being so thoughtful that i could not go to sleep; and fearing the dreadful return of my distemper, it caused me to remember, that the brazilians use tobacco for almost all diseases. i then went to my chest in older to find some, where heaven, no doubt, directed me to find a cure for both soul and body; for there i found one of the bibles, which, till this time, i had neither leisure nor inclination to look into, i took both the tobacco and that out of the chest, and laid them on the table. several experiments did i try with the tobacco: first, i took a piece or leaf, and chewed it; but it being very green and strong, almost stupified me. next i steeped it in some rum an hour or two, resolving when i went to bed to take a dole of it: and, in the third place, i burnt some over a pan of fire, holding my nose over it as long as i could endure it without suffocation. in the intervals of this operation, though my head was giddy and disturbed by the tobacco, i took up the bible to read. no sooner did i open it, but there appeared to me these words _call on me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me_. at first this sentence made a very deep impression on my heart, but it soon wore off again, when i considered the word _deliver_ was foreign to me. and as the children of israel said, when they were promised flesh to eat, _can god spread a table in the wilderness?_ in like manner i began to say, _can god himself deliver me from this desolate island?_ however, the words would still return to my mind, and afterwards made a greater impression upon me. as it was now very late, and the tobacco had dazed my head, i was inclined to sleep: but before i would lie down i fell on my knees, and implored the promise that god had made to me in the holy scriptures, that _if i called upon him in the day of trouble he would deliver me._ with much difficulty i afterwards drank the rum wherein i had steeped the tobacco, which flying into my head, threw me into such a profound sleep, that it was three o'clock the next day before i awaked; or rather, i believe, i slept two days, having certainly lost a day in my account, and i could never tell any other way. when i got up, my spirits were lively and cheerful; my stomach much better, being very hungry; and, in short, no fit returned the next day, which was the 29th, but i found myself much altered for the better. the 30th, i went abroad with my gun, but not far, and killed a sea-fowl or two, resembling a brand goose, which, however, i cared not to eat when i brought them home, but dined on two more of the turtle's eggs. in the evening i renewed my medicine, excepting that i did not take so large a quantity, neither did i chew the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke: but the next day, which was the 1st of _july_, having a little return of the cold fit, i again took my medicine as i did the first time. _july_ 3. the fit quite left me, but very weak. in this condition, i often thought of these words, _i will deliver thee_; and while, at some times, i would think of the impossibility of it, other thoughts would reprehend me for disregarding the deliverances i had received, even from the most forlorn and distressed condition. i asked myself, what regard have i had to god for his abundant mercies? have i done my part_: he has delivered me, but i have not glorified him:_--as if i had said, i had not owned and been thankful for these as deliverances, and how could i expect greater? so much did this sensibly touch my heart, that i gave god thanks for my recovery from weakness in the most humble prostration. _july_ 4. this morning i began seriously to ponder on what is written in the new testament, resolving to read a chapter every morning and night as long an my thoughts would engage me. as soon as i set about this work seriously, i found my heart deeply affected with the impiety of my past life; these words that i thought were spoken to me in my dream revived, _all these things have not brought thee to repentance._ after this, i begged of god to assist me with his holy spirit in returning to my duty. one day in perusing the scriptures, i came to these words, _he is exalted a prince and a saviour, to give repentance and to give remission_: immediately i laid down the book, and with uplifted hands to heaven, loudly cried, _o blessed jesus, thou son of david, jesus, thou exalted prince and saviour, give we repentance!_ and now indeed i prayed with a true sense of my condition, and a more certain hope, founded on the word of god. now i had a different sense of these words, _call on me and i will deliver thee_, that is from the dreadful load of guilt which oppressed my sinful soul, and not from a solitary life, which might rather be called, a blessing, seeing i wanted neither food nor raiment, when compared living amongst the human race, surrounded with so much oppression, misery, and affliction; in a word, i came to this conclusion, that a deliverance from sin was a much greater blessing, than a deliverance from affliction. but again i proceed to my journal. to the 14th of _july_, i walked about with my gun, little and little at a time, having been reduced to the greatest extremity of weakness. the applications and experiments i used were perfectly new: neither could i recommend them to any one's practice. for though it carried off the fit, it very much weakened me, and i had frequently convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time. from this i learned, that going abroad in rainy weather, especially when it was attended with storms and hurricanes of wind, was most pernicious to health. i had now been about ten months in the island; and as i never had seen any of the human kind, i therefore accounted myself as sole monarch; and as i grew better, having secured my habitation to my mind, i resolved to make a tour round my kingdom, in order to make new discoveries. the 15th of _july_, i began my journey; i first went to the creek, where i had brought my rafts on shore; and travelling farther, found the tide went no higher than two miles up, where there was a little brook of running water, on the banks of which were many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass. on the rising parts, where i supposed the water did not reach, i perceived a great deal of tobacco growing to a very strong stalk. several other plants i likewise found, the virtues of which i did not understand. i searched a long time for the cassava root, which i knew the indians in that climate made their bread of, but all in vain. there were several plants of aloes, though at that time i knew not what they were; likewise i saw several sugar canes, but imperfect for want of cultivation. with these few discoveries, i came back that night, and slept contentedly in my little castle. the next day, being the 16th, going the same way, but farther then the day before, i found the country more adorned with woods and trees. here i perceived different fruits in great abundance. melons in plenty lay on the ground, and clusters of grapes, ripe and very rich, spread over the trees. you may imagine i was glad of this discovery, yet ate very sparingly, lest i should throw myself into a flux or fever. the grapes i found of excellent use; for when i had dried them in the sun, which preserved them as dried raisins are kept, they proved very wholesome and nourishing, and served me in those seasons when no grapes were to be had. the night drawing on apace, i ascended up a tree, and slept very comfortably, though it was the first time i had lain out of my habitation. and when the morning came, i proceeded with great pleasure on my way, travelling about four miles, as i imagined, by the length of the valley, directing my course northward, there being a ridge of hills on the south and north side of me. at the end of this valley, i came to an opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; there i found a little spring of fresh water, proceeding out of the side of the hill, with its chrystal streams running directly east. and, indeed, here my senses were charmed with the most beautiful landscape nature could afford; for the country appeared flourishing, green, and delightful, that to me it seemed like a planted garden. i then descended on the side of that delicious vale, when i found abundance of cocoa, orange, lemon, and citron trees, but very wild and barren at that time. as for the limes, they were delightful and wholesome, the juice of which i after used to mix in water, which made it very cooling and refreshing. and now i was resolved to carry home and lay up a store of grapes, limes, and lemons, against the approaching wet season. so laying them up in separate parcels, and then taking a few of each with me, i returned to my little castle, after having spent three days in this journey. before i got home, the grapes were so bruised that they were utterly spoiled; the limes indeed were good, but of those i could bring only a few. _july 19_. having prepared two bags, i returned thither again, but, to my great surprise, found all the grapes spread about, trod to pieces, and abundance eaten, which made me conclude there were wild beasts thereabouts. to prevent this happening again, i gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out branches of the tree, both to keep them unhurt, and that they might cure and dry in the sun; and having well loaded myself with limes and lemons, i returned once more to my old place of residence. and now contemplating on the fruitfulness of this valey, and pleasantness of its situation, its security from storms, and the delightfulness of the adjacent woods, i concluded i was settled in the worst part of the country, and therefore was thinking to remove my habitation. but when i considered again, that though it was pleasant, it was off from the sea-side, where there was a possibility, some time or other, a ship might either be driven or sail by; and that to inclose myself among hills and woods must certainly put an end to my hopes of deliverance; i resolved to let my castle remain where providence had first assigned it. yet so ravished was i with this place, that i made me a little kind of bower, surrounding it with a double hedge, as high as i could reach, well staked and filled with bullrushes: and having spent a great part of the month of _july_, i think it was the first of _august_ before i began to enjoy my labour. _aug. 3._ perceiving my grapes to be dry, i took them from the trees, and they proved excellent good raisins of the sun: the most of which i carried to my cave; and happy for me i did so; by which i saved the best part of my winter food. _aug_. 14. this day it began to rain; and though i had made me a tent like the other, yet having no shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat to, i was obliged to return to my old castle. the rain continued more or less every day, till the middle of _october;_ and sometimes so violently, that i could not stir out of my cave for several days. this season i found my family to increase; for one of my cats that ran away from me, and which i thought had been dead, returned about _august_, with three kittens at her heels, like herself, which i thought strange, because both my cats were females, and the wild cats of the island seemed to be of a different kind from our european cats; but from these cats proceeded such numbers, that i was forced to kill and destroy them as i would do wild beasts and vermin. to the 26th of this month, i could not stir out, it raining incessantly; when beginning to want food, i was compelled to venture twice, the first of which i shot a goat, and afterwards found a very large tortoise. the manner of my regulating my food was thus: a bunch of raisins served me for my breakfast; a piece of goat's flesh or turtle boiled for my dinner, and two or three turtle's eggs for my supper. while the rain lasted, i daily worked two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on towards one side, till i came to the outside of the hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall, and so i came in and out this way. but after i had done this, i was troubled to see myself thus exposed; though i could not perceive any thing to fear, a goat being the biggest creature i had seen upon this island. _sept_. 30. casting up my notches on my post, which amounted to 365, i concluded this to be the anniversary of my landing; and, therefore, humbly prostrating myself on the ground, confessing my sins, acknowledging god's righteous judgments upon me, and praying to jesus christ to have mercy upon me, i fasted for twelve hours till the going down of the sun; and then eating a biscuit and a bunch of grapes, laid me on the bed, and with great comfort took my night's repose. till this time i never had distinguished the sabbath-day; but now made a longer notch than ordinary for the days of rest, and divided the weeks as well as i could, though i found i had lost a day or two in my account. my ink failing soon after, i omitted in my daily memorandum things of an indifferent nature, & contented myself to write down only the most remarkable events of my life. the rainy and dry seasons appeared now regular to me, and experience taught me how to provide for them; yet, in one thing i am going to relate, my experience very much failed me. you may call to mind what i have mentioned of some barley and rice which i had saved; about thirty stalks of the former, and twenty of the latter; and at that time, the sun being in its southern position, going from me, together with the rains, made me conclude it a very proper season to sow it. accordingly i dug up a piece of ground, with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, sowed about two thirds of my seed, preserving by me about a handful of each. and happy it was i did so; for no rains falling, it was choaked up, and never appeared above the earth till the wet season came again, and then part of it grew, as if it had been newly sown. i was resolved all to make another trial; and seeking for a moister piece of ground near my bower, i there sowed the rest of my seed in february, a little before the vernal equinox; which having the rainy months of march and april to water it, yielded a noble crop, and sprang up very pleasantly. i had still saved part of the seed, not daring to venture all; and by the time i found out the proper seasons to sow it in, and that i might expect every year two seed-times and two harvests, my stock amounted to above half a peck of each sort of grain. no sooner were the rains over, but the stakes which i had cut from the trees, shot out like willows the first year after lopping their heads. i was ignorant of the tree i cut them from; but they grew so regularly beautiful, that they made a most lively appearance, and so flourished in three year's time, that i resolved to cut more of them; and these soon growing made a glorious fence, as afterwards i shall observe. and now i perceived that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in europe, but into wet and dry seasons, as in this manner: / february,\ half< march, > rainy, sun coming near the equinox. \ april, / / april, \ | may, | half< june, > dry, sun getting north of the line. | july, | \ august, / / august, \ half< september, > wet, the sun being then come back. \ october, / / october, \ | november, | half< december, > dry, sun running south of the line. | january, | \ february, / the wet seasons would continue longer or shorter, as the winds happened to blow. but having found the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain, i took care beforehand to furnish myself with provisions; and during the wet months sat within doors as much as possible. at this time i contrived to make many things that i wanted, though it cost me much labour and pains, before i could accomplish them. the first i tried was to make a basket; but all the twigs i could get proved so brittle, that i could not then perform it. it now proved of great advantage to me that when a boy, i took great delight in standing at a basket-maker's in the same town where my father lived, to view them at work; and like other boys, curious to see the manner of their working these things and very officious to assist, i perfectly learned the method of it, and wanted nothing but the tools. and it coming into my mind that the twigs of that tree of which i made my stakes, might be as tough as a fallow willow, or osiers, growing in england, i resolved to make an experiment, and went the next day to my country-seat, and found some fit for my turn; and after cutting down a quantity with my hatchet, i dried them in my pale, and, when fit to work with, carried them to my cave, where i employed myself in making several sorts of baskets, insomuch that i could put in whatsoever i pleased. it is true, they were not cleverly made, yet they served my turn upon all occasions. but still i wanted two necessary things. i had no cask to hold my liquor, except two rundlets almost full of rum, a few bottles of an ordinary size, and some square case bottles, neither had i a pot to boil any thing in, only a large kettle unfit to make broth, or stew a bit of meat: i wanted, likewise at the beginning of this dry season a tobacco pipe; but for this i afterwards found an expedient. i kept myself employed in planting my second row of stakes, but remembering that when i travelled up to the brook, i had a mind to see the whole island, i now resumed my intention, and taking my dog, gun, hatchet, two biscuit cakes, a great bunch of raisins, with a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual, i began my journey. having passed the vale where my bower stood, i came within view of the sea lying to the west when it being a clear day, i fairly descried land, extending from the w. to the s.w. about ten or fifteen leagues, as i concluded; but could not say whether it was an island or a continent.--neither could i tell what this place might be; only thought it was part of america, & where i might have been in a miserable condition, had i landed. again i considered that if this was the spanish coast, certainly, one time or other, i should see some ship pass by; and if it was not, then it must be the savage coast, between the spanish country and brazil, which abounds with cannibals or man-eaters. as i proceeded forward i found this side of the island much more pleasant than mine; the fields fragrant adorned with sweet flowers & verdant grass, together with several very, fine woods. there were parrots in plenty, which made me long for one to be my companion; but it was with great difficulty i could knock one down with my stick; and i kept him at home some years before i could get him to call me by my name. in the low grounds, i found various sorts of hares and foxes, as i took them to be, but much different from those in england. several of these i killed, but never ate them; neither indeed had i any occasion; for abounding with goats, pigeons, turtle, and grapes, i could defy leadenhall market to furnish me a better table. in this journey i did not travel above two miles a-day, because i took several turns and windings, to see what discoveries i could make, returning weary enough to the place where i designed to rest all night, which was either in a tree, or in a place which i surrounded with stakes, that no wild creature might suddenly surprise me. when i came to the sea shore, i was amazed to see the splendour of it. its strand was covered with shells of the most beautiful fish, and constantly abounding with innumerable turtles, and fowls of many kinds, which i was ignorant of, except those called penguins. i might have shot as many as i pleased, but was sparing of my ammunition, rather choosing to kill a she-goat, which i did with much difficulty, on account of the flatness of the country. now though this journey produced me the most pleasing satisfaction, yet my habitation was so much to my liking, that i did not repine at my being seated on the worst part of the island. i continued my journey, travelling about twelve miles further towards the east, where i set a great pile on the shore for a mark, concluding that my next journey should bring me to the other side of the island, east from my castle, and so round till i came to my post again. as i had a constant view of the country, i thought i could not miss my way; but scarce had i travelled three miles, when i descended into a very large valley, so surrounded with hills covered with wood, that i having no guide but the sun, nor even this, unless i knew will the position of the sun at the time of day; and to add to my misfortune, the weather proving very hazy, i was obliged to return to my post by the sea-side, and so backwards the same way i came. in this journey my dog surprised a kid and would have killed it, had i not prevented him. as i had often been thinking of getting a kid or two, and so raising a breed of tame goats to supply me after my ammunition was spent, i took this opportunity of beginning: and having made a collar for this little creature, with a string made of rope-yarn, i brought it to my bower, and there inclosed and left him; and, having spent a month in this journey, at length i returned to my habitation. nobody can doubt of my satisfaction, when i returned to my little castle, and reposed myself in my hammock. after my journey i rested myself a week, which time i employed in, making a cage for my pretty poll. i now began to consider the poor kid i had left in the bower, and i immediately went to fetch it home. when i came there i found the young creature almost starved; i gave it some food, and tied it as before: but there was no occasion, for it followed me like a dog; and, as i constantly fed it, it became so loving, gentle, and fond, that it commenced one of my domestics, and would never leave me. the rainy season of the autumnal equinox being now come, i kept the 30th of september in the most solemn manner, as usual, it being the third year of my abode in the island. i spent the whole day in acknowledging god's mercies, in giving him thanks for making this solitary life as agreeable, and less sinful, than that of human society; and for the communications of his grace to my soul, in supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend, upon his providence, and hope for his eternal presence in the world to come. indeed, i often did consider how much more happy i was in this fate of life, than in that accursed manner of living formerly used; and sometimes when hunting, or viewing the country, the anguish of my soul would break out upon me, and my very heart would sink within me, to think of the woods, the mountains, the desarts i was in; and how i was a prisoner locked up within the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without hopes, and without redemption: in this condition i would often wring my hands, and weep like a child: and even sometimes, in the middle of my work, this fit would take me; and then i would sit down and sigh, looking on the ground for an hour or two together, till such time as my grief got vent in a flood of tears. one morning as i was sadly employed in this manner, i opened my bible, when i immediately fixed my eyes upon these words, _i will never leave thee, nor forsake thee!_ surely, thought i, these words are directed to me, or else why should they appear just at a moment when i am bemoaning my forlorn condition? and if god does not forsake, what matters it, since he can me more happy in this state of life, than if i enjoyed the greatest splendour in the world? but while i was going to return god thanks for my present state, something seemed to shock my mind, as if it had thus said: _unworthy wretch; can you pretend to be thankful for a condition, from which you would pray to be delivered_? therefore i stopt:--and tho' i could not say, i thanked the divine majesty for being there, yet i gave god thanks for placing in my view my former course of life, and granting me a true knowledge of repentance. and whenever i opened or read the bible, i blessed kind providence, that directed my good friend in england to send it among my goods without any order, and for assisting me to save it from the power of the raging ocean. and now beginning my third year, my several daily employments were these: _first_, my duty to heaven, and diligently reading the holy scriptures, which i did twice or thrice every day: _secondly_, seeking provision with my gun, which commonly took me up, when it did not rain, three hours every morning: _thirdly_, the ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what i killed, or catched for my supply which took me up great part of the day: for, in the middle of the day, the sun being in its height, it was so hot, that i could not stir out; so that i had only but four hours in the evening to work in: and then the want of tools, of assistance, and skill, wasted a great deal of time to little purpose. i was no less than two and forty days making a board fit for a long shelf, which two sawyers with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut off the same tree in half a day. it was a large tree, as my board was to be broad. i was three days in cutting it down and two more in lopping off the boughs, and reducing it to a piece of timber. this i hacked and hewed off each side, till it became light to move; then i turned it, made one side of is smooth and flat as a board from end to end, then turned it downward, cutting the other side, till i brouht the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both sides. any body may judge my great labour and fatigue in such a piece of work; but this i went through with patience, as also many other things that my circumstances made necessary for me to do. the harvest months, november and december, were now at hand, in which i had the pleasing prospect of a very good crop. but here i met with a new problem; for the goats and hares, having tasted of the outshoot of the blade, kept it to short that it had not strengthen to shoot up into a stalk. to prevent this, i enclosed it with a hedge, and by day shot some of its devourers; and my dog which i had tied to the field-gate, keeping barking all night; so frightened those creatures, that i got entirely rid of them. but no sooner did i get rid of these, than other enemies appeared, to wit, whole flocks of several sorts of birds, who only waited till my back was turned, to ruin me: so much did this provoke me, that i let fly, and killed three of the malefactors; and afterwards served them as they do notorious thieves in england, hung them up in chains as a terror to others. and, indeed, to good an effect had this that they not only forsook the corn, but all that part of the island, so long as these criminals hung there. my corn having ripened apace, the latter end of december, which was my second harvest, i reaped it with a scythe, made of one of my broad swords. i had no fatigue in cutting down my my first crop it was so slender. the ears i carried home in a basket, rubbing it with my hands, instead of threshing it: and when the harvest was over, found my half peck of seed produced near two bushels of rice, and two bushels and a half of barley. and now i plainly foresaw, that by god's goodness, i should be furnished with bread; but yet i was concerned, because i knew not how to grind or make meal of my corn, nor bread, neither knew how to bake it. i would not however, taste any of the crop, but resolved to preserve it against next season, and, in the mean while, use my best endeavours to provide myself with other food. but where were my labours to end? the want of a plough to turn up the earth, or shovel to dig it, i conquered by making me a wooden spade. the want of a harrow i supplied myself, with dragging over the corn a great bough of a tree. when it was growing i was forced to fence it; when ripe to mow it, carry it home, thrash it, part it from the chaff, and save it. and, after all, i wanted a mill to grind it, sieve to dress it, yest and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it. this set my brains to work to find some expedient for every one of these necessaries against the next harvest. and now having more seed, my first care was to prepare me more land. i pitched upon two large flat pieces of ground near my castle, for that purpose, in which sowed my seed, and fenced it with a good hedge. this took me up three months: by which time the wet season coming on, and the rain keeping me within doors, i found several occasions to employ myself; and, while at work, used to divert myself in talking to my parrot, learning him to know and speak his own name _poll_ the first welcome word i ever heard spoke in the island. i had been a long time in contriving how to make earthen vessels, which i wanted extremely; and when i considered the heat of the climate, i did not doubt but if i could find any such clay, i might botch up a pot, strong enough, when dried in the sun, to bear handling, and to hold any thing that was dry, as corn, meal, and other things. to be short, the clay i found; but it would occasion the most serious person to smile, to see what aukward ways i took, and what ugly misshapen things i made; how many either fell out or cracked by the violent heat of the sun, and fell in pieces when they were removed; so that i think it was two months time before i could perfect any thing: and even then but two clumsy things in imitation of earthen jars. these, however, i very gently placed in wicker baskets, made on purpose for them, and between the pot and the baskets, stuffed it full of rice and barley straw, and these i presume would hold my dried corn, and perhaps the meal when the corn was bruised. as for the smaller thing, i made them with better success, such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, the fun baking them very hard. yet still i wanted one thing absolutely necessary, and that was an earthen pot, not only to hold my liquid, but also to bear the fire, which none of these could do. it once happened that as i was putting out my fire, i found therein a broken piece of one of my vessels burnt as hard as a rock, and red as a tile. this made me think of burning some pots; and having no notion of a kiln, or of glazing them with leaf, i fixed three large pipkins, and two or three pots in a pile one upon another. the fire i piled round the outside, and dry wood on the top, till i saw the pots in the inside red hot, and found out that, they were net crackt at all: and when i perceived them perfectly red, i let one of them stand in the fire about five or six hours, till the clay melted by the extremity of the heat, and would have run to glass, had i suffered it; upon which i slacked my fire by degrees, till the redness abated; and watching them till the morning, i found i had three very good pipkins, and two earthen pots, as well burnt and fit for my turn as i could desire. no joy could be greater than mine at this discovery. for after this, i may say, i wanted for no fort of earthen ware. i filled one of my pipkins with water to boil me some meat, which it did admirably well, and with a piece of kid i made me some good broth, as well as my circumstances would afford me at that time. the next concern i had was to get me a stone-morter to beat some corn in, instead of a mill to grind it. here indeed i was at a great loss, as not being fit for a stone-cutter; and many days i spent to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow and make fit for a morter, and strong enough to bear the weight of a pestil, and that would break the corn without filling it with sand. but all the stones of the island being of a mouldering nature, rendered my search fruitless; and then i resolved to look out for a great block of hard wood, which having found, i formed it with my ax and hammer, and then, with infinite labour, made a hollow in it, just as the indians of brazil make their canoes. when i had finished this, i made a great pestil of iron wood, and then laid them up against my succeeding harvest. my next business was to make me a sieve, to sift my meal and part it from the bran and husk. having no fine thin canvas to search the meal through, i could not tell what to do. what linen i had was reduced to rags: i had goat's hair, enough, but neither tools to work it, nor did i know how to spin it: at length i remembered i had some neckcloths of calico or muslin of the sailors, which i had brought out of the ship, and with these i made three small sieves proper enough for the work. i come now to consider the baking part. the want of an oven i supplied by making some earthen pans very broad but not deep. when i had a mind to bake, i made a great fire upon the hearth, the tiles of which i had made myself; and when the wood was burnt into live coals, i spread them over it, till it became very hot; then sweeping them away, i set down my loaves, and whelming down the earthen pots upon them, drew the ashes and coals all around the outsides of the pots to continue the heat; and in this manner i baked my barley loaves, as well as if i had been a complete pastry-cook, and also made of the rice several cakes and puddings. it is no wonder that these things took me up the best part of a year, since what intermediate time i had was bestowed in managing my new harvest and husbandry; for in the proper season i reaped my corn, carried it home, and laid it up in the ear in my large baskets, til i had time to rub, instead of thrashing it. and now, indeed, my corn increased so much, that it produced me twenty bushels of barley, and as much rice, that i not only began to use it freely, but was thinking how to enlarge my barns, and resolved to sow as much at a time as would be sufficient for me for a whole year. all this while, the prospect of land, which i had seen from the other side of the island, ran in my mind. i still meditated a deliverance from this place, though the fear of greater misfortunes might have deterred me from it.--for, allowing that i had attained that place, i run the hazard of being killed and eaten by the devouring cannibals: and if they were not so, yet i might be slain, as other europeans had been, who fell into their hands. notwithstanding all this, my thoughts ran continually upon that shore. i now wished for my boy xury, and the long boat, with the shoulder of mutton sail: i went to the ship's boat that had been cast a great way on the shore in the late storm. she was removed but a little; but her bottom being turned up by the impetuosity and fury of the waves and wind, i fell to work with all the strength i had, with levers and rollers i had cut from the wood, to turn her, and repair the damages she had sustained. this work took me up three or four weeks, when finding my little strength all in vain, i fell to undermining it by digging away the sand, and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it in the fall. but after this was done, i was still unable to stir it up, or to get under it, much less to move it forward towards the water, and so i was forced to give it over. this disapointment, however did not frighten me. i began to think whether it was not possible for me to make a canoe or perigua, such as the indians make of the trunk of a tree, but here i lay under particular inconveniencies; want of tools to make it, and want of hands to move it in the water when it was made. however, to work i went upon it, stopping all the inquiries i could make, with this very simple answer i made to myself, _let's first make it, i'll warrant i'll find some way or other to get it along when it is done_. i first cut down a cedar tree, which was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for a space, and then parted into branches. twenty days was i a hacking and hewing this tree at the bottom, fourteen more in cutting off the branches and limbs, and a whole month in shaping it like the bottom of the boat. as for the inside, i was three weeks with a mallet and chissel, clearing it in such a manner, as that it was big enough to carry twenty-six men, much bigger than any canoe i ever saw in my life, and consequently sufficient to transport me and all my effects to that wished-for shore i so ardently desired. nothing remained now, but, indeed, the greatest difficulty to get it into the water, it lying about one hundred yards from it. to remedy the first inconvenience, which was a rising hill between the boat and the creek, with wonderful pains and labour i dug into the bowels of the earth, and made a declivity. but when this was done, all the strength i had was as insufficient to remove it, as it was when i attempted to remove the boat. i then proceeded to measure the difference of ground, resolving to make a canal, in order to bring the water to the canoe, since i could not bring the canoe to the water. but as this seemed to be impracticable to myself alone, under the space of eleven or twelve years, it brought me into some sort of consideration: so that i concluded this also to be impossible, and the attempt altogether vain. i now saw, and not before, _what stupidity it is to begin a work before we reckon its costs, or judge rightly our own abilities to go through with its performance_. in the height of this work my fourth year expired, from the time i was cast on this island, at this time i did not forget my anniversary; but kept it with rather greater devotion than before. for now my hopes being frustrated, i looked upon this world as a thing had nothing to do with; and very well might i say as father abraham said unto dives, _between thee and me there is a gulph fixed._ and indeed i was separated from its wickedness too, having neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, nor the pride of life; i had nothing to covet, being lord, king and emperor over the whole country i had in possession, without dispute and without control: i had loadings of corn, plenty of turtles, timber in abundance, and grapes above measure. what was all the rest to me? the money i had lay by me as despicable dross, which i would freely have given for a gross of tobacco pipes, or a hard mill to grind my corn: in a word the-nature and experience of these things dictated to me this just reflection: _that the good things of this world are no farther good to us, than they are for our use; and that whatever we may heap up to give to others, we can but enjoy as much as we use, and no more._ these thoughts rendered my mind more easy than usual. every time i sat down to meat, i did it with thankfulness, admiring the providential hand of god, who in this wilderness had spread a table to me. and now i considered what i enjoyed, rather than what i wanted, compared my present condition with what i at first expected it should be; _how i should have done, if i had got nothing out of the ship, that i must have perished before i had caught fish or turtles; or lived, had i found them, like a mere savage, by eating them raw, and pulling them in pieces with my claws, like a beast_. i next compared my station to that which i deserved: _how undutiful i had been to my parents; how destitute of the fear of god; bow void of every thing that was good; and how ungrateful for those abundant mercies i had received from heaven, being fed as it were, by a miracle, even as great as elijah's being fed by ravens; and cast on a place where there is no venomous creatures to poison or devour me_; in short making god's tender mercies matter of great consolation, i relinquished all sadness, and gave way to contentment. as long as my ink continued, which with water i made last as long as i could, i used to minute down the days of the month on which any remarkable event happened.--and, first, i observed, _that the same day i forsook my parents and friends, and ran away to hull, in order to go to sea, the same day afterwards in the next year, i was taken and made a slave by the sallee rovers_. _that the very day i escaped out of the wreck of the ship in yarmouth roads, a year after on the same day, i made my escape from sallee in my patron' fishing boat_. _and on the 30th of september, being the day of the year i was born on, on that day twenty-six years after, was i miraculously saved, and cast ashore on this island_. the next thing that wasted after my ink, was the biscuit which i had brought out of the ship, and though i allowed myself but one cake a day, for above a twelvemonth, yet i was quite out of bread for near a year, before i got any corn of my own. in the next place, my clothes began to decay, and my linen had been gone long before. however, i had preserved about three dozen of the sailors chequered shirts, which proved a great refreshment to me, when the violent beams of the sun would not suffer me to bear any of the seamen's heavy watch coats, which made me turn taylor, and, after a miserable botching manner, convert them to jackets. to preserve my head, i made me a cap of goat-skins, with the hair outwards to keep out the rain; which indeed served me so well, that afterwards i made me a waistcoat and opened-kneed breeches of the fame: and then i contrived a sort of an umbrella, covering it with skins, which not only kept out the heat of the sun, but rain also. thus being easy, and settled in my mind, my chief happiness was to converse with god, in most heavenly and comfortable ejaculations. for five years after this i cannot say any extraordinary thing occured to me. my chief employment was to cure my raisins, and plant my barley and rice, of both which i had a year's provision beforehand. but though i was disapointed in my first canoe, i made it, at intermediate times, my business to make a second, of much inferior size; and it was two-years before i had finished it. but as i perceived it would no way answer my design of sailing to the other shore, my thoughts were consigned to take a tour round the island, to see what further discoveries i could make. to this intent, after having moved her to the water, and tried how she would sail, i fitted up a little raft to my boat, and made a sail of the ships sail that by me. i then made lockers or boxes at the end of it, to put in necessaries, provision, and ammunition, which would preserve them dry, either from rain or the spray of the sea; and in the inside of the boat, i cut me a long hollow place to lay my gun in, and to keep it dry made a flag to hang over it. my umbrella i fixed in a step in the stern, like a mast, to keep the heat of the sun off me. and now resolving to see the circumference of my little kingdom, i victualled my ship for the voyage, putting in two dozen of my barley-bread loaves, an earthen pot-full of parched rice, a little bottle of rum, half a goat, powder and shot, and two watch coats. it was the _6th_ of november, in the _6th_ year of my reign, or captivity, that i set out in this voyage; which was much longer than i expected, being obliged to put further out, by reason of the rocks that lay a great way in the sea. and indeed so much did these rocks surprise me, that i was for putting back, fearing that if i ventured farther it would be out of my power to return in this uncertainty i came to an anchor just off shore, to which i waded with my gun on my shoulder, and then climbing up a hill, which overlooked that point, i saw the full extent of it, and so resolved to run all hazards. in this prospect from the hill, i perceived a violent current running to the east, coming very close to the point; which i the more carefully observed, thinking it dangerous, and that when i came to it, i might be drove into the sea by its force, and not able to return to the island; and certainly it must have been so, had i not made this observation; for on the other side was the like current, with this difference, that it set off at a greater distance; and i perceived there was a strong eddy under the land; so that my chief business was to work out of the first current, and conveniently get into the eddy. two days i staid here, the wind blowing very briskly e.s.e. which being contrary to the current, leaves a great breach of the sea upon the point; so it was neither fit for me to keep too near the shore, on account of the breach; nor stand at too great a distance, for fear of the streams. that night the wind abating, it grew so calm, that i ventured out; & here i may be a monument to all rash and ignorant pilots; for i was no sooner come to the point and not above the boat's length from shore, but i was going into a deep water, with a current like a mill, which drove my boat along so violently, that it was impossible for me to keep near the edge of it, but forced me more and more out from the eddy to the left of me; and all i could do with my paddle were useless, there being no wind to help me. now i began to look upon myself as quite lost, since as, the current ran on both sides of the island, i was very certain they must join again, and then i had no hope but of perishing for want in the sea, after what provision i had was spent, or before, if a storm should happen to arise. who can conceive the present anguish of my mind at this calamity? with longing eyes did i look upon my little kingdom, and thought the island the pleasantest place in the universe. _happy, thrice happy desert_, said i, _shall i never see thee more?_ _wretched creature! wither am i going? why did i murmur at my lonesome condition, when now i would give the whole world to be thither again?_ while i was thus complaining, i found myself to be driven about two leagues into the sea; however, i laboured till my strength was far spent, to keep my boat as far north as possibly i could, to that side of the current where the eddy lay on. about noon i perceived a little breeze of wind spring up from the s.s.e. which overjoyed my heart; and was still more elated, when, in about half an hour it blew a gentle fine gale. had any thick weather sprung up, i had been left another way; for having no compass onboard, i should never have found the way to steer towards the island, if once it had disappeared; but it proving the contrary, i set up my mast again, spread my sail, and stood away northward, as much as i could, to get rid of the current. and no sooner did the boat begin to stretch away, but i perceived by the clearness of the water, a change of the current was near; for, where it was strong, the water was foul; and where it was clear the current abated. to the east, i soon saw about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon, some rocks, which caused it again to separate; and as the main force of it drove away more southwardly, leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other came back by the repulse of the rocks making a sharp eddy, which returned back again to the north-west with a very swift stream. they who have experienced what it is to be reprieved upon the ladder, or to be saved from thieves, just going to take away their lives, or such as have been in the like calamities with my own, may guess my present excess of joy, how heartily i ran my boat into the stream of this eddy, and how joyfully i spread my sail to the refreshing wind, standing cheerfully before it, with a smart tide under foot. by the assistance of this eddy, i was carried above a league home again, when being in the wake of the island, betwixt the two currents, i found the water to be in a sort of a stand. about four o'clock in the afternoon, i reached within a league of the island, and perceived the points of the rock, which caused this disaster, stretching out, as i observed before, to the southward, which throwing off the current more southwardly had occasioned another eddy to the north. but having a fair brisk gale, i stretched across this eddy, and in an hour came within a mile of the shore, where i soon landed to my unspeakable comfort; and after an humble prostration, thanking god for my deliverance, with a resolution to lay all thoughts of escaping aside, i brought my boat safe to a little cove, and laid me down to take a welcome repose. when i awoke i was considering how i might get my boat home; and coasting along the shore, i came to a good bay, which ran up to a rivulet or brook, where finding a safe harbour, i stowed her as safe as if she had been in a dry-dock made on purpose for her. i now perceived myself not far from the place where before i had travelled on foot; so taking nothing with me except my gun and umbrella, i began my journey, and in the evening came to my bower, where i again laid me down to rest. i had not slept long before i was awakened in great surprise, by a strange voice that called me several times. _robin, robin, robinson crusoe, poor robin! where are you, robinson crusoe? where are you? where have you been_? so fast was i asleep at first, that i did not awake thoroughly: but half asleep and half awake, i thought i dreamed that somebody spoke to me. but, as the voice repeated _robinson crusoe_ several times, being terribly affrighted, i started up in utmost confusion; and, no sooner were my eyes fully open, but i beheld my pretty poll sitting on the top of the hedge, and soon knew that it was he that called me; for just in such bewailing language i used to talk and teach him; which he so exactly learned that he would sit upon my finger and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, _poor robinson crusoe, where are you? where have you been? how came you here_? and such like prattle i had constantly taught him. but even though i knew it to be the parrot, it was a great while before i could adjust myself; being amazed how the creature got thither, and that he should fix about that place; and no where else. but now being assured it could be no other than my honest poll, my wonder ceased, and reaching out my hand, and calling familiarly poll, the creature came to me, and perched upon my thumb as he was wont, constantly prating to me with _poor robinson crusoe, and how did i come here, and where had i been?_ as if the bird was overjoyed to see me; and so i took him home along with me. i was now pretty well cured of my rambling to sea; yet i could wish my boat, which had cost me so much trouble and pains, on this side the island once more, but which indeed was impracticable. i therefore began to lead a very retired life, living near a twelvemonth in a very contented manner, wanting for nothing except conversation. as to mechanic labours, which my necessities obliged me to, i fancied i could, upon occasion, make a tolerable carpenter were the poor tools i had to work withal but good. besides, as i improved in my earthen ware, i contrived to make them with a wheel, which i found much easier and better, making my work shapely, which before was rude and ugly. but i think i was never so elevated with my own performance or project, than for being able to make a tobacco-pipe, which though it proved an awkward clumsy thing, yet it was very sound, and carried the smoke perfectly well, to my great satisfaction. i also improved my wicker ware, making me abundance of necessary baskets, which though not very handsome, were very handy and convenient to fetch things home in, as also for holding my stores, barley, rice, and other provisions. my powder beginning to fail, made me examine after what manner i should kill the goats or birds to live on after it was all gone. upon which i contrived many ways to ensnare the goats, and see if i could catch them alive, particularly a she-goat with young. at last i had my desire, for making pitfalls and traps baited with barley and rice, i found one morning, in one of them, an old he-goat, and in the other three kids, one male, the other two females. so boisterous was the old one, that i could not bring him away. but i forgot the old proverb, _that hunger will tame a lion_: for had i kept him three or four days without provisions, and then given him some water, with a little corn, he would have been as tame as a young kid. the other creatures i bound with strings together; but i had great difficulty before i could bring them to my habitation. it was some time before they would feed; but throwing them sweet corn it so much tempted them, that they began to be tamer. from hence i concluded, that if i designed to furnish myself with goat's flesh, when my ammunition was spent, the tamely breeding them up, like a flock of sheep, about my settlement, was the only method i could take. i concluded also i must separate the wild from the tame, or else they would always run wild as they grew up; and the best way for this, was to have some inclosed piece of ground, well fenced, either with a hedge or pale, to keep them so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those without break in. such an undertaking was very great for one pair of hands; but as there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first care was to find a convenient piece of ground where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. here again, i gave another instance of my ignorance and inexperience, pitching upon a piece of meadow land so large, that had i inclosed it, the hedge or pale must have been at least two miles about. indeed had it been ten miles, i had time enough to do it in; but then i did not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much compass, as if they had had the whole island, and consequently as difficult for me to catch them. this thought came into my head, after i had carried it on, i believe, about fifty yards; i therefore altered my scheme, and resolved to inclose a piece of ground about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and one hundred in breadth, sufficient enough for as many as would maintain me, till such time as my flock increased, and then i could add more ground. i now vigorously prosecuted my work, and it took me about three months in hedging the first piece; in which time i tethered the three kids in the best part of it, feeding them as near me as possible, to make them familiar: and indeed i very often would carry some ears of barley or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hands; by which they grew so tame, that when my inclosure was finished, and i had let them loose they would run after me for a handful of corn. this indeed answered my end; and in a year and half's time i had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years after, they amounted to forty-three, besides what i had taken and killed for my sustenance. after which i inclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with pens to drive them into, that i might take them as i had occasion. in this project i likewise found additional blessings; for i not only had plenty of goat's flesh, but milk too, which in my beginning i did not so much as think of. and, indeed, though i had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made, yet, after some essays and miscarriages, i made the both, and never afterwards wanted. how mercifully can the omnipotent power comfort his creatures, even in the midst of their greatest calamities? how can be sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us reason to magnify him in dungeons and prisons? what a bounteous table was here spread in a wilderness for me, where i expected nothing thing at first but to perish for hunger. certainly a stoic would have smiled to see me at dinner. there sat my royal majesty, and absolute prince and ruler of my kingdom, attended by my dutiful subjects, whom, if i pleased, i could either hang, draw, quarter, give them liberty, or take it away. when i dined, i seemed a king eating alone, none daring to presume to do so till i had done. _poll_, as if he had been my principal court favorite, was the only person, permitted to talk with me. my old but faithful dog, now grown exceedingly crazy, and who had no species to multiply his kind upon, continually sat on my right hand; while my two cats sat on each side of the table, expecting a bit from my hand, as a principal mark of my royal favour. these were not the cats i had brought from the ship; they had been dead long before, and interred near my habitation by mine own hand. but one of them, as i suppose, generating with a wild cat, a couple of their young i had made tame; the rest ran wild into the woods, and in time grew so impudent as to return and plunder me of my stores, till such time as i shot a great many, and the rest left me without troubling me any more. in this plentiful manner did i live, wanting for nothing but conversation. one thing indeed concerned me, the want of my boat; i knew not which way to get her round the island. one time i resolved to go along the shore by land to her; but had any one in england met such a figure, it would either have affrighted them, or made them burst into laughter; nay, i could not but smile myself at my habit, which i think in this place will be very proper to describe. the cap i wore on my head, was great, high, and shapeless, made of a goat's skin, with a flap of pent-house hanging down behind, not only to keep the sun from me, but to shoot the rain off from running into my neck, nothing being more pernicious than the rain falling upon the flesh in these climates. i had a short jacket of goat's skin, whose hair hung down such a length on each side, that it reached down to the calves of my legs. as for shoes and stockings, i had none, but made a semblance of something, i know not what to call them; they were made like buskins, and laced on the sides like spatterdashes, barbarously shaped like the rest of my habit. i had a broad belt of goat's skin dried, girt round me with a couple of thongs, instead of buckles; on each of which, to supply the deficiency of sword and dagger, hung my hatchet and saw. i had another belt, not so broad, yet fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder, and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, made of goat's skin, to hold my powder and shot. my basket i carried on my back, and my gun on my shoulder; and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella; which, however, next to my gun, was the most necessary thing about me. as for my face, the colour was not so swarthy as the mulattoes, or might have been expected from one who took to little care of it, in a climate within nine or ten degrees of the equinox. at one time my beard grew so long that it hung down about a quarter of a yard; but as i had both razors scissors in store, i cut it all off, and suffered none to grow, except a large pair of mahometan whiskers, the like of which i had seen wore by some turks at sallee, not long enough indeed to hang a hat upon, but of such a monstrous size, as would have amazed any in england to have seen. but all this was of no consequence here, there being none to observe my behavior or habit. and so, without fear and without controul, i proceeded on my journey, the prosecution of which took me up five or six days. i first travelled along the sea shore, directly to the place where i first brought my boat to an anchor, to get upon the rocks; but now having no boat to take care of, i went overland a nearer way to the same height that i was before upon; when looking forward to the point of the rock, which lay out, and which i was forced to double with my boat, i was amazed to see the sea so smooth and quiet, there being no ripling motion, nor current, any more than in other places. this made me ponder some time to guess the reason of it, when at last i was convinced that the ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of water from some great river on shore, must be the occasion of these rapid streams; & that, consequently, as the winds blew more westwardly, or more southwardly, so the current came he nearer, or went the farther from the shore. to satisfy my curiosity, i waited there till evening, when the time of ebb being made, i plainly perceived from the rock the current again as before, with the difference that it ran farther off, near half a league from the shore, whereas in my expedition, it set close upon it, furiously hurrying me and my canoe along with it, which at another time would not have done. and now i was convinced, that, by observing the ebbing and flowing of the tide i might easily bring my boat round the island again. but when i began to think of putting it in practice, the remembrance of the late danger, struck me with such horror, that i changed my resolution, and formed another, which was more safe, though more laborious; and this was to make another canoe, and to have one for one side of the island, and one for the other. i had now two plantations in the island; the first my little fortification, fort, or castle, with many large and spacious improvements; for by this time i had enlarged the cave behind me with several little caves, one with another, to hold my baskets, corn, and straw. the piles with which i made my wall were grown so lofty and great as obscured my habitation. and near this commodious and pleasant settlement, lay my well cultivated and improved corn-fields, which kindly yielded me their fruit in the proper season. my second plantation was that near my country seat, or little bower, where my grapes flourished, and where, having planted many stakes, i made inclosures for my goats, so strongly fortified by labour and time, that it was much stronger than a wall, and consequently impossible for them to break through. as for my bower itself, i kept it constantly in repair, and cut the trees in such a manner, as made them grow thick and wild, and form a most delightful shade. in the centre of this stood my tent, thus erected. i had driven four piles in the ground, spreading over it a piece of the ship's sail; beneath which i made a sort of couch with the skins of the creatures i had slain, and other things; and having laid thereon one of the sailor's blankets, which i had saved from the wreck of the ship, and covering myself with a great watch-coat, i took up this place for my country retreat. very frequently from this settlement did i use to visit my boat, and keep her in very good order. and sometimes i would venture in her a cast or two from shore, but no further, lest either a strong current, a sudden stormy wind, or some unlucky accident should hurry me from the island as before. but now i entreat your attention, whilst i proceed to inform you of a new, but most surprising scent of life which there befel me. you may easily suppose, that, after having been here so long, nothing could be more amazing than to see a human creature. one day it happened, that going to my boat i saw the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, very evident on the sand, as the toes, heel, and every part of it. had i seen an apparition in the most frightful shape, i could not have been more confounded. my willing ears gave the strictest attention. i cast my eyes around, but could satisfy neither the one nor the other, i proceeded alternately in every part of the shore, but with equal effect; neither could i see any other mark, though the sand about it was as susceptible to take impression, as that which was so plainly stamped. thus struck with confusion and horror, i returned to my habitation, frightened at every bush and tree, taking every thing for men; and possessed with the wildest ideas. that night my eyes never closed. i formed nothing but the most dismal imaginations, concluding it must be the mark of the devil's foot which i had seen. for otherwise how could any mortal come to this island? where was the ship that transported them? & what signs of any other footsteps? though these seemed very strong reasons for such a supposition, yet (thought i) why should the devil make the print of his foot to no purpose, as i can see, when he might have taken other ways to have terrified me? why should he leave his mark on the other side of the island, and that too on the sand, where the surging waves of the ocean might soon have erased the impression. surely this action is not consistent with the subtility of satan, said i to myself; but rather must be some dangerous creature, some wild savage of the main land over against me, that venturing too far in the ocean, has been driven here, either by the violent currents or contrary winds; and not caring to stay on this desolate island, has gone back to sea again. [illustration: robinson crusoe struck with confusion and horror, at seeing the print of a man's foot upon the sand _dr. & eng. by a. carse, edin._] happy, indeed, said i to myself, that none of the savages had seen me in that place: yet i was not altogether without fear, lest, having found my boar, they should return in numbers and devour me; or at least carry away all my corn, and destroy my flock of tame goats. in a word, all my religious hopes vanished, as though i thought god would not now protect me by his power, who had so wonderfully preserved me so long. what various chains of providence are there in the life of man! how changeable are our affections, according to different circumstances! we love to-day, what we hate to-morrow; we shun one hour, what we seek the next. this was evident in me in the most conspicous manner: for i, who before had so much lamented my condition, in being banished from all human kind, was now even ready to expire, when i considered that a man had set his foot on this desolate island. but when i considered my station of life decreed by the infinitely wise and good providence of god, that i ought not to dispute my creator's sovereignty, who has an unbounded right to govern and dispose of his creatures as he thinks convenient; and that his justice and mercy could either punish or deliver me: i say when i considered all this, i comfortably found it my duty to trust sincerely in him, pray ardently to him, and humbly resign myself to his divine will. one morning, lying on my bed, these words of the sacred writings came into my mind, _call upon me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me._ upon this sentence, rising more cheerfully from my bed, i offered up my prayers in the most heavenly manner; and when i had done, taking up my bible to read, these words appeared first in my sight:--_wait on the lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart: wait, i say, on the lord._ such divine comfort did this give me, as to remove all cause of sadness upon that occasion. thus, after a world of apprehensions and fears, for three days and nights, i at last ventured out of my castle, and milked my goats, one of which was almost spoiled for want of it. i next (though in great fear) visited my bower, and milked my flocks there also; when, growing bolder, i went down to the shore again, and measuring the print of the foot to mine, to see, perhaps, whether i myself had not occasioned that mark, i found it much superior in largeness; and so returned home, now absolutely convinced that either some men had been ashore, or that the island must be inhabited, and therefore that i might be surprised before i was aware. i now began to think of providing for my security, and resolved in my mind many different schemes for that purpose. i first proposed to cut down my inclosures; and turn my tame cattle wild into the woods that the enemy might not find them, and frequent the island in hopes of killing the same. secondly, i was for digging up my corn fields for the very same reason. an, lastly, i concluded to demolish my bower, lest, seeing a place of human contrivance, they might come farther and find out and attack me in my little castle. such notions did the fear of danger suggest to me; and i looked i thought like the unfortunate king saul, when not only oppressed by the philistines, but also forsaken by god himself. and, it is strange, that a little before, having entirely resigned myself to the will of god, i should now have little confidence in him, fearing those more who could kill this fading body, than him who could destroy my immortal soul. sleep was an utter stranger to my eyes that night: yet nature, spent and tired, submitted to a silent repose the next morning, and then joining reason with fear, i considered that this delightful and pleasant island might not be to entirely forsaken as i might think; but that the inhabitants from the other shore might fail, either with design or from necessity, by cross winds; and if the latter circumstance. i had reason to believe they would depart the first opportunity. however, my fear made me think of a place for retreat upon an attack. i now repented that i had made my door to come out beyond my fortification; to remedy which, i resolved to make me a second one: i fell to work, therefore, and drove betwixt that double row of trees, which i planted above twelve years before, several strong piles, thickening it with pieces of timber and old cables, and strengthening the foot of it with earth which i dug out of my cave; i also made me seven holes, wherein i planted my muskets like cannon, fitting them into frames resembling carriages. this being finished with indefatigable industry, for a great way every where, i planted sticks of osier like a wood, about twenty thousand of them, leaving a large space between them and my wall, that i might have room to see an enemy, and that they might not be sheltered among the young trees, if they offered to approach the outer wall. and, indeed, scarce two years had passed over my head, when there appeared a lovely shady grove, and in six years it became a thick wood perfectly impassable. for my safety, i left no avenue to go in or out: instead of which i set two ladders, one to a part of a rock which was low, and then broke in, leaving room to place another ladder upon that; so that when i took these down, it was impossible for any man to descend without hurting himself; and if they had, they would still be at the outside of my outer wall. but while i took all these measures of human prudence for my own preservation i was not altogether unmindful of other affairs. to preserve my stock of tame goats, that the enemy should not take all at once, i looked out for the most retired part of the island, which was the place where i had lost myself before-mentioned; and there finding a clear piece of land, containing three acres, surrounded with thick woods, i wrought so hard, that in less than a month's time, i fenced it so well round, that my flocks were very well secured in it, and i put therein two he-goats and ten she ones. all this labour was occasioned purely by fearful apprehensions, on account of seeing the print of a man's foot. and not contented yet with what i had done, i searched for another place towards the west point of the island, where i might also retain another flock. then wandering on this errand more to the west of the island than ever i had yet done, and casting my eyes towards the sea, methought i perceived a boat at a great distance; but could not possibly tell what it was for want of my perspective glass. i considered then it was no strange thing to see the print of a man's foot; and concluding them cannibals, blessed god for being cast on the other side of the island, where none of the savages, as i thought, ever came. but when i came down the hill to the shore, which was the s.w. point of the island, i was soon confirmed in my opinion; nor can any one describe my horror and amazement, when i saw the ground spread with sculls, hands, feet, and bones of human bodies; and particularly, i perceived a space like a circle, in the midst of which had been a fire, about which i conjectured these wretches sat, and unnaturally sacrificed and devoured their fellow creatures. the horror and loathsomeness of this dreadful spectacle, both confounded my senses, and made me discharge from my stomach in an excessive manner. i then returned towards my habitation; and, in my way thither, shedding floods of tears, and falling down on my bended knees, gave god thanks for making my nature contrary to these wretches, and delivering me so long out of their hands. though reason and my long residence here had assured me, that these savages never came up to the thick woody parts of the country, and that i had no reason to be apprehensive of a discovery; yet such an abhorence did i still retain, that, for two years after, i confined myself only to my three plantation: i mean my castle, country-seat, and inclosure in the woods. and though in process of time, my dreadful apprehensions began to wear away, yet my eyes were more vigilant for fear of being heard by those creatures, they should proceed to attack me. i resolved, however, manfully to lose my life if they did, and went armed with three pistols stuck in my girdle, which added to the description i have given of myself before, made me look with a very formidable appearance. thus my circumstances for some time remained very calm and undisturbed; and when i compared my condition to others, i found it far from being miserable. and, indeed, would all persons compare their circumstances, not with those above them, but with those innumerable unhappy objects beneath them, i am sure we should not hear these daily murmurings and complainings that are in the world. for my part, i wanted but few things. indeed, the terror which the savages had put me in, spoiled some inventions for my own conveniences. one of my projects was to brew me some beer; a very whimsical one indeed, when it is considered that i had neither casks sufficient; nor could i make any to preserve it in; neither had i hops to make it keep, yest to make it work, nor a copper or kettle to make it boil. perhaps, indeed, after some years, i might bring this to bear, as i had done other things. but now my inventions were placed another way; and day and night i could think of nothing but how i might destroy some of these cannibals, when proceeding to their bloody entertainments; and so saving a victim from being sacrificed, that he might after become my servant. many were my contrivances after this purpose, and as many more objections occurred after i hatched them. i once contrived to dig a hole under the place where they made their fire, and put therein five or six pounds of gunpowder, which would consequently blow up all those that were near it: but then i was loth to spend so much upon them, lest it should not do that certain execution i could desire, & but only affright & not kill them. having laid this design aside, i again proposed to myself to lie privately in ambush, in some convenient place, with my three guns double loaded, and let fly at them in the midst of their dreadful ceremony: and having killed two or three of them at every shot, fall upon the rest suddenly with my three pistols, & not let one mother's son escape. thus imagination pleased my fancy so much that i used to dream of it in the night time. to put my design in execution, i was not long in seeking for a place convenient for my purpose, where unseen i might behold every action of the savages. here i placed my two muskets, each of which was loaded with a brace of slugs, and four or five smaller bullets about the size of pistol bullets; the fowling-piece was charged with near a handful of the largest swan-shot, and in every pistol were about four bullets. and thus all things being prepared, no sooner would the welcome light spread over the element, but, _like a giant refreshed with wine_, as the scripture has it, would i issue forth from my castle, and from a lofty hill, three miles distant, view if i could see any invaders approach unlawfully to my kingdom. but having waited in vain two or three months, it not only grew very tiresome to me, but brought me to some consideration, and made me examine myself, what right i had to kill these creatures in this manner. if (argued i to myself) this unnatural custom of theirs be a sin offensive to heaven, it belongs to the divine being, who alone has the vindictive power in his hands, to shower down his vengeance upon them. and perhaps he does so, in making them become one another's executioners. or, if not, if god thinks these doings just, according to the knowledge they conceive, what authority have i to pretend to thwart the decrees of providence, which has permitted these actions for so many ages, perhaps from almost the beginning of the creation? they never offended me, what right have i then to concern myself in their shedding one another's blood: and, indeed, i have since known, they value no more to kill and devour a captive taken in war, than we do to kill an ox or eat mutton. i then concluded it necessarily followed, that these people were no more murderers than christians, who many times put whole troops to the sword, after throwing down their arms.--again i considered, that if i fell upon them, i should be as much in the wrong as the spaniards, who had committed the greatest barbarities upon these people who had never offended them in their whole lives; as if the kingdom of spain was eminent for a race of men without common compassion to the miserable, a principal sign of the most generous temper: these considerations made me pause, and made me think i had taken wrong measures in my resolution: i now argued with myself, it was better for me never to attack, but to remain undiscovered as long as i possibly could; that an opposite conduct would certainly prove destructive; for as it was scarcely to be supposed i could kill them all, i might either be overpowered by the remaining, or that some escaping, might bring thousands to my certain destruction. and, indeed, religion took their part so much as to convince me how contrary it was to my duty to be guilty of shedding human blood, innocent as to my particular, whatever they are to one another: that i had nothing to do with it, but leave it to the god of all power and dominion, as i said before, to do therein what seemed convenient to his heavenly wisdom. and, therefore, on my knees i thanked the almighty for delivering me from blood guiltiness, and begged his protection that i might never fall into their hands. thus giving over an attempt which i had rashly begun, i never ascended the hill on that occasion afterwards: i only re-removed my boat, which lay on the other side of the island, and every thing that belonged to her, towards the east, into a little cove; that there might not be the least shadow of any boat near, or habitation upon the island.--my castle then became my cell, keeping always retired in it, except when i went out to milk my she-goats, and order my little flock in the wood, which was quite out of danger: for sure i was that these savages never came here with expectations to find any thing, consequently never wandered from the coast; however, as they might have several times been on shore, as well before as after my dreadful apprehensions, i looked back with horror to think in what state i might have been, had i suddenly met them slenderly armed; with one gun only loaded with small shot; and how great would have been my amazement, if, instead of seeing the print of one man's foot, i had perceived fifteen, or twenty savages, who having once set their eyes upon me, by the swiftness of their feet would have left me no possibility of escaping? these thoughts would sink my very soul, so that i would fall into a deep melancholy, till such time as the consideration of my gratitude to the divine being moved it from my heart. i then fell into a contemplation of the secret springs of providence, and how wonderfully we are delivered, when insensible of it; and when intricated in uncertain mazes or labyrinths of doubt or hesitation, what secret hint directs us in the right way, when we intended to go out of it, nay, perhaps contrary to our business, sense or inclination. upon which, i fixed within me this as a certain rule, never to disobey those secret impressions of the mind, to the acting or not acting any thing that offered, for which i yet could assign no reason. but let it be how it will, the advantage of this conduct very eminently appeared in the latter part of my abode on this island; i am, a stranger in determining whence these secret intimations of providence derive; yet methinks they are not only some proof of the converse of spirits, but also of the secret communications they are supposed to have with those that have not passed through the gloomy vale of death. these anxieties of mind, and the care of my preservation, put a period to all future inventions and contrivances, either for accommodation or convenience. i now cared not to drive a nail, chop a stick, fire a gun or make a fire, lest either the noise should be heard, or the smoke discover me. and on this account i used to burn my earthen ware privately in a cave which i found in the wood, and which i made convenient for that purpose; the principal cause that brought me here was to make charcoal, so that i might bake and dress my bread and meat without any danger. at that time a curious accident happened me, which i shall now relate. while i was cutting down some wood for making my charcoal, i perceived a cavity behind a very thick branch of underwood. curious to look into it, i attained its month, and perceived it sufficient for me to stand upright in. but when i had entered, and took a further view, two rolling shining eyes like flaming stars seemed to dart themselves at me; so that i made all the haste out that i could, as not knowing whither it was the devil or a monster that had taken his residence in that place. when i recovered a little from my surprise, i called myself a thousand fools, for being afraid to see the devil one moment, who had now lived almost twenty years in the most retired solitude. and therefore resuming all the courage i had, i took a flaming firebrand, and in i rushed again. i had not proceeded above three steps, when i was more affrighted than before; for then i heard a very loud sigh, like that of a human creature in the greatest agony, succeeded with a broken noise, resembling words half expressed, and then a broken sigh again. stepping back, _lord!_ (thought i to myself) _where am i got, into what enchanted place have i plunged myself, such as are reported to contain miserable captives, till death puts an end to their sorrow_? and, indeed, in such great amazement was i, that it struck me into a cold sweat; and had my hat been on my head, i believe my hair would have moved it off. but again encouraging myself with the hopes of god's protection, i proceeded forward, and, by the light of my firebrand, perceived it to be a monstrous he-goat, lying on the ground, gasping for life, and dying of mere old age. at first, i stirred him, thinking to drive him out, but the poor ancient creature strove to get upon his feet, but was not able; so i e'en let him lie still to affright the savages, should they venture into this cave. i now looked round me and found the place but small and shapeless. at the farther side of it, i perceived a sort of an entrance, yet so low, as must oblige me to creep upon my hands and knees to it; so, having no candle, i suspended my enterprise till the next day, and then i came provided with two large ones of my own making. having crept upon my hands and feet, through this strait, i found the roof higher up, i think about twenty feet. but surely mortal never saw such a glorious sight before! the roof and walls of this cave reflected a hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles, as though they were indented with mining gold, precious stones, or sparkling diamonds. and indeed it was the most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind that could be desired, though entirely dark. the floor was dry and level, and had a kind of gravel upon it: no nauseous venomous creatures to be seen there, neither any damp or wet about it. i could find no fault but in the entrance, and i began to think that even this might be very necessary for my defence, and therefore resolved to make it my most principal magazine. i brought hither two fowling-pieces, and three muskets, leaving only five pieces at my castle, planted in the nature of cannon. of the barrel of gunpowder, which i took up out of the sea, i brought away about sixty pounds powder, which was not damaged, and this with a great quantity of lead for bullets, i removed for my castle to this retreat, now fortified both by art and nature. i fancied myself now like one of the giants of old, who were said to live in caves and holes among the rocks, inaccessible to any but themselves, or, at lest, a most dangerous to attempt. and now i despised both the cunning and strength of the savages, either to find me out or to hurt me. but i must not forget the old goat, which caused my late dreadful amazement. the poor creature gave up the ghost the day after my discovery; & it being difficult to drag him out, i dug his grave, and honourably entombed him in the same place where is departed, with as much ceremony as any welch goat that has been interred about the high mountain penmanmawn. i think i was now in the twenty-third year of my reign, and my thoughts much easier than formerly, having contrived several pretty amusements and diversions to pass away the time in a pleasant manner. by this time my pretty poll had learned to speak english, and pronounce his words very articulately and plain; so that for many hours we used to chat together after a familiar manner, and he lived with me no less than twenty-six years. my dog which was nineteen years old, sixteen of which he lived with me, died some time ago of mere old age. as for my cats, they multiplied so fast, that i was forced to kill or drive them into the woods, except two or three which became my particular favourites. besides these, i continually kept two or three household kids about me, which i learned to feed out of my hand, and two more parrots which could talk indifferently, and call _robinson crusoe_, but not so excellently as the first, as not taking that pains with them. i had also several sea-owls which i had wounded and cut their wings; and growing tame, they used to breed among the low trees about my castle walls, all which made my abode very agreeable. but what unforeseen events suddenly destroy the enjoyment, of this uncertain state of life, when we least expect them! it was now the month of december, in the southern solstice, and particular time of my harvest, which required my attendance in the fields; when going out pretty early one morning, before it was day-light, there appeared to me, from the sea shore, a flaming light, about two miles from me at the east end of the island, where i had observed some savages had been before, not on the other side, but to my great affliction, it was on my side the island. struck with a terrible surprise, and my usual apprehensions, that the savages would perceive my improvements, i returned directly to my castle, pulled the ladder after me, making all things look as wild and natural as i possibly could. in the next place, i put myself into a posture of defence, loading my muskets and pistols, and committing myself to god's protection, i resolved to defend myself till my last breath. two hours after, impatient for intelligence, i set my ladder up to the side of the hill, where there was a flat place, and then pulling the ladder after me ascended to the top, where laying myself on my belly, with my perspective glass, i perceived no less than nine naked savages, sitting round a small fire, eating, as i supposed human flesh, with their two canoes haled on shore, waiting for the flood to carry them off again. you cannot easily express the consternation i was in at this sight, especially seeing them near me; but when i perceived their coming must be always with the current of the ebb, i became more easy in my thoughts, being fully convinced that i might go abroad with security all the time of flood, if they were not before landed. and, indeed, this proved just as i imagined; for no sooner did they all take boat and paddle away, but the tide made n.w. before they went off they danced, making ridiculous postures and gestures for above an hour, all stark naked; but whether men or women, or both, i could not perceive. when i saw them gone, i took two guns upon my shoulders, and placing a couple of pistols in my belt, with my great sword hanging by my side, i went to the hill, where at first i made a discovery of these cannibals, and then saw there had been three canoes more of the savages on shore at that place, which with the rest were making over to the main land. but nothing could be more horrid to me, when going to the place of sacrifice, the blood, the bones, and other mangled parts of human bodies appeared in my sight; and so fired was i with indignation, that i was fully resolved to be revenged on the first that came there, though i lost my life in the execution. it then appeared to me, that the visits which they make to this island are not very frequent, it being fifteen months before they came again; but still i was very uneasy, by reason of the dismal apprehensions of their surprising me unawares; nor dared i offer to fire a gun on that side of the island where they used to appear, lest, taking the alarm, the savages might return with many hundred canoes, and then god knows in what manner i should have made my end. thus was i a year or more before i saw any of these devouring cannibals again. but to wave this, the following accident, which demands attention, for a while eluded the force of my thoughts in revenging myself on those heathens. on the 16th of may (according to my wooden calendar) the wind blew exceedingly hard, accompanied with abundance of lightning and thunder all day, and succeeded by a very stormy night. the seeming anger of the heavens made me have recourse to my bible. while i was seriously pondering upon it, i was suddenly alarmed with the noise of a gun, which i conjectured was fired upon the ocean. such an unusual surprise made me start up in a minute, when, with my ladder, ascending the mountain as before, that very moment a flash of fire presaged the report of another gun which i presently heard, and found it was from that part of the sea where the current drove me away. i could not but then think, that this must be a ship in distress, and that there were the melancholy signals for a speedy deliverance. great, indeed, was my sorrow upon this occasion; but my labours to assist them must have proved altogether vain & fruitless. however, i brought together all the dry wood that was at hand, and making a pretty large pile, set it on fire on the hill. i was certain they plainly perceived it, by their firing another gun as soon as it began to blaze, and after that several more from the same quarter. all night long i kept up my fire: and when the air cleared up, i perceived something a great way at sea, directly e. but could not distinguish what it was, even with my glass, by reason that the weather was so very foggy out at sea. however, keeping my eyes directly fixed upon it, and perceiving it did not stir, i presently concluded it must be a ship at anchor, and so very hasty i was to be satisfied, that taking the gun, i went to the s.e. part of the island, to the same rocks where i had been formerly drove away by the current, in which time the weather being perfectly cleared up, to my great sorrow, i perceived the wreck of a ship cast away upon those hidden rocks i found when i was out with my boat; and which, by making a kind of an eddy, were the occasion of my preservation. thus, _what is one man's safety is another's ruin_; for undoubtedly this ship had been driven on them in the night, the wind blowing strong at e.n.e. had they perceived the island, as i now guessed they had not, certainly, instead of firing there guns for help, they would rather have ventured in their boat and saved themselves that way. i then thought, that perhaps they had done so, upon seeing my fire, and were cast away in the attempt: for i perceived no boat in the ship. but then i again imagined, that, perhaps, they had another vessel in company, which, upon signal, saved their lives, and took the boat up: or that the boat might be driven into the main ocean, where these poor creatures might be in the most miserable condition. but as all these conjectures were very uncertain, i could do no more than commiserate there distress, and thank god for delivering me, in particular, when so many perished in the raging ocean. when i considered seriously every thing concerning this wreck, and could perceive no room to suppose any of them saved, i cannot explain, by any possible force of words, what longings my soul felt on this occasion, often breaking out in this manner: _o that there had been but two or three, nay even one person saved, that we might have lived together, conversed with, and comforted one another!_ and so much were my desires moved, that when i repeated these words, _oh! that there had been but one!_ my hands would clench together, and my fingers press the palms of my hands to close, that, had any soft thing been between, it would have crushed it involuntarily, while my teeth would strike together, and set against each other so strong that it required some time for me to part them. till the last year of my being on this island, i never knew whether or not any had been saved out of this ship. i had the affliction, some time after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore, at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck; there was nothing on him but a seaman's waistcoat, a pair of opened kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt, but no particular mark to guess what nation he was of. in his pocket were two pieces of eight, and a tobacco-pipe, the last of which i preferred much more than i did the first. and now the calmness of the sea tempted me to venture out in my boat to this wreck, not only to get something necessary out of the ship, but perhaps, some living creature might be on board, whose life i might preserve. this had such an influence upon my mind, that immediately i went home, and prepared every thing necessary for the voyage, carrying on board my boat provisions of all sorts, with a good quantity of rum, fresh water, and a compass: so putting off, i paddled the canoe along the shore, till i came at last to the north-east part of the island, from whence i was to launch into the ocean; but here the currents ran so violently, and appeared so terrible, that my heart began to fail me; foreseeing that if i was driven into any of these currents, i might be carried not only out of reach or sight of the island, but even inevitably lost in the boiling surges of the ocean. so oppressed was i at these troubles, that i gave over my enterprize, sailing to a little creek on the shore, where stepping out, i set me down on a rising hill, very pensive and thoughtful. i then perceived that the tide was turned; and the flood came on, which made it impracticable for me to go out for so many hours. to be more certain how the sets of the tides or currents lay when the flood came in, i ascended a higher piece of ground, which overlooked the sea both ways; and 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 all that i had to do was to keep to the north of the island in my return. that night i reposed myself in my canoe, covered with my watch coat, instead of a blanket, the heavens being my tester. i set out with the first of the tide full north, till i felt the benefit of the current, which carried me at a great rate eastward, yet not with such impetuosity as before, as to take from me all government of my canoe; so that in two hours time i came up to the wreck, which appeared to me a most melancholy sight. it seemed to be a spanish vessel by its building, stuck fast between two rocks; her stern and quarter beaten to pieces by the sea; her mainmast and foremast were brought off by the board, that is broken off short. as i approached near, i perceived a dog on board, who seeing me coming, yelped and cried, and no sooner did i call him, but the poor creature jumped into the sea, out of which i took him up, almost famished with hunger and thirst; so that when i gave him a cake of bread, no ravenous wolf could devour it more greedily; and he drank to that degree of fresh water, that he would have burst himself, had i suffered him. the first sight i met with in the ship, were two men drowned in the cook-room or forecastle, inclosed in one another's arms: hence i very probably supposed, that _when the vessel struck in the storm, so high and incessantly did the waters break in and over her, that the men not being able to bear it, were strangled by the constant rushing in of the waves_. there were several casks of liquor, whether wine of brandy, i could not be positive, which lay in the lower hold, as were plainly perceptible by the ebbing out of the water, yet were too large for me to pretend to meddle with; likewise i perceived several chests, which i supposed to belong to the seamen, two of which i got into my boat, without examining what was in them. had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart broken off, i should have made a very prosperous voyage; since by what i after found in these two chests, i could not otherwise conclude, but that the ship must have abundance of wealth on board; nay, if i must guess by the course she steered, she must have been bound from the buenos ayres, or the rio de la plata, in the southern parts of america, beyond the brazils, to the havannah, in the gulf of mexico, and so perhaps to spain. what became of the rest of the sailors, i could not certainly tell; and all her riches signified nothing at that time to any body. searching farther, i found a cask containing about twenty gallons, full of liquor, which, with some labour, i got into my boat; in her cabin were several muskets, which i let remain there; but took away with me a great powder horn, with about four pounds of powder in it. i took also a fire-shovel and tongs, two brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron; all which were extremely necessary to me, especially the fire-shovel and tongs. and so with this cargo, accompanied with my dog, i came away, the tide serving for that purpose; and the same evening, about an hour within night, i attained the island, after the greatest toil and fatigue imaginable. that night i reposed my wearied limbs in the boat, resolving the next morning to harbour what i had gotten in my new-found subterraneous grotto; & not to carry my cargo home to my ancient castle. having refreshed myself, and got all my effects on shore i next proceeded to examine the particulars; and so tapping the cask, i found the liquor to be a kind of rum, but not like what we had at the brazils, nor indeed near so good. at the opening of the chest, several things appeared very useful to me; for instance, i found in one a very fine case of bottles, containing the finest and best sorts of cordial waters; each bottle held about three pints, curiously tip with silver. i found also two pots full of the choicest sweetmeats, and two more which the water had utterly spoiled. there were likewise several good shirts exceedingly welcome to me, and about one dozen and a half white linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths, the former of which was absolutely necessary for wiping my face in a hot day; and, in the till, i found three bags of pieces of eight, about eleven hundred in all, in one of which, decently wrapped up in a piece of paper, were six doubloons of gold, and some small bars and wedges of the same metal, which i believe might weigh near a pound. in the other chest, which i guessed to belong to the gunner's mate, by the mean circumstances which attended it, i found only some clothes of very little value, except about two pounds of fine glazed powder, in three flasks, kept, as i believe, for charging their fowling pieces on any occasion; so that, on the whole, i had no great advantage by this voyage. the money was indeed as mere dirt to me, useless and unprofitable, all which i would freely have parted with for two or three pair of english shoes and stockings; things that for many years i had not worn, except lately those which i had taken of the feet of those unfortunate men i found drowned in the wreck, yet not so good as english shoes either for ease or service. i also found in the seaman's chest about fifty pieces of eight in royals, but no gold; so concluded that what i took from the first belonged to an officer, the latter appearing to have a much inferior person for its owner. however, as despicable as the money seemed, i likewise lugged it to my cave, laying it up securely, as i did the rest of my cargo; and after i had done all this, i returned back to my boat, rowing and paddling her along till i came to my old harbour, where i carefully laid her up, and so made the best of my way to my castle. when i arrived there, every thing seemed safe and quiet: so that now my only business was to repose myself after my wonted manner, and take care of my domestic affairs. but though i might have lived very easy, as wanting nothing absolutely needful, yet still i was more vigilant than usual upon account of the savages, never going much abroad; or, if i did, it was to the east part of the island, where i was well assured that the savages never came, and where i might not be troubled to carry that heavy load of weapons for my defence, as i was obliged to do if i went the other way. two years did i live in this anxious condition, in all which time, contrary to my former resolutions, my head was filled with nothing but projects and designs, how i might escape from this island; and so much were my wandering thoughts bent upon a rambling disposition that had i had the same boat that i went from sallee in, i should have ventured once more to the uncertainty of the raging ocean. i cannot, however, but consider myself as one of the unhappy persons, who make themselves wretched by there dissatisfaction with the stations which god has placed them in; for, not to take a review of my primitive condition, and my father's excellent advice, the going contrary to which was, as i may say, my original sin, the following mistakes of the same nature certainly had been the means of my present unhappy station. what business had i to leave a settled fortune, and well stocked plantation, improving and increasing, where, by this time, i might have been worth a hundred thousand moidores, to turn supercargo to guinea, to fetch negroes, when time and patience would so much enlarge my stock at home, as to be able to employ those whose more immediate business it was to fetch them home even to my door? but as this is commonly the fate of young heads, so a serious reflection upon the folly of it ordinarily attends the exercise of future years, when the dear bought experience of time teaches us repentance. thus was it with me; but not withstanding the thoughts of my deliverance ran so strongly in my mind, that is seemed to check all the dictates of reason and philosophy. and now to usher in my kind reader with greater pleasure to the remaining part of my relation, i flatter myself it will not be taken amiss, to give him an account of my first conceptions of the manner of escaping, and upon what foundation i laid my foolish schemes. having retired to my castle, after my late voyage to the ship, my frigate laid up and secured, as usual, and my condition the same as before, except being richer, though i had as little occasion for riches as the indians of peru had for gold, before the cruel spaniards came among them: one night in march, being the rainy season in the four and twentieth year of my solitude, i lay down to sleep, very well in health, without distemper pain, or uncommon uneasiness, either of body or mind; yet notwithstanding, i could not compose myself to sleep all the night long. all this tedious while, it is impossible to express what innumerable thoughts came into my head. _i traced quite over the whole history of my life in miniature, from my utmost remembrance of things till i came to this island, and then proceeded to examine every action and passage that had occurred since i had taken possession of my kingdom._ in my reflections upon the latter, i was _comparing the happy posture of my affairs from the beginning of my reign, to this life of anxiety, fear, and concern, since i had discovered a print of a foot in the sand; that while i continued without apprehension, i was incapable of feeling the dread and terror i now suffered._ how thankful rather ought i to have been for the knowledge of my danger, since the greatest happiness one can be possessed of is to have sufficient time to provide against it? how stupendous is the goodness of providence, which sets such narrow bounds to the sight and knowledge of human nature, that while men walk in the midst of so many dangers they are kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid from their eyes and knowing nothing of those many dangers that surround them, till perhaps they are dissipated and vanish away. when i came more particularly to considerer of _the real danger i had for so many years escaped; how i had walked about in the greatest security and tranquility, at a time, perhaps, when even nothing but the brow of a hill, a great tree, or the common approach of night, had interposed between me and the destructive hands of the cannibals, who would devour me with as good an appetite, as i would a pigeon or curlew;_ surely all this, i say, could not but make me sincerely thankful to my great preserver, whose singular protection i acknowledge with the greatest humility, and without which i must inevitably have fallen into the cruel hands of those devourers. having thus discussed my thoughts in the clearest manner, according to my weak understanding, i next proceeded to consider _the wretched nature of those destroying savages, by seeming, though with great reverence,_ to enquire _why god should give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity, even to brutality itself, to devour its own kind?_ but as this was rather matter of obstruse speculation, and as my miserable situation made me think this of mine the most uncomfortable situation in the world, i then began rather to inquire _what part of the world these wretches lived in; how far off the coast was from whence they came; why they ventured over so far from home; what kind of boats conveyed them hither; and why i could not order myself and my business so, that i might be able to attack their country, as they were to come to my kingdom. but then_ thought i, _how shall i manage myself when i come thither? what will become of me if i fall into the hands of the savages? or how shall i escape from them if they make an attempt upon me? and supposing i should not fall into their power, what shall i do for provisions, or which way shall i bend my course?_ these counter thoughts threw me into the greatest horror and confusion imaginable; but then i still looked upon my present condition to be the most miserable that possibly could be, and that nothing could be worse, except death _for_ (thought i) _could i but attain the shore of the main, i might perhaps meet with some reliefs, or coast it along, as i did with my boy xury, on the african shore, till i came to some inhabited country, where i might meet with some relief, or fall in with some christian ship that might take me in; and if i failed, why then i could but meet with death, which would put an end to all my miseries._ these thoughts, i must confess, were the fruit of a distempered mind and impatient temper made desperate, as it were, by long continuance of the troubles and disappointments i had met with in the wreck; where i hoped to have found some living person to speak to, by whom i might have known in what place i was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. thus, while my thoughts were agitated, my resignation to the will of heaven was entirely suspended; to that i had no power to fix my mind to any thing, but to the project of a voyage to the main land. and indeed so much was i inflamed upon this account, that it set my blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat high, as though i had been in a fever; till nature being, as it were, fatigued and exhausted with the thoughts of it, made me submit myself to a silent repose. in such a situation, it is very strange, that i did not dream of what i was so intent upon; but, instead of it, my mind roved on a quite different thing, altogether foreign. i dreamed, that as i was issuing from my castle one morning, as customary, when i perceived upon the shore two canoes, and eleven savages coming to land, who had brought with them another indian, whom they designed to make a sacrifice of, in order to devour; but just as they were going to give the fatal blow, methought the poor designed victim jumped away, and ran directly into my little thick grove before my fortification, to abscond from his enemies, when perceiving that the others did not follow him that way, i appeared to him; that he humbly kneeled down before me, seeming to pray for my assistance; upon which i showed him my ladder, made him ascend, carried him to my cave, and he became my servant; and when i had gotten this man, i said to myself, _now surely i may have some hopes to attain the main land; for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, tell me what to do, and where i must go for provisions, what places to shun, what to venture to, and what to escape._ but when i awaked, and found all these inexpressible impressions of joy entirely vanished, i fell into the greatest dejection of spirit imaginable. yet this dream brought me to reflect, that one sure way of escaping was to get a savage; that after i had ventured my life to deliver him from the bloody jaws of his devourers, the natural sense he might have of such a preservation, might inspire him with a lasting gratitude and most sincere affection. but then this objection reasonably interposed: _how can i effect this,_ thought i, _without i attack a whole company of them, and kill them all? why should i proceed on such a desperate attempt, which my scruples before had suggested to be unlawful?_ and indeed my heart trembled at the thoughts of so much blood, though it were a means to procure my deliverance. 'tis true, i might reasonably enough suppose these men to be real enemies to my life, men who would devour me, was it in their power, so that it was self preservation in the highest degree to free myself, by attacking them in my own defence, as lawfully as if they were actually assaulting me: though all these things, i say, seemed to me to be of the greatest weight, yet, as i just said before, the dreadful thoughts of shedding human blood, struck such a terror to my soul, that it was a long time before i could reconcile myself to it. but how far will the ardency of desire prompt us on? for notwithstanding the many disputes and perplexities i had with myself, i at length resolved, right or wrong, to get one of these savages into my hands, cost what it would, or even though i should lose my life in the attempt. inspired with this firm resolution, i set all my wits at work, to find out what methods i should take to answer my design: this, indeed, was so difficult a task, that i could not pitch upon any probable means to execute it: i, therefore, resolved continually to be in a vigilant posture, to perceive when the savages came on shore and to leave the rest to the event, let the opportunities offer as they would. such was my fixed resolutions; and accordingly i set myself upon the scout, as often as i could, till such time as i was heartily tired of it. i waited for above a year and a half, the greatest part of which i went out to the west, and south-west corner of the island, almost every day, to look for canoes, but none appeared. this was a very great discouragement; yet, though i was very much concerned, the edge of my design was as keen as ever, and the longer it seemed to be delayed, the more eager was i for it: in a word, i never before was so careful to shun the loathing sight of these savages, as i was now eager to be with them; and i thought myself sufficiently able to manage one, two, or three savages if i had them, so as to make them my entire slaves, to do whatsoever i should direct them, and prevent their being able at any time to do me any mischief. many times did i used to please myself with these thoughts, with long and ardent expectations; but nothing presenting, all my deep projected schemes and numerous fancies vanished away, as though, while i retained such thoughts, the decrees of providence was such, that no savages were to come near me. about a year and a half after, when i was seriously musing of sundry other ways how i should attain my end, one morning early i was very much surprised by seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together, on my side the island, and the savages that belonged to them all landed, and out of my sight. such a number of them disconcerted all my measures; for, seeing so many boats, each of which would contain six, and sometimes more, i could not tell what to think of it, or how to order my measures, to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; upon which, much dispirited and perplexed, i lay still in my castle; which, however, i put in a proper posture for an attack: and, having formerly provided all that was necessary, was soon ready to enter upon an engagement, should they attempt. having waited for some time, my impatient temper would let me bear it no longer; i set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and, as usual, ascended up to the top of the hill at two stages, standing, however, in such a manner, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could easily perceive me; and here, by the assistance of my perspective glass, i observed no less than thirty in number around a fire, feasting upon what meat they had dressed: how they cooked it, or what it was, i could not then perfectly tell; but they were all dancing and capering about the flames, using many frightful and barbarous gestures. but while, with a curious eye, i was beholding these wretches, my spirits sunk within me, when i perceived them drag two miserable creatures from the boats, to act afresh the dreadful tragedy, as i supposed they had done before. it was not long before one of them fell upon the ground, knocked down, as i suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was their manner; while two or three others went immediately to work, cutting him open for their cookery, and then fell to devour him as they had done the former, while the last unhappy captive was left by himself, till such time as they were ready for him. the poor creature looked round him with a wishful eye, trembling at the thoughts of death; yet, seeing himself a little at liberty, nature, that very moment, as it were, inspired him with hopes of life: he started away from them, and ran, with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly to that part of the coast where my ancient and venerable castle stood. you may well imagine, i was dreadfully affrighted upon this occasion, when, as i thought, they pursued him in a whole body, all running towards my palace. and now, indeed, i expected that part of my dream was going to be fulfilled, and that he would certainly fly to my grove for protection; but, for the rest of my dream, i could depend nothing on it; that the savages would pursue him thither, and find him there. however my spirits, beginning to recover, i still kept upon my guard; and i now plainly perceived, there were but three men out of the number that pursued him. i was infinitely pleased with what swiftness the poor creature ran from his pursuers, gaining so much ground upon them, that i plainly perceived, could he thus hold out for half an hour, there was not the least doubt but he would save his life from the power of his enemies. between them and my castle there was a creek, that very same which i sailed into with all my effects from the wreck of the ship on the steep banks of which i very much feared the poor victim would be taken, if he could not swim for his escape: but soon was i out of pain for him, when i perceived he made nothing of it, though at full tide, but with an intrepid courage, spurred on by the sense of danger, he plunged into the flood, swimming over in about thirty strokes, and then landing, ran with the same incredible strength and swiftness as before. when the three pursuers came to the creek, one of them, who i perceived could not swim, happily for his part, returned to his company, while the others, with equal courage, but much less swiftness attained the other side, as though they were resolved never to give over the pursuit. and now or or never i thought was the time for me to procure me a servant, companion, or assistant; and that i was decreed by providence to be the instrument to save this poor creature's life. i immediately descended my two ladders with the greatest expedition: i took up my two guns, which, i said before, were at the bottom of them, and getting up again with the same haste towards the hill, i made nearer the sea. in a word, taking a short cut down the hill, i interposed between the pursuers and pursued, hallooing aloud to the latter, who, venturing to look back, was, no doubt, as much terrified at me as i at them. i beckoned to him with my hand, to return back, in the mean time advancing towards the pursuers, and rushing on the foremost, i knocked him down with the stock of my piece, and laid him flat on the ground. i was very unwilling to fire lest the rest should hear, though at a distance, i question whether they could or no; and being out of sight of the smoke, they could not easily have known what to make of it. the other savage seeing his fellow fall, stopped as if he had been amazed; when advancing towards him, i could perceive him take his bow from his back, and, fixing and arrow to it, was preparing to shoot at me, and, without dispute, might have lodged the arrow in my breast; but, in this absolutely necessary case of self preservation, i immediately fired at him, and shot him dead, just as his hand was going to draw the fatal string. all this while, the savage who had fled before stood still, and had the satisfaction to see his enemies killed, as he thought, who designed to take away his life; so affrighted was he with the fire and noise of my piece, _that he stood as it were like lot's wife, fixed and immoveable, without either sense or motion_. this obliged me to halloo to him again, making the plainest signs i could to him to draw nearer. i perceived he understood those tokens by his approaching to me a little way, when, as is afraid i should kill him too, he stopped again. several times did he advance, as often stop in this manner, till coming more, to my view, i perceived him trembling, as if he was to undergo the same fate. upon which i looked upon him with a smiling countenance, and still beckoning to him, at length he came close to me and kneeled down, kissed my hand, laid his head upon it, and taking me by the foot, placed it upon his head; and this, as i understood afterwards, was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever. i took him up, and, making much of him, encouraged him in the best manner i could. but my work was not yet finished; for i perceived the savage whom i knocked down, was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself, upon which i pointed to my new servant, and shewed him that his enemy was not yet expired, he spoke some words to me, but which i could not understand; yet being the first sound of a man's voice i had heard for above twenty-five years, they were very pleasing to me. but there was no time for reflection now, the wounded savage recovering himself so far as to sit upon the ground, which made my poor prisoner as much afraid as before; to put him out of which fear, i presented my other gun at the man, with an intent to shoot him; but my savage, for so i must now call him, prevented my firing, by making a motion to me, to lend him my sword, which hung naked in my belt by my side. no sooner did i grant his request, but away he runs to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head as dextrously as the most accomplished executioner in germany could have done; for, it seems, these creatures make use of wooden swords made of hard wood which will bear edge enough to cut off heads and arms at one blow. when this valorous exploit was done, he comes to me laughing, as a token of triumph, delivered me my sword again, with abundance of suprising gestures, laying it, along with the bleeding and ghastly head of the indian, at my feet. [illustration: robinson crusoe rescuing friday from his pursuers.] the greatest astonishment that my new servant conceived was the manner of killing the savage at such a distance, without a bow and arrow; and such was his longing desire to know it, that he first pointed to the dead carcase, and then made signs to me to grant him leave to go up to him. upon which i bid him go, and, as well as i could, made him sensible i granted his request. but when he came there, how wonderfully was he struck with amazement! first, he turned him on one side, then on another, wondering he could perceive no quantity of blood, he bleeding inwardly; and after sufficiently admiring the wound the bullet had made in his breast, he took up his bow and arrows, and came back again; upon which i turned to go away, making signs to him to follow, left the rest missing their companions, might come in pursuit of them, and this i found he understood very well, by his making me understand that his design was to bury them, that they might not be seen if it happened; and which by signs again i made him sensible i very much approved of. immediately he fell to work, and never was a grave-digger more dextrous in the world than he was; for in an instant, as i might say, he scraped a large hole in the sand with his hands, sufficient to bury the first in; there he dragged him; and without any ceremony he covered him over; in like manner he saved the other; so that i am sure no undertaker could be more expert in his business, for all this was done in less than a quarter of an hour. i then called him away, and instead of carrying him directly to my castle at first, i conveyed him to my cave on the farther part of the island; and so my dream was now fulfilled in that particular, that my grove should prove an asylum or sanctuary to him. weary and faint, hungry and thirsty, undoubtedly must this poor creature be, supported chiefly by the vivacity of spirit, and, uncommon transports of joy that his deliverance occasioned. here i gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and water to drink, on which he fed very cheerfully, to his exceeding refreshment. i then made him a convenient bed with a parcel of rice straw, and a blanket upon it, (a bed which i used myself sometimes) and then pointing to it, made signs for him to lie down to sleep, upon which the poor creature went to take a welcome repose. indeed he was a very comely, handsome, young fellow, extremely well made, with straight long limbs, not too large, but tall and well shaped, and, as near as i could reckon, about twenty-six years of age. his countenance had nothing in it fierce or surly, but rather a sort of majesty in his face; and yet, especially when he smiled, he had all the sweetness and softness of an european. his hair was not curled like wool, as many of the blacks are, but long and black, with the most beautiful, yet careless tresses spreading over his shoulders. he had a very high and large forehead, with a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. his skin was not so tawney, as the virginians, brazilians, or other americans; but rather of a bright dun, olive colour, that had something agreeable in it, though not very easy to give a description of. his face was round and plump, with a small nose, very different from the flatness of the negroes, a pretty small mouth, thin lips, fine teeth, very well set, and white as the driven snow. in a word, such handsome features, and exact symmetry in every part, made me consider that i had saved the life of an indian prince, no less graceful and accomplished than the great _oroonoko_ whose memorable behavior and unhappy contingencies of life have charmed the world, both to admiration of his person, and compassion to his sufferings. but let him be either prince or peasant, all my happiness centered in this, that i had now got a good servant or companion, to whom, as he deserved, i was resolved to prove a kind master and a lasting friend. he had not, i think, slept above an hour when he awakened again, and while i was milking my goats hard by, out he runs from the cave towards me in my inclosure, and laying himself down on the ground, in the lowest prostration, made all the antic gestures imaginable, to express his thankfulness to me for being his deliverer. i confess though the manner of his behaviour seemed to be ludicrous enough to occasion, laughter, yet i was very much moved at his affection, so that my heart melted within me, fearing he might die away in excess of joy, like reprieved malefactors, especially as i was incapable either to let him blood, or administer physic. it were to be wished, that christians would take example by this heathen, to have received by the kind mediation and powerful interposition of their benefactors and deliverers; and it would be likewise happy for mankind, were there no occasion to blame many, who, instead of thankfully acknowledging favours and benefits, rather abuse and condemn those who have been the instruments to save them from destruction. but, leaving these just reflections, i return to the object that occasioned them; for my man, to conclude the last ceremony of obedience, laid down his head again on the ground, close to my foot, and set my other foot upon is head, as he had done before, making all the signs of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, and let me understand he would serve me as long as his life endured. as i understood him in many things, i made him sensible i was very well pleased with him; and, in a little time, i began to speak to him, and learn him to talk to me again. in the first place, i made him understand his name was to be _friday_, because it was upon that day i saved his life; then i taught him to say _master_, which i made him sensible was to be my name. i likewise taught him to say _yes_ and _no_, and to know what they meant. i gave him some milk in an earthen pot, making him view me while i drank it before him, and soaked my bread in it; i gave him a cake of bread, and caused him to soak it likewise, to which he readily consented, making signs of the greatest satisfaction imaginable. all that night did i keep him there; but no sooner did the morning light appear, when i ordered him to arise, and come along with me, with certain tokens that i would give him some clothes like mine, at which he seemed very glad, being stark naked, without the least covering whatever. as we passed by the place where the two men had been interred, my man pointed directly to their graves, showing me the marks that he had made to find them again, giving me to understand, by signs, that we should dig them up, and devour them. at this i appeared extremely displeased, expressed my utmost abhorrence, as if i would vomit at the apprehensions of it, beckoning with my hand to come away, which he did with the greatest reverence and submission. after this i conducted him to the top of the hill, to view if the rest of the savages were yet remaining there; but when i looked through my perspective glass, i could see no appearance of them, nor of their canoes; so that it was evident they never minded their deceased companions whom we had slain: which if they had, they would surely have searched for, or left one boat behind for them to follow, after they returned from their pursuit. curiosity, and a desire of satisfaction, animating me with courage to see this scene of barbarity, i took my man friday with me, putting a sword into his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which i perceived he could use very dexterously, causing him to carry one gun for me, and i two for myself; and thus equipped against all attacks, away we marched directly to the place of their bloody entertainment. but when i came there, i was struck with the utmost horror at so dreadful a spectacle, whilst friday was no way concerned about it, being no doubt in his turn one of these devourers. here lay several human bones, there several pieces of mangled flesh, half eaten, mangled, and scorched, whilst streams of blood ran promiscuously as waters from a fountain. as i was musing on this dreadful sight, friday took all the pains he could, by particular signs, to make me understand, that they had brought over four prisoners to feast upon, three of whom they had eaten up, and that he was the fourth, pointing to himself; that there having been a bloody battle between them and his great king, in the just defence of whom he was taken prisoner, with many others; all of these were carried off to different places to be devoured by their conquerors; and that it was his misfortune to be brought hither by these wretches for the same purpose. after i was made sensible of these things, i caused friday to gather those horrid remains, and lay them together upon a heap, which i ordered to be set on fire, and burnt them to ashes: my man, however, still retained the nature of a cannibal, having a hankering stomach after some of the flesh; but such an extreme abhorrence did i express at the least appearance of it, that he durst not but conceal it; for i made him very sensible, that if he offered any such thing, i would certainly shoot him. this being done, i carried my man with me to my castle, and gave him a pair of linen drawers, which i had taken out of the poor gunner's chest before mentioned; and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very well; in the next place i made him a jerkin of goat's skin, such as my skill was able to manage, and indeed i thought myself then a tolerable good tailor. i gave him also a cap which i made of a hare's skin, very convenient and fashionable. thus being clothed tolerably well, my man was no less proud of his habit, than i was at seeing him in it. indeed he went very aukwardly at first, the drawers being too heavy on his thighs not used to bear any weight, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but by a little easing where he complained they hurt him, and by using himself to them, at length he took to them very well. my next concern was, where i should lodge him; and that i might do well by him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, i erected a tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and the outside of the first; and, as there was an entrance or door into my cave, i made a formal framed door-case, and a door to open on the inside; i barred it up in the night time, taking in my ladders too, so that, was my man to prove treacherous, there could be no way to 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, spreading over my tent, and leaning up to the side of the mountain, which was again laid cross with smaller sticks instead of laths, and thatched over a great thickness with the rice straw, which was as strong as reeds; and at the hole of the place, left on purpose to go in or out by the ladder, had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but have fallen down, and made a great noise; and as to my weapons, every night i took them all to my bed side. but there was no occasion for this precaution; for surely never master had a more sincere, faithful, and loving servant, than friday proved to me. without passion, sullenness, or design, perfectly obliging and engaging, his affections were as much tied to me, as those of a child to its parents; & i might venture to say, he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatsoever. and indeed the many testimonies he gave me of this, sufficiently convinced me that i had no occasion to use these precautions. and here i could not but reflect with great wonder, that however it hath pleased the almighty in his providence, and in the government of the creation, to take from so great a part of the world of his creatures, the noblest uses to which their faculties, and the powers of their souls are adapted; yet that he has bestowed upon them the same reason, affections, sentiments of kindness and obligation, passions of resentment, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing and receiving good that he has given us; and that when he is graciously pleased to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the proper uses for which they were bestowed, than we often are. these thoughts would make me melancholy, especially when i considered how mean a use we make of all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the holy spirit of god, and by the knowledge of this world, as an addition to our understanding; and why it has pleased the heavenly wisdom to conceal the life saving knowledge from so many millions of souls who would certainly make a much better use of it than generally mankind do at this time. these reflections would sometimes lead me so far, as to invade the sovereignty of providence, and, as it were, arraign the justice of such an arbitrary disposition of things, that should obscure that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from all. but i closed it up, checking my thoughts with this conclusion; first, that we were ignorant of that right and law by which those should be condemned; but as the almighty was necessarily, and by the nature of his essence, infinitely just and holy; so it could not be otherwise, but that if these creatures were all destined 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 first foundation was not discovered to us. and, secondly, that still as we were the clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could thus say to him, _why hast thou fashioned me after this manner_? i had not been above two or three days returned to my castle, but my chief design was, how i should bring friday off from this horrid way of feeding; and to take from him that inhuman relish he by nature had been accustomed to, i thought it my duty to let him taste other flesh, which might the rather tempt him to the same abhorrence i so often expressed against their accursed way of living. upon which, one morning i took him out with me, with an intention to kill a kid out of the flock, and bring it home and dress it. as i was going, i perceived a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. immediately i catched hold of my man friday, and bidding him stand still, and not stir, i presented my piece, and shot one of the kids. my poor servant, who had at a distance perceived me kill his adversary, and yet did not know by what means, or how it was done, stood trembling and surprised, and looked so amazed, that i thought he would have sunk into the earth. he did not see the kid i aimed at, or behold i had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to see if he was not wounded, thinking my resolution was to kill him; for coming to me, he fell on his knees, earnestly pronouncing many things which i did not understand the meaning of; which at length i perceived was, that i would not take away his life. indeed i was much concerned to see him in that condition, where nature is upon the severest trial, when the immediate hand of death is ready to put for ever a period to this mortal life; and indeed so much compassion had i to this creature, that it was with difficulty i restrained from tears. but, however, as another sort of countenance was necessary, and to convince him that i would do no harm, i took him smiling by the hand, then laughed at him, and pointing to the kid which i had slain, made signs to him to fetch it, which accordingly he did. no less curious was he in viewing how the creature was killed, than he had been before in beholding the indian; which, while he was admiring at, i charged my gun again, and presently perceived a great fowl like a hawk, perching upon a tree within shot; and therefore, to let friday understand what i was going to do, i called him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which i found to be a parrot. i made him understand that i would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly i fired, and bade him look, when immediately he saw the parrot fall down. again he stood like one amazed, notwithstanding all i had said to him: and the more confounded he was, because he did not perceive me put any thing into my gun. undoubtedly a thing so utterly strange, carrying death along with it, far or near, either to man or beast, must certainly create the greatest astonishment to one who never had heard such a thing in his whole life; and really his amazement continued so long, that had i allowed it, he would have prostrated himself before me and my gun, with the greatest worship and adoration. as for the gun in particular, he would not so much as touch it for several days after, but would come & communicate his thoughts to it, & talk to it, as if the senseless piece had understood and answered him; all this i could perceive him do, when he thought my back was turned, the chief intent of which was, to desire it not to kill him, as i afterwards came to understand. i never strove to prevent his admiration, nor hinder him from those comical gestures he used on such occasions; but when his astonishment was a little over, i make tokens to him to run and fetch the parrot that i had shot; which accordingly he did, staying some time longer than usual, by reason the bird not being quite dead, had fluttered some way further from the place where she fell. in the mean time, as he was looking for her, i took the advantage of charging my gun again, that so i might be ready for any other mark that offered; but nothing more occurred at that time. so i brought home the kid, and the same evening took off the skin and divided the carcase as well as i could. part of the flesh i stewed and boiled in a pot i had for this purpose. and then spreading my table, i sat down, giving my man some of it to eat, who was wonderfully pleased and seemed to like it very well: but what was the most surprising to him was to see me eat salt with it: upon which he made me understand, that the salt was very bad for me; when putting a little into his mouth, he seemed to nauseate it in such a manner as to spit and sputter at it, and then washed his mouth with fresh water: but to shew him how contrary his opinion was to mine, i put some meat into my mouth without salt and feigned to spit and sputter as much for the want of it, as he had done at it; yet all this proved of no signification to friday; and it was a long while before he could endure salt in his meat or broth, and even then but a small quantity. thus having fed him sufficiently with boiled meat and broth at that time, the next day i was resolved to feast him with a roasted piece of the kid. and having no spit to fasten it, nor jack to turn it, i made use of that common artifice which many of the common people of england have, that is to let two poles upon each side of the fire, and one cross on top, hanging the meat thereon with a string, and so turning round continually, roast it, in the same manner as we read bloody tyrants of old cruelly roasted the holy martyrs. this practice caused great admiration in my man friday, being quite another way than that to which the savages were accustomed. but when he came to taste the sweetness and tenderness of the flesh, he expressed his entire satisfaction above a thousand different ways. and as i could not but understand his meaning, you may be sure i was as wonderfully pleased, especially when he made it also very plain to me, that he would never, while he lived eat man's flesh more. it was now high time i should set my servant to work; so next day i set him to beat out some corn, and sat it in the same manner as i had done before. and really the fellow was very quick and handy in the execution of any thing i ordered him to go about. i made him understand that it was to make bread for us to eat, and afterwards let him see me make it. in short, he did every thing as i ordered him, and in a little time as well as i could perform it myself. but now considering that i had two mouths to feed instead of one, it was necessary that i must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn than i commonly used to do; upon which i marked out a larger piece of land, fencing it in, in the same manner as i had done before; in the execution of which i must give friday this good word; that no man could work, more hardy or with better will than he did: and when i made him sensible that it was for bread to serve him as well as me, he then very passionately made me understand that he thought i had much more labour on his account, than i had for myself; and that no pains or diligence should be wanting in him, if i would but direct him in those works wherein he might proceed. i must certainly own, that this was the most pleasant year i ever had on the island; for after some time friday began to talk pretty well, and understood the names of those things which i was wont to call for, and the places where i used to send him. so that my long silent tongue, which had been useless so many years, except in an exclamatory manner, either for deliverance or blessings, now began to be occupied in teaching, and talking to my man friday for indeed i had such a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself, so innocent did his simple and unfeigned honesty appear more and more to me every day, that i really began entirely to love him; and for his part, i believe there was no love lost, and that his nature had been more charmed by his exceeding kindness, and his affections more placed upon me, than any other object whatsoever among his own countrymen. i once had a great mind to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own country again; and by this time, having learned the english so well; that he could give me tolerable answer to any question which i demanded. i asked him whether that nation to which he belonged, ever conquered in battle? this question made friday to smile, and to which he answered, _yes, yes, we always fight the better;_ as much as to say, they always got the better in fight. upon which we proceeded on the following discourse: _you say_, said i, _that you always fight the better; why, then, friday, how came you to be taken prisoner_? friday. _but for all that my nation beat much_. master. _how say you, beat? if your nation beat them, how came you to be taken_? friday. _they more many mans than my nation in the place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me: my nation much over beat them in the yonder place where me no was, there my nation mans beat one, two, three, great tousand_. master. _then why did not your men recover you from the hands of your enemies?_ friday. _they run one, two, or three, and me: they make all go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time_-master. _'tis very well, friday; but what does your nation do with the prisoners they take? do they carry them away and eat them as these have done_? friday. _yes, yes, my nation eat mans too, eat up all_. master. _to what place do they carry them to be devoured_? friday. _go to other nations where they think_. master. _do they bring them hither_? friday. _yes, come over hither, came over other place_. master. _and have you been with them here, friday_? friday. _yes, me been here_, (pointing to the north-west of the island, being the side where they used to land.) thus having gotten what account i could from my man, i plainly understood that he had been as bad as any of the rest of the cannibals, having been formerly among the savages who used to come on shore on the farthest part of the island, upon the same bloody occasion as he was brought hither for; and some time after i carried him to that place where he pointed; and no sooner did he come there, but he presently knew the ground, signifying to me that he was once there when they ate up twenty men, two women and a young child; but as he could not explain the number in english, he did it by so many stones in a row, making a sign to me to count them. this passage i have the rather mentioned, because it led to things more important and useful for me to know; for after i had this satisfactory discourse with him, my next question was, how far it was from the island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost in the ocean? to which he answered, _there was no danger, that no canoes were ever lost; but that after a little way out to the sea, there was a strong current and a wind always one way in the afternoon_. this i thought at first to be no more than the sets of the tide, of 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 gulf of which i imagined my kingdom lay: and that the land which i perceived to the w. and n.w. must be the great island trinidad, on the north of the river. a thousand questions (if that would satisfy me) did i ask friday about the nature of the country, the sea, the coasts, the inhabitants, and what nations were nearest them: to which questions the poor fellow declared all he knew with the greatest openness & utmost sincerity. when i demanded of him the particular names of the various nations of his sort of people, he could only answer me in general that they were called _carrabee_. hence it was i considered that these must be the carribees, so much taken notice of by our maps to be on that part of america, which reaches from the mouth of the river oroonoko to guiana, and so on to st. martha. then friday proceeded to tell me, _that up a great way beyond the moon_, as much as to say, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be w. from their country, _there dwelt white-bearded men, such as i was_, pointing to my whiskers, _and that they kill much mans_. i was not ignorant with what barbarity the spaniards treated these creatures; so that i presently concluded it must be them, whose cruelties had spread throughout america, to be remembered even to succeeding generations. well, you may be sure, this knowledge, which the imperfect knowledge of my man had led me to, was very comfortable to me, and made me so curious as to ask him how i might depart from this island, & get amongst those white men? he told me, _yes, yes, i might go in two canoes_. in two canoes, thought i, what does my man mean? surely he means one for himself, and another for me; and if not, how must two canoes hold me without being joined, or one part of my body being put in one, and another in another? and indeed it was a long time before i understood his meaning; which was, that it must be a large boat, as big as two canoes, able to bear with the waves, and not so liable to be overwhelmed as a small one must be. i believe there is not a state of life but what may be happy, if people would but endeavour for their part to make it so. he is not the happiest man that has the most riches; but he that is content with what he hath. before i had my servant, i thought myself miserable till i had him; and now that i had enjoyed the happy benefits of him, i still complained, and begged a deliverance from a place of retirement, ease, and plenty, where providence had sufficiently blessed me. in a word, from this time i entertained some hopes, that one time or other i might find an opportunity to make my escape from this island, and that this poor savage might be a great furtherance thereto. all the time since my man became so intelligent as to understand and speak to me, i spared no pain nor diligence to instruct him, according to my poor share of knowledge in the principles of religion, and the adoration that he ought to pay to the true god. one time, as i very well remember, i asked him who made him? at first the innocent creature did not understand what i meant, but rather thought i asked him who was his father? upon which i took another way to make him sensible, by demanding from him an answer to this question. "friday," i said, "who is it that made the sea, this ground whereon we walk, and all the hills and woods which we behold?" and here, indeed, i did not miss my intention; for he told me _it was old benamuckee_ (the god whom i supposed these savages adored) _who lived a great way beyond all_. but as to his attributes, poor friday was an utter stranger. he could describe nothing of this great person; and all that he could say was, _that he was very old, much older than the sea and land, the moon, or the stars_. "friday," said i again, "if this great and old person has made all things in the world, how comes it to pass, that all things, as you in particular, do not adore and worship him? upon this looking very grave, with a perfect sweet look of innocence, he replied: _master all things say o to him_," by which it may reasonably be supposed he meant adoration. "and where," said i, "do the people of your country go when they die?" he answered _to benamuckee_. "what, and those people that are eaten up, do they go there?" _benamuckee_, said he, _love 'em dearly; me pray to benamuckee in the canoe, and benamuckee would love me when dey eat me all up_. such discourses as these had i with my man, and such made me sensible, that the true god is worshipped, tho' under imperfect similitudes; and that the false adoration which the heathens give to their imaginary deity, is as great an argument of the divine essence, as the most learned atheists _(falsely so called)_ can bring against it; for god will be glorified in his works, let their denominations be what it will; and i cannot be of that opinion which some conceive, that god should decree men to be damned for want of a right notion of faith, in a place where the wisdom of the almighty has not permitted it to be preached; and therefore cannot but conclude, that since obedience is the best sacrifice, these poor creatures are acting by that light and knowledge which they are possessed of, may undoubtedly obtain a happy salvation, though not that enjoyment with christ, as his saints, confessors, and martyrs must enjoy. but laying these determinations aside, more fit for divines than me to discuss, i began to instruct my servant in the saving knowledge of the true deity, in which the direction of god's holy spirit assisted me. i lifted up my hands to heaven, and pointing thereto, told him "that the great maker of heaven and earth lived there; that as his infinite power fashioned this world out of a confused chaos, and made it in that beautiful frame which we behold; so he governs and preserves it by his unbounded knowledge, sovereign greatness and peculiar providence; that he was omnipotent, could do every thing for us, give every thing to us, and take every thing away from us; that he was a rewarder and punisher of good, and evil actions; that there was nothing but what he knew, no thoughts so secret, but what he could bring to light;" and thus, by degrees, i opened his eyes, and described to him "the manner of the creation of the world, the situation of paradise, the transgression of our first parents, the wickedness of god's peculiar people, and the universal sins and abominations of the whole earth." when these things were implanted in his mind, i told him "that as god's justice was equal to his mercy, he resolved to destroy this world, till his son jesus christ interposed in our behalf; and to procure our redemption, obtained leave of his heavenly father to come down from heaven into the world, where he took human nature upon him, instructed us in our way to eternal life, and died as a sacrifice for our sins; that he was now ascended into heaven, mediating for our pardon, delivering our petitions, and obtaining all those good benefits which we ask in his name, by humble and hearty prayers, all which were heard at the throne of heaven." as frequently i used to inculcate things into his mind. friday one day told me, _that if our great god could hear us beyond the sun, he must surely be a greater god than their benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, yet could not hear them till they ascended the great mountains, where he dwelt to speak to him._ 'what' said i, 'friday, did you go thither to speak to him too?' he answered, _no, they never went that were young men, none but old men, called their oowakakee_, meaning the indian priests, _who went to say o,_ (so he called saying their prayers) _and they returned back, and told them what benamuckee said._ from hence, i could not but observe how happy we christians are, who have god's immediate revelation for our certain guide; and that our faith is neither misled, nor our reason imposed upon, by any set of men, such as these indian impostures. but to clear up this palpable cheat to my man friday, i told him, "that the pretence of their ancient men going up to the mountain to say o to their god _benamuckee_ was an imposture, and that their bringing back an answer was all a sham, if not worse; for that, if there was any such thing spoken to them, surely it must proceed from an infernal spirit." and here i thought it necessary to enter into a long discourse with him, which i did after this manner. "friday," said i, "you must know, that before the world was made, there was an almighty power existing, by whose power all things were made, and whose majesty shall have no end. to be glorified and adored by beings of a heavenly nature, he created angels and archangels, that is glorified spirits resembling himself, to encompass his throne, eternally singing forth his praise in the most heavenly sounds and divine harmony. and, among this heavenly choir, lucifer bore a great sway, as being then one of the peculiar favourites of these celestial abodes; but he, contrary to that duty he owed his heavenly sovereign, with unbounded ingratitude to his divine creator, not only envied him that adoration which was his due, but thought to usurp that throne, which he had neither power to keep, nor title to pretend to. he raised a dissention and civil war in heaven, and had a number of angels to take his part. unbounded folly! stupendous pride! to hope for victory, and aspire above his powerful creator! the deity, not fearful of such an enemy, yet justly provoked at this rebellion, commissioned his archangel michael to lead forth the heavenly host, and give him battle; the advantage of which was quickly perceived, by satan's being overthrown, and the prince of the air, for so was the devil called, with all his fallen angels, driven headlong into a dismal place, which is called _hell_." the recital of this truth made my man give the greatest attention, and he expressed a great satisfaction by his gestures, that god had sent the devil into a deep hole. and then i desired him to give great heed to what i had further to say. "no sooner," proceeded i, "was god freed from, and the heaven clear of this arch-traitor, but the father speaks to the son and holy spirit, who belonged to his essence, and were equal to him in power and glory, _come let us make man_, said he _in our own image, after our own likeness_, gen. i. 26. to have dominion over the creatures of the world which we have created. and these he intended should glorify him in heaven, according to their obedience in this state of probation on earth, which was, as it were, to be the school to train them up for these heavenly mansions. now, satan seeing himself foiled; yet that god had taken the power from him as prince of the air, which power heaven designed he should retain, whereby his creatures might be tried; in revenge for the disgrace he had received, he tempts adam's wife, eve, to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which god had forbidden. he appears to her in the shape of a serpent, then a most beautiful creature, and tells her that it was no better than an imposition, which god had put upon her and her husband not to eat of that fair fruit which he had created; that the taste thereof would make them immortal like god himself; and consequently as great and powerful as he. upon which she not only eat thereof herself, but made her husband eat also, which brought them both under the heavenly displeasure." here friday expressed a great concern: _ah, poor mans!_ cried he, _naughty womans! naughty devil! make god not love de mans, made mans like devil himself._ 'friday,' said i, 'god still loved mankind, and though the devil tempted human nature so far, he would not suffer him to have an absolute power over them. i have told you before of his tender love to his people, till they, like lucifer, disobeyed his commands and rebelled against him; and even then, how jesus christ, his only son, came to save sinners. but still every man that lives in the world is under temptation and trial. the devil has yet a power, as prince of the air, to suggest evil cogitations in our minds, and prompt us on to wicked actions, that he might glory in our destruction. whatever evil thoughts we have, proceed from him; so that god in this our distress, expects we should apply ourselves to him by fervent prayer for speedy redress. he is not like _benamuckee,_ to let none come near him but _oowakakee_, but suffers the people as well as priests to offer themselves at his feet, thereby to be delivered from the power and temptation of the devil. but though at first my man friday expressed some concern at the wickedness of lucifer, i found it not so easy to imprint the right notions of him in his mind, as it was about the divine essence of god; for there nature assisted me in all my arguments, to show him plainly the necessity of a great first cause, and over-ruling, governing power, of a secret directing providence, and of the equity and reasonableness of paying adoration to our creator: whereas there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil spirit, of his first beginning, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to evil actions, and his power to tempt us to the like. and indeed this unlearned _indian_, by the mere force of nature, puzzled me with one particular question, more than ever i could have expected. i had, it seems, one day, been talking to him of the omnipotent power of god, and his infinite abhorrence of sin, insomuch that the scriptures styled him _a consuming fire_ to all the workers of iniquity; and that it was in his power, whenever he pleased, to destroy all the world in a moment, the greater part of which are continually offending him. when, with a serious attention, he had listened a great while to what i said, after 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 destroy the kingdom of christ in the world, and so forth: _very well, master_, said friday, _you say god is so strong, so great, is he not much strong, much mightier than the naughty devil?_ "to be sure, friday," said i, "god is more wise and stronger than the serpent: he is above the devil, which makes us pray to him, that he would tread down satan under his feet, enable us to resist the violent temptations; and quench his fiery darts." _why then_, answered friday quickly, _if god, as you say, has much strong, much might as the devil, why god no kill devil, make no more tempt, no more do wicked._ you may be certain, i was strangely surprised at this question of my man's: and, though an old man, i was but a young doctor, and consequently very ill qualified for a causuist, or a resolver of intricate doubts in religion, and as it required some time for me to study for an answer, i pretended not to hear him, nor to ask him what he said; but, to so earnest was he for an answer, as not to forget his question which he repeated in the very same broken words as above. when i had recovered myself a little, "friday," said i, "god will at last punish him severely, being reserved for judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to remain in fire everlasting." but all this did not satisfy friday, for, returning upon me, he repeated my words "reserve at last, _me no understand; but, why not kill devil now, not kill devil, great, great while ago_?" "friday" said i "you may as well ask me why god does not kill you and me, when, by our wicked actions, we so much offend his divine majesty? he gives us time to repent of our sins, that thereby we may obtain pardon." at these words _obtain pardon_, friday mused a great while; and, at last, looking me stedfastly in the face, _well, well_, said he, _that's very well; so you, i, devil, all wicked mans, all preserve, repent, god pardon all._ indeed, here i was ran down to the last extremity, when it became very evident to me; how mere natural notions will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a deity, and to the homage due to the supreme being of god; but, however, nothing but divine revelation can form the knowledge of jesus christ, and of a redemption purchased for us, of the mediator of the new covenant, and of an intercessor at the footstool of god's throne; and, therefore, the gospel of our lord and saviour jesus christ; that is, the word and spirit of god, promised for the guide and the sanctifier of his people, are the most necessary instructors of the souls of men, in the saving knowledge of the almighty, and the means to attain eternal happiness. and now i found it necessary to put an end to this discourse between my man and me; for which purpose i rose up hastily, and made as if i had some occasion to go out, sending friday for something that was a good way off, i then fell on my knees, and beseeched god that he would inspire me so far as to guide this poor savage in the knowledge of christ, to answer his questions more clearly, that his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. when he returned again, i entered into a very long discourse with him, upon the subject of the world's redemption by the saviour of it, and the doctrine of repentance preached from heaven, together with an holy faith of our blessed redeemer jesus christ; and then i proceeded to explain to him, according to my weak capacity, the reason why our saviour took not on him the nature of angels, but rather the seed of abraham; and how the fallen angels had no benefit by that redemption; and, lastly, that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of israel, and the like. god knows i had more sincerity than knowledge in all the ways i took for the poor indian's instruction; and, i must acknowledge what i believe, every body that acts upon the same principle will find, that in laying heavenly truths open before him, i informed and instructed myself in many things that either i did not know, or had not perfectly considered before: so that, however, this poor creature might be improved by my instructions, certain it is, that i myself had great reason to be thankful to providence for sending him to me. his company allayed my grief, and made my habitation comfortable; and when i reflected that the solitary life to which i had been so long confined, had made me to look further towards heaven, by making me the instrument under providence, to save the life, and for ought i know, the soul of this poor savage, by bringing him to the knowledge of jesus christ, it caused a secret joy to spread through every part of my soul; and i frequently rejoiced, that ever i was brought to this place, which i once thought the most miserable part of the world. in this thankful frame of mind did i afterwards continue, while i abode on the island, and for three years did my man and i live in the greatest enjoyment of happiness. indeed, i believe the savage was as good a christian as i; and i hope we were equally penitent; and such penitents as were comforted and restored by god's holy spirit; for now we had the word of the lord to instruct us in the right way, as much as if we had been on the english shore. by the constant application i made to the scriptures, as i read them to my man friday, i earnestly endeavoured to make him understand every part of it, as much as lay in my power. he also, on the other hand, by his very serious questions and inquiries, made me a much better proficient in scripture knowledge, than i should have been by my own private reading and study. i must not omit another thing, proceeding from the experience i had in my retirement: it was that infinite and inexpressible blessing, the knowledge of god through jesus christ, which was so plain and easy to be understood, as immediately to direct me to carry on the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a saviour for eternal life, to a practical stated reformation, and obedience to all god's institutions, without the assistance of a reverend and orthodox divine; and especially by this same instruction, so to enlighten this savage creature, as to make him so good a christian, as very few could exceed him. and there was only this great thing wanting, that i had no authority to administer the holy sacrament, that heavenly participation of christ's body and blood; yet, however, we rested ourselves content; that god would accept our desires, and according to our faith, have mercy on us. but what we wanted one way, was made up in another, and that was universal peace in our little church. we had no disputes and wrangling about the nature and equality of the holy, blessed, and undivided trinity, no niceties in doctrine, or schemes of church government; no sour or morale dissenters to impose more sublimated notions upon us; no pedant sophisters to confound us with unintelligible mysteries: but, instead of all this, we enjoyed the most certain guide to heaven; that is, the word of god: besides which, we had the comfortable views of his spirit leading us to the truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. as the knowledge and practice of this are the principal means of salvation, i cannot see what it avails any christian church, or man in the world, to amuse himself with speculations and opinions, except it be to display their particular vanity and affectation. you may well suppose, that, by the frequent discourse we had together, my man and i became most intimately acquainted, and that their was but very little that i could say, but what friday understood; and, indeed, he spoke very fluently, though it was but broken english. i now took a particular pleasure in relating all my adventures, especially those that occurred since my being cast on this island. i made him understand that wonderful mystery, as he conceived, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot. i also presented to him a knife, which pleased him exceedingly, making him a belt, with a frog hanging thereto, like those in which we wear hangers in england; and, instead of a hanger to put in the frog, i gave him a hatchet, which was not only as good, but even a better weapon upon many occasions. in a word, my man thus accoutred, looked upon himself as great as don quixote, when that celebrated champion went to combat the windmill. i next gave him a very particular description of the territories of europe, and in a particular manner of old england, the place of my nativity. i laid, before him the manner of our worshipping god, our behaviour one to another, and how we trade in ships to every part of the universe. i then told him my misfortunes in being shipwrecked, showing him, as near as i could the place where the ship lay, which had been gone long before; but i brought him to the ruins of my boat which before my whole strength could not move, but now was a most rotten, and fallen to pieces. i observed my man friday to view this boat with uncommon curiosity; which, when he had done, he stood pondering a great while, and said nothing. at last, said i, "friday, what makes you ponder so much?" he replied, _o master, me see like boat come to place at my nation_. it was some time, indeed, before i understood what my man meant; but examining strictly into it, i plainly found, that such another boat resembling mine, had come up on the country where he dwelt: that is to say, by his farther explanation, that the boat was driven there through stress of weather. it then came into my mind that some european ship having been cast away, the poor distressed creatures were forced to have recourse to the boat to save their lives; and being all, as i thought drowned, i never concerned my self to ask any thing concerning, them, but my only inquiry was about the boat, and what description my man could give of it. indeed friday answered my demands very well; making everything very plain to my understanding: but beyond measure was i satisfied, when he told me with great warmth and ardour. _o master, we save white mans from drown;_ upon which i immediately asked him, if there were any white mans, as he called them in the boat? _yes, yes_, said he, _the boat full, very full of white mans_ "how many, friday?" said i. hereupon he numbered his fingers, and counted seventeen. and when i asked him what became of them all, and whether they lived or not? he replied, _yes master, they all live, they be live among my nation._ this information put fresh thoughts into my head, that these must be those very men who before i concluded had been swallowed up in the ocean, after they had left the ship that had struck upon the rocks of my kingdom, and after escaping the fury of the deep, landed upon the wild shore, and committed themselves to the fury of the devouring indians. the manner of their cruelties to one another, which consequently, as i thought, must be acted with greater barbarity to strangers, created in me a great anxiety, and made me still more curious to ask friday concerning them. he told me, he was sure they still lived there, having resided among them above four years, and that the savages gave them victuals to live upon: "but pray, friday," said i, "whence proceeded all this good nature and generosity? how came it to pass that they did not kill and eat them, to please their devouring appetites, and occasion to splendid an entertainment among them?" _no, no,_ said friday, _they not kilt 'em, they make brothers with 'em_; by which i understood there was a truce between them. and then i had a more favourable opinion of the indians, upon friday uttering these words, _my nation, t'other nation no eat man, but when mans, make war fight:_ as though he had said, that neither those of his kingdom, nor any other nations that he knew of, ever ate their fellow-creatures, but such as their law of arms allowed to be devoured; that is, those miserable captives, whose misfortune it should be to be made prisoners of war. some considerable time after, upon a very pleasant day, in most serene weather, my man and i stood upon the top of a hill, on the east side of the island, whence i had once before beheld the continent of america. i could not tell immediately what was the matter, for suddenly friday fell a jumping and dancing as if he had been mad, and upon my demanding the reason of his behaviour, _o joy_! said he, _o glad! there see my country, there my nation, there live white mans gether_. and indeed such a rapturous sense of pleasure appeared in his countenance that his eyes had an uncommon sparkling and brightness, and such a strange eagerness, as if he had a longing desire to be in his country again. this made me no so well satisfied with my man friday as before; for by this appearance, i made no dispute, but that if he could get back thither again, he would not only be unmindful of what religion i had taught him, but likewise of the great obligation he owed me for his wonderful deliverance; nay, that he would not only inform his countrymen of me, but accompany hundreds of them to my kingdom, and make me a miserable sacrifice like those unhappy wretches taken in battle. indeed i was very much to blame to have those cruel and unjust suspicions, and must freely own i wronged the poor creature very much, who was of a quite contrary temper. and had he had that discerning acuteness which many europeans have, he would certainly have perceived my coldness and indifference, and also have been very much concerned upon that account; as i was now more circumspect, i had much lessened my kindness and familiarity with him, and while this jealousy continued, i used that artful way (now to much in fashion, the occasion of strife and dissention) of pumping him daily thereby to discover whether he was deceitful in his thoughts and inclinations; but certainly he had nothing in him but what was consistent with the best principles, both as a religious christian and a grateful friend; and indeed; i found every thing he said was ingenuous and innocent, that i had no room for suspicion, and, in spite of all uneasiness, he not only made me entirely his own again, but also caused me much to lament that i ever conceived one ill thought of him. as we were walking up the same hill another day, when the weather was so hazy at sea, that i could not perceive the continent, "friday," said i "don't you wish yourself to be in your own country, your nation, among your old friends and acquaintances?" _yes,_ said he, _me much o glad to be at my own nation._ "and what would you do there, friday? would you turn wild again, eat man's flesh, and be a savage as you were formerly." _no, no,_ (answered he, full of concern and making his head) _friday now tell them to live good, tell them pray god, tell them to eat corn bread, cattle flesh, milk, no eat man again._ "but surely," replied i, "if you should offer to do all this, they will kill you; and to manifest their contempt of such instruction eat you up when they have done." he then put on a grave, yet innocent and smooth countenance, saying, _no, they no kill me, they willing love learn_: that is that they would be very willing to learn: adding withal, _that they had learned much of the bearded mans that came in the boat_. "will you," said i "go back again, friday?" he smiled at that, and told me, that he could not swim so far. but said i, i will make a canoe for you. _yes, master_ said he, _me go if you go, me no go if you stay_. "i go, friday! why would you have them to eat me up, and devour your kind master?" _no no_, said he, _me make them not eat master, and me make them much love you_; that is, he would tell them how i had slain his enemies, and thereby saved his life, for which reason he would make them love me: and then he related to me, as well as he was able, how exceedingly kind those his nation were to the white, or bearded men, as he called them, who, in their great calamity, were driven into their country. it was from this time, indeed, i had strong inclinations to venture over, and use my utmost efforts, if possible, to join these white bearded men, who undoubtedly were spaniards or portuguese; for, thought i, it must be certainly a better and safer way to escape when there is a good company, than for me alone, from an island forty miles off the shore, and without any assistance. some days, after, friday and i being at work, as usual, at the same time diverting ourselves with various discourses; i told him i had a boat which i would bestow upon him, whenever he pleased to return to his own nation; and to convince him of the truth of what i said, i took him with me to the other side of the island, where my frigate lay, and then taking it from under the water, (for i always kept it sunk for fear of a discovery) we went both into it to see how it would manage such an expedition. and really never could any be more dexterous in rowing than my faithful servant, making the boat go as fast again as i could. "well now, friday", said i, "shall we now go to your so much admired nation." but instead of meeting with that cheerfulness i expected, he looked very dull and melancholy at my saying so; which indeed at first surprised me, till he made me sensible, that his concern was about the boat's being too small to go so far a voyage. upon which i let him understand i had a much bigger; and accordingly, the next day went to the place where the first boat lay, which i had made, when all the strength i had or art i could use failed me in my attempt to get it into the water: but now it having lain in the sun two and twenty years, and no care being taken of it all that while, it became in a manner rotten. my man told me, that such a boat would do very well for the purpose, sufficient to carry _enough vittle, drink, bread_, for that was his manner of talking. in short, my mind being strongly fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent, i very plainly told him that we would both go and make a boat full as big, and more proportionable than that, wherein he might safely return to his own nation. these words made friday look so very pensive that i thought he would have fallen at my feet. it was some time before he could speak a word, which made me ask him, what was the matter with him? he replied in a very soft and moving tone, _what has poor friday done? why are you angry mad with poor servant? what me done, o what me done?_ "friday," said i, "you never yet have offended me, what makes you think i am angry with you, when i am not angry at all." _you no angry, no angry,_ said he several times, _if you be no angry, why den send friday over great water to my own nation?_ "why from a mountain you beheld the place where you was born, and is it not to satisfy your desires that i am willing to give you leave to return thither?" _yes, yes_, said friday, _me wish to be there sure enough, but then me with master there too: no wish friday there, no master there._ in short, he could not endure the thoughts of going there without me. "i go there! friday," said i, "what shall i do there?" he answered very quickly, _o master you do great deal much good, you teach all de wild mans to be good tame mans: you learn dem to be sober, life good live, to know god, and pray god._ "alas! poor friday," said i, "what can i do against their priests of _benamuckee_, or indeed what good can i make your nation sensible of, when i myself am but a poor ignorant man?" _no, no, master,_ said he, _you be no ignorant, you teachee me good, you teachee dem good._ "you shall go without me, friday," said i, "for i don't care to accompany you thither; i would rather live in this solitude than venture among such inhuman savages. _go your way since you desire it, and leave me alone by myself as i was before i saved your life_." never was any creature more thunderstruck than friday was at these words. _go me away, leave master away, (said he after a long silence,) no, no, friday die, friday live not master gone_, as though he had said, i neither can nor will live, if my master sends me from him. and here i cannot but take notice of the strong ties of friendship, which many times surpass those of consanguinity: for often we find a great disagreement among kindred; and when there is any seeming regard for each other, it is very seldom true, and scarce ever lasting, if powerful interest does not bear the sway; and that alone is often the occasion of the greatest hatred in the world, which is to desire the death of parents and relations, for the sake of acquiring their fortunes. but there was no such thing between my servant and me; instead of which there was the greatest gratitude and the most sincere love; he found me not only his deliverer, but his preserver and comforter; not a severe and cruel tyrant, but a kind, loving, and affable friend. he wanted for no manner of sustenance; and when he was ill or out of order, i was his physician, not only for his body but his soul; and therefore no wonder was it, that such an innocent creature long since divested of his former natural cruelty, should have an uncommon concern at so cruel a seperation from me, which pierced him to the very soul, and made him desire even to die, rather than live without me.. after i had told friday, in a very careless manner, that he should be at his liberty as soon as the boat was made, the language of his eyes expressed all imaginable confusion; when, immediately running to one of his hatchets, which he used to wear as a defensive weapon, he gives it into my hand, with a heart so full, that he could scarcely speak. 'friday,' said i, 'what is it you mean? what must i do with this?' _only kill friday_, said he, _friday care not live long._' 'but what must i kill you for? replied i again, _ah! dear master, what made you friday save from eat a me up, so keep long friday, make friday love god, and love not benamuckee, and now friday send away; never see friday more._ as though the poor creature had said, alas! my dearest kind master, how comes it to pass, that after having ventured your precious life to save me from the jaws of devouring cannibals, like myself, after such a tender regard to provide for me such a comfortable nourishment, and continuing so long a kind master, and a most sincere friend; and after making me forsake the false notion of an indian deity, and worship the true god in spirit and in truth; and after all this how comes it now, that you are willing to send me away to my former course of living, by which means undoubtedly we shall be dead to each other; but greater must be my misfortune, that i shall never behold my best friend i have in the world any more. and this undoubtedly, though he could not express himself so clearly, must be his sentiments; for the tears ran down his cheeks in such a plentiful manner, that i had much ado to refrain from weeping also, when i beheld the poor creature's affection; so that i was forced to comfort him in the best manner i could, which i did, by telling him, if he was content to abide with me, i should be ever willing to keep him. after friday's grief was something abated, more fully to convince me of his affection, he said, _o master, me not care to be in my nation, leave you here; me desire nation learn good, that's all;_ meaning, that his desire was for the conversion of that barbarous people. but as i had no apostolic mission, nor any concern about their salvation; so i had not the least intention or desire of undertaking it; and the strength of my inclination, in order to escape, proceeded chiefly from my late discourse with friday, about these seventeen white bearded men, that had been driven upon the barbarian coast; whom i designed to join, as the only means to further our escape. to which intent my man and i went to search for a proper tree to fell, whereof we might make a large perigua or canoe, to undertake the voyage; and, indeed, we were not long in finding one fit for our purpose, there being enough of wood in the island to have built a fleet of large vessels, but the thing we principally wanted was to get one so near the water, that we might launch it after it was finished, and not commit so horrid a mistake as i had once done before. well, after a great search for what was best and most convenient, friday, at last, whose judgment in such affairs was much superior to mine, pitches upon a kind of wood the most fitting for it. to this day i cannot tell the name of the tree, nor describe it any other way, than only by saying, that it is like what we call _fustic_, or between that and the niacaragua wood, being much of the same colour and smell. but though my man exceeded me in the knowledge of the most proper tree, yet i shewed him a much better and clearer way to make a canoe than ever he knew before; for he was for burning the hollow or cavity of the tree, in order to make this boat; but i then told him how he might do it with tools, learning him at the same time how to use them, which indeed he did very dexterously; so that in a month's time we finished it, making it very handsome, by cutting the outside in the true shape of a boat. after this it took us a full fortnight before we could get her into the water, which we did as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers; but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men, with all the ease imaginable. as i was very well pleased, you may be sure at the launching of this man of war of mine, i was no less amazed to behold with what dexterity my man would manage her, turn her, and paddle her along. 'well friday,' said i, 'what do you think of it now? do you think this will carry us over? _yes, master_, said he, _me venture over well, though great blow wind_. but my design was yet farther, which he was insensible of; and that was to make a mast and a sail, and to provide her with an anchor and cable. as to a mast, that was no difficult thing at all to procure: so i fixed upon a strait young cedar-tree; which i found near the place, great plenty of it abounding in the island; and setting friday to cut it down, i gave him particular directions how to shape and order it; but as to the sail, that i managed myself. i very well knew i had some old ones, or pieces of sails enough, which had lain six and twenty years by me; but not being careful to preserve them, as thinking i should have no occasion to use them any more, when i came to overlook them i found them almost all rotten, except two; and with these i went to work, and after a great deal of pains and aukward tedious stitching for want of needles, at length i finished a three-cornered ugly thing, like those which our long boats use, and which i very well knew how to manage, especially since it was like that which i had in my patron's fishing boat, when, with my boy xury, i made my escape from the barbarian shore. it was near two months, i think, before i completed this work, that is, the rigging and fitting my mast and sails; and indeed they were nicely done, having made a small stay and a sail, or a foresail to it, to assist, if we should turn to the westward; and what is still more, i fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and though i was but a very indifferent shipwright, yet, as i was sensible of the great usefulness and absolute necessity of a thing like this, i applied myself to it with such a confident application, that at last i accomplished my design; but what with the many dull contrivances i had about it, and the failure of many things, it cost me as much pains in ordering as in making the boat. besides when all this was done, i had my man to teach what belonged to its navigation; for though he very well understood how to paddle a canoe along, he was an utter stranger to a sail and a rudder, and was amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea, by them, and how the sail gibbed and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed changed. after some time and a little use, i made all these things very familiar to him, so that he became an expert sailor, except in relation to the compass, and that i could make him understand but little of. but, as it happened, there was seldom occasion for it, there being but little cloudy weather, and scarce any fog in those parts; the stars were always visible in the night, and the shore perspicuous by day, except in the rainy season, which confined every one to his habitation. thus entered in the seven and twentieth year of my reign, or captivity, which you please, (the last three of which blessed with the company of my man friday, ought not to be reckoned) i kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to god, for his tender mercies, as i did before; and certainly, as i had great cause for a thankful acknowledgement for my deliverance at first, i had much greater now for such singular and additional testimonies of the care of providence over me, in all my distress of both body and mind, and the great hopes i had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for i had a strong impression upon my mind, that i should not be another year in this island. but, however, i still continued on with my husbandry, digging, planting, and fencing, as usual; gathering and curing my grapes, and doing all other things that were necessary. and now the rainy season beginning to come on, obliged me to keep the longer within doors; but before this i brought my new vessel into the creek, where i had landed my rafts from the ship, and haling her up to the shore, i ordered my man friday to dig a dock sufficient to hold her in, and deep enough to give her water, wherein she might float; and then when the tide was out, we made a strong dam cross the end of it, to keep out the water; by which means she lay dry, as to the tide from the sea; and to keep the rain from her, we thatched her over, as it were, with boughs of trees, like a house, so we waited for the months of november and december, in which i designed to venture over the ocean. no sooner did the seasonable weather begin to draw near, but so much was i elevated with this new designed adventure, that i daily prepared for the voyage. the first thing i thought on was, to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, as a sufficient store for such an expedition, intending in a week or fortnight's time to open the dock, and to launch out the boat for that purpose. but one morning as i was very busy upon something necessary for this occasion, i called friday to me, and bid him go to the seashore, and see if he could find a turtle or tortoise, a thing which we commonly had once a week, as much upon account of the eggs, as for the sake of the flesh. he had not been long gone, but he came running back, as though he was pursued for life, and as if it were flew over my outer-wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or steps he set his feet on; and before i had time to enquire the reason of this precipitation, he cries out, _o dear master, o sorrow, sorrow! bad! o bad!_ 'why, what's the matter friday,' said i. _o yonder, yonder!_ said he; _there be one, two, or three canoes! two three!_ surely, thought i, there must be six, by my man's way of reckoning; but on a stricter inquiry, i found there were but three. 'well friday,' said i, 'don't be terrified, i warrant you we will not only defend ourselves against them, but kill the most of these cruel savages.' but though i comforted him in the best manner i could, the poor creature trembled so, that i scarce knew what to do with him:--_o master_, said he, _they come look friday, cut pieces friday, cut a me up_. 'why friday,' said i, 'they will eat me up as well as you, and my danger is as great as yours. but since it is so, we must resolve to fight for our lives. what say you? can you fight friday? _yes,(said he, very faintly) me shoot, me kill what i can, but there come a great many number._'that's no matter,' said i again, 'our guns will terrify those that we do not kill: i am very willing to stand by you to the last drop of my blood. now tell me if you will do the like by me, and, obey my orders in whatsoever i command?' friday then answered, _o master, me loses life for you, me die when you bid die._ thus concluding all questions concerning his fidelity, immediately i fetched him a good dram of rum, (of which i had been a very good husband) and gave it him to comfort his heart. after he had drank it, i ordered him to 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; charging my two pistols each with a brace; i hung my great sword, as customary, naked to my side, and gave friday his hatchet, as a most excellent weapon for defence. thus prepared, i thought as well of myself, as any knight errant that ever handled a sword and spear. i took my perspective glass and went up to the side of the hill, to see what i could discover; and i perceived very soon, by my glass, that there were one and twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes, and that their chief concern seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon the three poor human bodies, a thing which by this time i had observed was very common with them. i also remarked, that they did not land at that place from whence friday made his escape, but nearer to the creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came very close to the sea. my soul was then filled with indignation and abhorrence at such inhuman wretches, which put a period to all my former thoughts in their vindication, neither would i give myself time to consider their right of conquest, as i had done before: but descending from the mountain, i came down to friday, and told him, i was resolved to go speedily to them, and kill them all; asking him again in the same breath, if he would stand by me; when by this time being recovered from his fright, and his spirits much cheered with the dram i had given him, he was very pleasant, yet seriously telling me, as he did before, _when i bid die, he would die_. and now it was, having fixed my resolution in so strong a manner, that nothing could divest my breast of its uncommon fury. i immediately divided the loaded arms betwixt us. to my man friday i gave a pistol to stick in his girdle, with three guns upon his shoulder, a weight too great, i confess, to bear but what must a poor king do, who has but one soldier in the world? but to show i made him bear no more than what i would lay on myself, i stuck the other pistol in my girdle, and the other three guns upon my shoulders; nay, something more, but that was like aesop's burden, a small bottle of rum, which was soon lightened to our exceeding refreshment. thus we marched out, under a ponderous load of armour, like two invincible champions, with a quantity of powder and bullets to stand our battle, and load again, when the pieces were discharged. and now my orders being to be obeyed, i charged friday to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or attempt anything till i commanded him; and in the interim, not to speak so much as one word. it was in this order i fetched a compass to the right hand, of near a mile, as well to get over the creek, as to attain the wood; and by this, i thought to come within shot of them before i could be discerned, as i found by my glass, would not be difficult to accomplish. but how fickle and wavering is the mind of man, even in our greatest fury and strongest inclinations. for while i was taking this march, my resolution began to abate, not through fear of their numbers, who were a parcel of naked unarmed wretches, but those reflections occurred to my thoughts: _what power was i commissioned with, or what occasion or necessity had i to go and imbrue my hands in human blood, and murder people that had neither done nor intended to do me any wrong? they were innocent in particular as to me: and their barbarous custom was not only their misfortune but a sign that god had left them in the most immense stupidity; but yet did not warrant me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of his righteous judgments? that, on the contrary, whenever he thought fit, he would take vengeance on them himself, and punish them in a national way, according to their national crimes; but this was nothing at all to me, who had no concern with them. indeed my man friday might justify himself, because they were his declared enemies, of that very same nation that went to sacrifice him before; and indeed it was lawful for him to attack them, which i could not say was so with respect to me,_--so warmly did these things press upon my thoughts all the way i went, that i only resolved to place myself so as to behold their bloody entertainment, without falling upon them, except something more than ordinary, by god's special direction, should oblige me thereto. thus fixed in my resolution, i entered into the thick wood, (my man friday following me close behind) when with all possible wariness and silence, i marched till i came close to the skirt of it, on that side which was the nearest to them; for only one end of the wood interposed between me and them. upon which i called very softly to friday, and shewing him a great tree, that was just at the corner of the wood, i ordered him to repair thither, and bring me word, if he could plainly perceive their actions; accordingly he did as i commanded him, and came back with this melancholy story, _that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that another lay bound upon the sands at a little distance from them, which they designed for the next sacrifice, and this, he told me was not one of their nation, but one of those very bearded men, who were driven by a storm into their country, and of whom he had so often talked to me about_--you may be sure, that upon hearing this, my soul was ready to sink within me: when ascending into a 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 resembling rushes, being covered with clothes, and seemed to be an european. from the tree where i took this prospect i perceived another tree and a thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than where i was, which, by taking a small circle round, i might come at undiscovered, & then i should be within half a shot of these devourers. and this consideration alone, to be more perfectly revenged upon them, made me withhold my passion, though i was enraged to the highest degree imaginable; when 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 ascended to a little rising ground, not above eighteen yards distance, and there i had a full view of these creatures, and i could perceive all their actions. such a fight did then appear, as obliged me not to lose a moment's time. no less than nineteen of these dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, close huddled together, expressing all the delight imaginable at so barbarous an entertainment; and they had just sent the other two to murder this poor unhappy christian, and bring him limb by limb to their fire; for they were then just going to untie the bands from his feet, in order for death, as fetters are knocked off the feet of malefactors before they go to the place of execution. hereupon, immediately turning to my man, 'now, friday' said i 'mind what i say, fail in nothing, but do exactly as you see me do'. all which he promising--he would perform, i let down one of my muskets, and fowling-piece upon the ground, and friday did the same by his; and with the other musket i took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the like: 'are you ready' said i: _yes, master,_ said he; 'why then fire at them,' said i; and that very moment i gave fire likewise. i only killed one and wounded two; but my man friday, taking his aim much better than i, killed two and wounded three. you may be sure they were in a dreadful consternation, at, such an unexpected disaster, and those who had yet escaped our penetrating shot, immediately jumped upon their feet, but were in such a confusion, that they knew not which way to run or look; not knowing from whence their destruction came. we threw down our pieces, and took up others, giving a second dreadful volley; but as they were loaded only with swan shot, or small pistol bullets, we perceived only two of them fall; tho many were wounded, who run yelling and screaming about like mad creatures. 'now, friday,' said i, 'lay down your piece, and take up the musket, and follow me.' he did so, with great courage, when showing ourselves to the savages we give a great shout, and made directly to the poor victim, who would have been sacrificed, had not our first fire obliged the butchers, with three others, to jump into a canoe. by my order, friday fired at them, at which shot i thought he had killed them all, by reason of their falling to the bottom of the boat; however, he killed two, and mortally wounded a third. in the mean time, i cut the flags that tied the hands and feet of the poor creature, and lifting him up asked him in the portuguese tongue, _what he was?_ he answered me in latin, _christiantis;_ but so very weak and faint, that he could scarce stand or speak. immediately i gave him a dram; and a piece of bread to cherish him, and asked him, what countryman he was? he said, _hispaniola;_ and then uttered all the thankfulness imaginable for his deliverance. 'signior,' said i, with as much spanish as i was master of, 'let us talk afterwards, but fight now; here, take this sword and pistol, and do what you can.' and, indeed, he did so with much courage and intrepidity, that he cut two of them to pieces in an instant, the savages not having the power to fly for their lives. i ordered friday to run for those pieces we had left at the tree, which he brought me with great swiftness, and then i gave him my musket, while i loaded the rest. but now their happened a fierce encounter between the spaniard & one of the savages who had made at him with one of their wooden swords; and though the former was as brave as could be expected, having twice wounded his enemy in the head, yet being weak & faint, the indian had thrown him upon the ground, & was wrestling my sword out of his hand, which the spaniard very wisely quiting, drew out his pistol, and shot him through the body before i could come near him, though i was running to his assistance.' as to friday, he pursued the flying wretches with his hatchet, dispatching three, but the rest were too nimble for him. the spaniard taking one of the fowling pieces, wounded two, who running into the wood friday pursued and killed; but the other, notwithstanding his wounds, plunged himself into the sea & swam to those who were left in the canoe; which, with one wounded, were all that escaped out of one and twenty. the account is as follows. _killed at first shot from the tree ..... 3 at the second shot ...................... 2 by friday in the boat ................... 2 ditto of those first wounded ............ 2 ditto in the wood ....................... 1 by the spaniard ......................... 3 killed or died of their wounds .......... 4 escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not slain_ ......................... 4 ------- total 21 -------the savages in the canoe worked very hard to get out of our reach, and friday was as eager in pursuing them; and indeed i was no less anxious about their escape, lest after the news had been carried to their people, they should return in multitudes and destroy us. so being resolved to pursue them, i jumped into one of the canoes and bid friday follow me; but no sooner was i in, than to my surprise, i found another poor creature bound hand and foot for the slaughter, just as the spaniard had been, with very little life in him. immediately i unbound him, and would have helped him up; but he could neither stand nor speak, but groaned so piteously, as thinking he was only unbound in order to be slain. hereupon i bid friday speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance; when pulling out my bottle i made the poor wretch drink a dram; which, with the joyful news he had received, so revived his heart that he sat up in the boat. as soon as friday began to hear him speak, and look more fully in his face, it would have moved any one to tears to perceive his uncommon transports of joy; for he kissed, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hollooed, jumped about, danced, sung, then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his face and head, then sung and jumped about again, like a distracted creature; so that it was a great while before i could make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter with him; but when he came to the liberty of his speech at last, he told me it was his father. here indeed i was infinitely moved to see that dutiful and tender affection this poor savage had to his aged parent. he would sit down by him in the boat, open his breast and hold his father's head close to his bosom half an hour together to cherish him: then he took his arms & ankles, which were stiff and numbed with binding, and chaffed and rubbed them with his hands; by which means perceiving what the case was, i gave him some rum, which proved of great benefit to him. while we were busy in this action the savages had gotten almost out of sight; and happy it was we did not pursue them: for there arose from the north-west, which continued all night long, such a violent storm that i could not suppose otherwise but that they were all drowned. after this i called friday to me, and asked him if he had given his father any bread? he shook his head and said, _none, not one bit, me eat-a up all;_ so i gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch i carried for this end. i likewise gave him a dram for himself, & two or three bunches of raisins for his father. both these he carried to him, for he would make him drink the dram to comfort him. away then he runs out of the boat as if he was bewitched, with such an extraordinary swiftness, that he was out of sight as it were in an instant; but at his return i perceived him slacken his pace, because he had something in his hand. and this i found to be as he approached nearer, an earthen jug with some water for his father, with two more cakes of bread, which he delivered into my hands. being very thirsty myself i drank some of the water, of which his father had drank sufficiently, it more revived his spirits than all the rum i had given him. i then called friday to me and ordered him to carry the spaniard one of the cakes and some water, who was reposing himself under a green place under the shade of a tree, but so weak, that though he exerted himself he could not stand upon his feet. upon which i ordered friday to rub and bathe his ankles with rum as he did his father's. but every minute he was employed in this he would cast a wishful eye towards the boat, where he left his father sitting; who suddenly disappearing he flew like lightning to him, and finding he had only laid himself down to ease his limbs, he returned back to me presently; and then i spoke to the spaniard to let friday help him and lead him to the boat, in order to be conveyed to my dwelling where i would take care of him. upon which friday took him upon his back and so carried him to the canoe, setting him close by 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 very hard too, and having brought them safe to the creek, away he runs to fetch the other canoe, which he brought to the creek almost as soon as i got to it by land, when wafting me over, he took our new guests out of the boat; but so weak were they that i was forced to make a kind of a hand-barrow; and when i came to my castle, not being willing to make an entrance into my wall, we made them a handsome tent covered with old sails and boughs of trees, making two good beds of rice straw, with blankets to lie upon and cover them. thus like an absolute king over subjects who owed their lives to me, i thought myself very considerable, especially as i had now three religions in my kingdom, my man friday being a protestant, his father a pagan, and the spaniard a papist: but i gave liberty of conscience to them all. to get provisions for my poor weak subjects, i ordered friday to kill me a yearling goat; which when he had done i cut off the hinder quarters, and chopping it into small pieces, boiled and stewed it, putting barley and rice into the broth. this i carried into their tent, set a table, dined with them myself and encouraged them. friday was my interpreter to his father, and indeed to the spaniard too, who spoke the language of the savages pretty well. after dinner i ordered friday to fetch home all our arms from the field of battle, and the next day to bury the dead bodies, which he did accordingly. and now i made friday inquire of his father, whether he thought these savages had escaped the late storm in their canoe? and if so, whether they would not return with a power too great for us to resist? he answered, _that he thought it impossible they could outlive the storm; or, if they were driven southwardly, they would come to a land where they would as certainly be devoured, as if they were drowned in the sea. and suppose they had attained their own country, the strangeness of their fatal and bloody attack, would make them tell their people, that the rest of them were killed by thunder and lightning, not by the hand of man, but by two heavenly spirits_ (meaning friday and me) _who were sent from above to destroy them. and this_, he said, _he knew because he heard them say the same to one another_. and indeed he was in the right on't; for i have heard since, that these four men gave out that whoever went to that inchanted island, would be destroyed by fire from the gods. no canoes appearing soon after, as i expected, my apprehensions ceased: instead of which my former thoughts of a voyage took place, especially when friday's father assured me, i should have good usage in his nation. as to the spaniard, he told me, that sixteen more of his countrymen and portuguese, who had been shipwrecked, made their escape thither; that though they were in union with the savages, yet they were very miserable for want of provisions and other necessaries. when i asked him about the particulars of his voyage, he answered that their ship was bound from the rio de la plata to the havannah; that when the ship was lost, only five men perished in the ocean; the rest having saved themselves in the boat, were now landed on the main continent. 'and what do they intend to do there?' said i. he replied, they have concerted measures to escape, by building a vessel, but that they had neither tools nor provisions, for that all their designs came to nothing. 'supposing, said i, i should make a proposal, and invite them here, would they not carry me prisoner to new spain?' he answered no; for he knew them to be such honest men, as would scorn to act such inhuman baseness to their deliverer: that, if i pleased, he and the old savage would go over to them, talk with them about it, and bring me an answer: that they should all swear fidelity to me as their leader, upon the holy sacrament; and for his, part he would not only do the same, but stand to the last drop of his blood should there be occasion. these solemn assurances made me resolve to grant them relief, and to send these two over for that purpose; but when every thing was ready, the spaniard raised an objection, which carried a great deal of weight in it: _you know, sir, said he, that having been some time with you, i cannot but be sensible of your stock of rice and corn, sufficient, perhaps for us at present, but not for them, should they come over presently; much less to victual a vessel for an intended voyage. want might be as great an occasion for them to disagree and rebel, as the children of israel did against god himself, when they wanted to break bread in the wilderness. and therefore, my advice is to await another harvest and in the mean time cultivate and improve more land, whereby we may have plenty of provisions in order to execute our design_. this advice of the spaniard's i approved extremely; and so satisfied was i of his fidelity that i esteemed him ever after. and thus we all four went to work upon some more land, and against seed time we had gotten so much cured and trimmed up sufficient to sow twenty-two bushels of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice, which was in short all the feed we had to spare. as we were four in number and by this time all in good health, we feared not a hundred indians should they venture to attack us; and while the corn was growing, i pitched upon some trees, fit to build us a large vessel in case the spaniards came over; which being marked, i ordered friday and his father to cut them down, appointing the spaniard, who was now my privy counsellor, to oversee and direct the work. i likewise increased my flocks of goats by shooting the wild dams and bringing home their kids to my inclosure. nor did i neglect the grape season, but cured them as usual, though i had such a quantity now as would have filled eighty barrels with raisins. and thus all of us being employed, they in working, and i in providing for them till harvest came, god almighty blessed the increase of it so much, that from twenty-two barrels of barley we thrashed out two hundred and twenty, and the like quantity of rice; sufficient to victual a ship fit to carry me and all the spaniards to any part of america. thus the principal objection being answered, by a sufficient stock of provisions, i sent my two ambassadors over to the main land, with a regal authority to administer the oaths of allegiance and fidelity, and have an instrument signed under their hands, though i never asked whether they had pen, ink, or paper; when giving each of them a musket, eight charges of powder and ball, and provisions enough for eight days, they sailed away with a fair gale on a day when the moon was at full. scarce a fortnight had passed over my head, but impatient for their return, i laid me down to sleep one morning, when a strange accident happened, which was ushered in by friday's coming running to me, and calling aloud, _master, master, they are come, they are come._ upon which, not dreaming of any danger, out i jumped from my bed, put on my clothes and hurried through my little grove; when looking towards the sea, i perceived a boat about a league and a half distant, standing in for the shore with the wind fair. i beheld they did not come from the side where the land lay on, but from the southerhmost end of the island: so these being none of the people we wanted, i ordered friday to lie still, till such time as i came down from the mountain, which, with my ladder, i now ascended in order to discover more fully what they were; and now, with the help of my perspective glass, i plainly perceived an english ship, which i concluded it to be; by the fashion of its long boat; and which filled me with such uncommon transports of joy, that i cannot tell how to describe; and yet some secret doubts hang about me, proceeding from i know not what cause, as though i had reason to be upon my guard. and, indeed, i would have no man contemn the secret hints and intimations of danger, which very often are given, when he may imagine there is no possibility of its being real; for had i not been warned by this silent admonition, i had been in a worse situation than before, and perhaps inevitably ruined. not long it was, before i perceived the boat to approach the shore, as though they looked for a place where they might conveniently land; and at last they ran their boat on shore upon the beach, about half a mile distance; which proved so much the happier for me, since, had they come into the creek, they had landed just at my door, and might not only have forced me out of my castle, but plundered me of all i had in the world. now i was fully convinced they were all englishmen, three of which were unarmed and bound; when immediately the first four or five leaped on shore, and took those three out of the boat as prisoners; one of whom i could perceive used the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, while the others in a lesser degree, showed abundance of concern. not knowing the meaning of this, i was very much astonished, and i beckoned to friday, who was below, to ascend the mountain, and likewise view this sight. _o master_, said he to me, _you see english mans eat prisoners as well as savage mans_. 'and do you think they will eat them friday?' said i. _yes_, said friday, _they eat all up_. 'no, no,' said i, 'friday, i am much more concerned lest they murder them, but as for eating them up, that i am sure they will never do.' and now i not only lamented my misfortune in not having the spaniard and savage with me, but also that i could not come within shot of them unperceived, they having no fire arms among them, and save these three me, whom i thought they were going to kill with their swords. but some comfort it was to me, that i perceived they were set at liberty to go where they pleased, the rascally seamen scattering about as though they had a mind to see the place; and so long did they negligently ramble, that the tide had ebbed so low, as to leave the boat aground. nor were the two men who were in her more circumspect; for having drunk a little too much liquor, they fell fast asleep; but one of them waking before the other, and perceiving the boat too fast aground for his strength to move it, he hallooed out to the rest, who made all possible expedition to come to him; but as providence ordered it, all their force was ineffectual to launch her, when i could hear them speak to one another, _why let her alone, jack, can't ye, she'll float next tide_; by which words i was fully convinced they were my own countrymen. i all this while lay very quiet, as being fully sensible it could be no less than ten hours before the boat would be afloat, and then it would be so dark, that they could not easily perceive me, by which means i should be at more liberty to hear their talk, and observe all their motions: not but that i prepared for my defence: yet, as i had another sort of enemy to combat with i acted with more caution. i took two fusees on my shoulder, and gave friday three muskets; besides my formidable goat-skin coat and monstrous cap made me look as fierce and terrible as hercules of old, especially when two pistols were stuck in my belt, and my naked sword hanging by my side. it was my design at first not to make any attempt till it was dark; and it being now two o'clock, in the very heat of the day, the sailors were all straggling in the woods, and undoubtedly were lain down to sleep. the three poor distressed creatures, too anxious to get any repose, were however seated under the shade of a great tree, about a quarter of a mile from me. upon which, without any more ado, i approached towards them, with my man following behind me, and before i was perceived, i called aloud to them in spanish, _what are ye, gentlemen_. at these words, they started up in great confusion, when they beheld the strange figure i made; they returned no answer, but seemed as if they would fly from me: 'gentlemen,' said i, in english 'don't be afraid, perhaps you have a friend nearer than you expect.' _he must be from heaven_, said one of them, gravely pulling off his hat, _for we are past all help in this world._ 'all help is from heaven,' said i: 'but sir, as i have perceived every action between you and these brutes since your landing only inform me, how to assist you, and i will do it to the utmost of my power.' _am i talking with god or man_, said he, in melting tears. _are you of human kind or an angel_? 'sir,' said i, 'my poor habit will tell you i am a man, and an englishman, willing to assist you, having but this servant only: here are arms and ammunition: tell freely your condition: can we save you?' _the story_, said he, _is too long to relate, since our butchers are so near: but, sir, i was master of that ship, my men have mutinied, and it is a favour they have put my mate, this passenger, and me, on shore without murdering us, though we expect nothing but perishing here_. 'are your enemies gone?' said i. _no_, replied he, pointing to a thicket, _there they lie, while my heart trembles, lest having seen and heard us they should murder us all._ 'have they fire arms?' said i. _they have but two pieces_, said he, _one of which is left in the boat._ he also told me there were two enormous villains among them, that were the authors of this mutiny, who, if they were killed or seized, might induce the rest to return to their obedience. 'well, well,' said i, 'let us retire farther under the covering of the woods;' and there it was i made these conditions with him: [illustration: r. crusoe accosting the captain, &c. set ashore by the mutineers.] i. that, while they staid in the island, they should not pretend to any authority; but should entirely conform to my orders, and return me the arms which i should put in their hands. ii. that, if the ship was recovered, they should afford friday and myself a passage _gratis_ to england. when he had given me all the satisfaction i could desire, i gave him and his two companions each of them a gun, with powder and ball sufficient, advising them to fire upon them as they lay sleeping. the captain modestly said, that he was sorry to kill them; though, on the other hand, to let these villains escape, who were the authors of his misery, might be the ruin of us all. _well,_ said he, _do as you think fit;_ and so accordingly i fired, killed one of the captain's chief enemies and wounding the other; who eagerly called for assistance, but the captain who had reserved his piece, coming up to him, _sirrah_, said he, _'tis too late to call for assistance, you should rather cry to god to pardon your villany;_ and so knocked him down with the stock of his gun: three others were also slightly wounded, who at my approach cried out for mercy. this the captain granted upon condition that they would swear to be true to him in recovering the ship, which they solemnly did; however i obliged the captain to keep them bound. after which i sent friday and the captain's mate to secure the boat and bring away the oars and sails; when, at their return, three men coming back, and seeing their late distressed captain, now their conqueror, submitted to be bound also. and then it was, that having more liberty, i related the adventures of my whole life, which he heard with a serious and wonderful attention. after this, i carried him and his two companions into my little fortified castle, shewed them all my conveniences, and refreshed them with such provisions as i could afford. when this was over, we began to consider about regaining the ship: he said, that there were twenty-six hands on board, who knowing their lives were forfeited by the law, for conspiracy and mutiny, were so very hardened, that it would be dangerous for our small company to attack them. this was a reasonable inference indeed; but something we must resolve on, and immediately, put in execution: we, therefore heaved the boat upon the beach so high that she could not shoot off at high water mark, and broke a hole in her not easily to be stopped; so that all the signals they gave for the boat to come on board were in vain. this obliged them to send another boat ashore, with ten men armed, whose faces the captain plainly descried, the boatswain being the chief officer; but he said there were three honest lads among them, who were forced into the conspiracy. hereupon i gave him fresh courage (for i had perceived he was in concern): in the mean while securing our prisoners, except two, whom we took to our assistance, we thought ourselves able enough to adventure a battle. when the sailors landed, and beheld their boat in that condition, they not only hallooed, but fired for their companions to hear, yet they received no answer. this struck them with horror and amazement, thinking their companions were murdered, they made as if they would return to the ship. i could perceive the captain's countenance change at this, till of a sudden three men were ordered to look after the boat, while the other seven leapt on shore in order to search for their companions; and, indeed, they came to the brow of the hill, near my ancient castle, from whence they could see to a great distance in the woods, and there shooting and hallooing till tired and weary, they at length seated themselves under a spreading tree. my opinion was, that nothing could be done till night, when i might use some artifice to get them all out of the boat; but of a sudden they started up, and made to the sea-side; hereupon i ordered friday and the captain's mate to go over the creek, and halloo as loud as they could, and so decoying them into the woods, come round to me again. and this, indeed, had good effect; for they followed the noise, till coming westward to the creek, they called for their boat to carry them over, and taking one of the men out of her, left two to look after her, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on shore. hereupon immediately the captain and our party passing the creek, out of their sight, we surprised them both, by the captain's knocking down one, and ordering the other in surrender upon pain of death, and who being the honestest of them all, sincerely joined with us. by this time it was pretty late; when the rest returning to there boat, which they found aground in the creek, the tide out, and the men gone, they ran about wringing their hands, crying it was an enchanted island, and that they should be all murdered by spirits or devils. my men would willingly have fallen upon them, but i would not agree to hazard any of our party. but to be more certain, friday & the captain crawled upon their hands & feet, as near as possible; and when the boatswain approached in sight, so eager was the captain, that he fired and killed him on the spot; friday wounded the next man, and a third ran away. hereupon i advanced with, my whole army: and, it being dark, i ordered the man we had surprised in the boat, to call them by their names, and to parley with them. accordingly he called out aloud, _tom smith, tom smith!_ he answered, _who's that? robinson!_ answered the other. _for god's sake tom, surrender immediately, or you're all dead men. who must we surrender to?_ says smith. _to our captain and fifty men here, who have taken me prisoner, wounded will frye, and killed the boatswain. shall we have quarter then?_ said he. hereupon the captain calls out, _you smith, you know my voice, surrender immediately, and you shall all have your lives granted, except will atkins_. hereupon atkins cries out, _what have i done captain, more than the rest, who have been as bad as me?_ but that was a lie, for he was the person that laid hold of him, and bound him. however, he was ordered to submit to the governor's mercy, for such was i called. and so, laying down their arms, we bound them all, and seized on their boat. after this, the captain expostulated with them, telling them that the governor was an englishman, who might execute them there; but he thought they would be sent to england, except will atkins, who was ordered to prepare for death next morning. hereupon atkins implored the captain to intercede for his life, and the rest begged they might not be sent to england. this answered our project for seizing the ship. for after sending atkins and two of the worst fast bound to the cave, and the rest being committed to my bower, i sent the captain to treat with them in the, governor's name, offering them pardon if they would assist in recovering the ship. upon which they all promised to stand by him till the last drop of their blood; and whoever acted treacherously, should be hanged in chains upon the beach. they were all released on these assurances: and then the captain repaired to the other boat, making his passenger captain of her, and gave him four men well armed; while himself, his mate, and five more, went in the other boat. by midnight they came within call of the ship, when the captain ordered robinson to hale her, and tell them that with great difficulty they had found the men at last. but while they were discoursing, the captain, his mate and the rest entered, and knocked down the second mate and carpenter, secured those that were upon the deck, by putting them under hatches, while the other boat's crew entered and secured the forecastle; they then broke into the round-house, where the mate after some resistance, shot the pirate captain through the head, upon which all the rest yielded themselves prisoners. and thus the ship being recovered, the joyful signal was fired, which i heard with the greatest joy imaginable: nor was it long before he brought the ship to an anchor at the creek's mouth, where, coming to me unawares, _there_, says he _my dearest friend and deliverer, there is your ship, and we are your servants_: a comfort so unspeakable, as made me swoon in his arms while, with gratitude to heaven, we were tenderly embracing each other. nothing now remaining, but to consult what we should do with the prisoners, whom he thought it was not safe to take on board. hereupon concerting with the captain, i dressed myself in one of his suits, and sending for them, told them, that i was going to leave the island with all my people, if they would tarry there, their lives should be spared; if not, they should be hanged at the first port they came at. they agreed to stay. hereupon i told them my whole story, charging them to be kind to the spaniards that were expected, gave them, all my arms, and informing them of every thing necessary for their subsistence, i and my man friday went on board. but the next morning two of the men came swimming to the ship's side, desiring the captain to take them on board, though he hanged them afterwards, complaining mightily how barbarously the others used them. upon which i prevailed with the captain to take them in; and being severely whipt and pickled, they proved more honest for the future, and so i bid farewell to this island, carrying along with me my money, my parrot, umbrella, and goat-skin cap; setting sail december 12, 1686, after twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen days residence, that same day and month that i escaped from sallee; landing in england, june 11, 1687, after five and thirty years absence from my own country; which rendered me altogether a stranger there. here i found my first captain's widow alive, who had buried a second husband, but in very mean circumstances, and whom i made easy upon his account. soon after i went down to yorkshire, where all my family were expired, except two sisters, and as many of one of my brother's children. i found no provision had been made for me, they concluding i had been long since dead; so that i was but in a very slender station. indeed the captain did me a great kindness, by his report to the owners, how i had delivered their ship on the desolate island, upon which they made me a present of 200â£. sterling. i next went to lisbon, taking my man friday with me, and there arriving in april, i met the portuguese captain who had taken me on board on the african coast; but, being ancient, he had left off the sea, and resigned all his business to his son, who followed the brazil trade. so altered both of us were, that we did not know each other at first, till i discovered myself more fully to him. after a few embraces, i began to enquire of my concerns; and then the old gentleman told me that it was nine years since he had been at brazil, where my partner was then living, but my trustees were both dead; that he believed i should have a good account of the product of my plantation; that the imagination of my being lost, had obliged my trustees to give an estimate of my share to the procurator fiscal, who, in case of my not returning, had given one third to the king & the rest to the monastery of st. augustine: but if i put in my claim, or any one for me, it would be returned, except the yearly product which was given to the poor. i then desired him to tell me what improvement he thought had been made of my plantation, and whether he imagined it was worth my while to look after it? he answered, he did not know how much it was improved; but this he was certain of, that my partner was grown vastly rich upon his half of it; and, that he had been informed, that the kind had 200 moidores per annum of his third part. he added, that the survivors of my trustees were nervous of an ingenuous character; that my partner could witness my title, my name being registered in the country, by which means i should indefensibly recover considerable sums of money, but, answered, i, how could my trustees dispose of my effects, when i made you only my heir? this, said he, was true but, there being no affidavit made of my death he could not act as my executor. however, he had ordered his don,(then at brazil), to act by procuration upon my account, and he had taken possession of my sugar-house, having accounted himself for eight years with my partner and trustees for the profits, of which he would give me a very good account. and, indeed, this he performed very faithfully in a few days, making himself indebted to me 470 moidores of gold, over and above what had been lost at sea, after i had left the place. and then he recounted to me what misfortune he had gone through, which forced my money out of his hands, to buy part in a new ship-but says he, _you shall not want, take this; and, when my son returns, every farthing shall be paid you._ upon which he put into my hand a purse of 150 moidores in gold, as likewise the instrument, containing the title to the ship which his son was in, and which he offered as security for the remainder. but really when i saw so much goodness, generosity, tenderness, and real honesty, i had not the heart to accept it, for fear he should straiten himself upon my account. _it is true,_ said he, _it may be so; but then the money is yours, not mine, and you may have the greatest occasion for it._ however, i returned fifty of them back again, promising that i would freely forgive him the other hundred when i got my effects into my hands, and that i designed to go myself for that purpose. but he told me he could save me that trouble, and so caused me to enter my name with a public notary, as likewise my affidavit, with a procuration affixed to it; and this he ordered me to send in a letter to one of his acquaintance, a merchant in brazil; and, indeed, nothing could be more faithfully and honourably observed; for, in seven months time, i had a very faithful account of all my effects, what sums of money were raised, what expended, and what remained for myself! in a word i found myself to be worth 5000â£. sterling, and 1000 per annum. nor was this all, for my partner congratulated me upon my being alive, telling me how much my plantation was improved; what negroes were at work, and how many _ave marias_ he had said to the virgin mary for my preservation, desiring me to accept kindly some presents he had sent me, which i found showed the greatest generosity. no sooner did the ship arrive, but i rewarded my faithful captain, by returning him the hundred moidores, and not only forgiving him all he owed me, i allowed him yearly a hundred more, and fifty to his son, during their lives. and now being resolved to go to england, i returned letters of thanks to the prior of st. augustine, and in particular to my old partner, with very suitable presents. by the captain's advice, i was persuaded to go by land to calais, and there take passage for england: when, as it happened, i got a young english gentleman, a merchant's son at lisbon, to accompany me, together with two english, and two portuguese gentleman: so that with a portuguese servant, an english sailor, and my man friday, there were nine of us in number. thus armed and equipped, we set out, and came to madrid, when the summer decaying, we hasted to navarre, where we were informed that there was scarcely any passing, be reason of the prodigious quantity of snow; so that we were obliged to abide near twenty days at pamoeluria, and at last to take a guide to conduct us safe towards tholouse. and now twelve other gentlemen joining with us, together with their servants, we had a very jolly company. away our guide led us by frightful mountains, and through so many intricate mazes and windings, that we insensibly passed them, which, as we travelled along, ushered us into the prospect of the fruitful and charming provinces of languedoc and galcoigne. but now came on two adventures, both tragical and comical. first, our guide was encountered by three wolves and a bear, who set upon him and his horse, and wounded him in three places; upon which my man, riding up to his assistance, shot one of them dead upon the spot, which made the others retire into the woods. but the pleasantest adventure was, to behold my man attack the bear. 'tis such a creature, that if you let him alone, he will never meddle with you, and this my man very well knew, and so begging leave of me in broken english, he told us, _he would make good laugh_. 'why, you silly fool,' said i, 'he'll eat you up at a mouthful.' _eatee me up,_ replied he, by way of scorn, _me not only eatee him, but make much good laugh._ upon which, pulling off his boots, he claps on his pumps, and running after the monstrous beast, he called out, that he wanted to discourse with him, and then throwing stones on purpose to incense him, the beast turns about in fury, and, with prodigious strides, shuffles after him. but though he was not swift enough to keep up pace with friday, who made up to us as it were for help; yet being angry, 'you dog,' said i, 'immediately take horse, and let us shoot the creature.' but he cried, _dear master, no shoot, me make you laugh much._ and so he turned about, making signs to follow, while the bear ran after, till coming to a great oak, he ascended in a minute, leaving his gun, at the bottom of it. nor did the bear make any difficulty of it, but ascended like a cat, though his weight was very great. you must consider i was not a little amazed at the folly of my man, as not perceiving any thing to occasion our laughter, till such time as we rode up nearer, and beheld the bear mounted upon the oak, on the beginning of the same branch, to which friday clung at the farther end, where the bear durst not come. hereupon friday cried out, _now master, me make much laugh, me make bear dance._ upon which he fell a shaking the bough, which made the creature look behind him, to see how he could retreat. then as if the bear had understood his stammering english, _why you no come farther, mr. bear_ said he, _pray, mr. bear come farther_; and then indeed we all burst into a laughter; especially when we perceived friday drop like a squirrel upon the ground, leaving the beast to make the best of his way down the tree. and now thinking it the most convenient time to shoot the creature, friday cried out, _o dear master, no shoot, me shoot by and by_; when taking up the gun, _me no shoot yet_, said he _me make one more much laugh._ and accordingly he was as good as his word; for the creature descending backwards from the tree very leisurely, before he could lay one foot on the ground, friday shot him through the ear, stone dead; and looking to see whether we were pleased, he burst out into a hearty laughter, saying, _so we kill de bear in my country, not with the gun, but with much long arrows._ thus ended our diversion, to our great satisfaction; especially in a place where the terrible howlings struck us with a continual terror. but the snows now growing very deep, particularly on the mountains, the ravenous creatures were then obliged to seek for sustenance in the villages, were coming by surprise on the country people, killed several of them, besides a great number of their sheep and horses. our guide told us, we had yet one more dangerous place to pass by; and if their were any more wolves in the country, there we should find them. this was a small plain encompassed with woods, to get through a long lane to the village where we were to lodge. when we entered the wood, the sun was within half an hour of setting: and a little after it was set, we came into the plain, which was not above two furlongs over, and then we perceived five great wolves cross the road, without taking notice of us, and so swift as though they were pursuing after their prey. hereupon our guide, believing there were more coming, desired us to be on our guard. accordingly our eyes were very circumspect, till about half a league farther, we perceived a dead horse, and near a dozen of wolves devouring its carcase. my man friday fain would have fired at them, but i would not permit him; nor had we gone half over the plain, but we heard dreadful howlings in a wood on our left, when presently we saw an hundred come up against us, as though they had been an experienced army. this obliged us to form ourselves in the best manner; and then i ordered that every other man should fire, that those who did not, might be ready to gave a second volley, should they advance upon us; and then every man should make use of his pistols. but there was no necessity for this; for the enemy being terrified stopped at the noise of the fire; four of them were shot dead, and, several others being wounded; went bleeding away, as we could very plainly discover by the snow. and now remembering what had been often told me, that such was the majesty of a man's voice, as to strike terror even in the fiercest creatures, i ordered all our companions to halloo as loud as possible; and in this notion i was not altogether mistaken; for they immediately turned about upon the first halloo, and began to retire; upon which, ordering a second volley in their rear, they galloped into the woods with great precipitation. thus we had some small time to load our pieces again, and then made all the haste we could on our way; but we had not rode far, before we were obliged to put ourselves in a posture of defence as before, being alarmed with a very dreadful noise in the same wood, on our left hand, the same way as we were to pass, only that it was at some distance from us. by this time the darksome clouds began to spread over the elements, and the night growing very dusky, made it so much the more to our disadvantage; but still the noise increasing, we were fully assured, that it was the howling and the yelling of those ravenous creatures; when presently three troops of wolves on our front appeared in sight, as though a great number of them had a design to surround us, and devour us in spite of fate. but as they did not fall upon us immediately, we proceeded on our journey in as swift a manner as the roads would permit our horses, which was only a large trot. it was in this manner we travelled, till such a time as we discovered another wood, and had the prospect of its entrance through which were to pass, at the farthest side of the plain. but surely none can express the terror we were in, when approaching the lane, we perceived a confused number of the fiercest wolves, standing, as it were guarding its entrance. nor were we long in this amazement, before another occasion of horror presented itself; for suddenly we heard the report of a gun at another opening in the wood and, looking that way, out ran a horse bridled and saddled, flying with the greatest swiftness, and no less than sixteen or seventeen wolves pursuing after him, in order to devour the poor creature; and unquestionably they did so, after they had run him down, not being able to hold out that swiftness with which he at first escaped them. when we rode up to that entrance from whence the horse came forth, there lay the carcases of another horse & two men, mangled and torn by these devouring wolves; and undoubtedly one of these men was the person who fired the gun which we had heard, for the piece lay by him; but alas! most of the upper part of his body and his head were entombed in the bowels of these ravenous creatures. what course to take, whether to proceed or retreat, we could not tell; but it was not long before the wolves themselves made us to come to a resolution; for such numbers surrounded us, every one of whom expected their prey, that were our bodies to be divided among them, there would not be half a mouthful a-piece. but happy, very happy it was for us, that but a little way from the entrance, there lay some very large timber trees, which i supposed had been cut down and laid there for sale: amongst which i drew my little troop, placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, which served us for a breast work, when desiring them to alight, we stood in a triangle, or three fronts, closing our bodies in the centre, the only place where we could preserve them. never certainly was there a more furious charge than what the wolves made upon us in this place: and the sight of the horses, which was the principal prey they aimed at, provoked their hunger, and added to their natural fierceness. they came on us with a most dreadful noise, that made the woods ring again: and beginning to mount the pieces of timber, i ordered every man to fire, as before directed: and, indeed, so well did they take their aim, that they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but still we were obliged to keep a continual firing, by reason they came on like devils, pushing one another with the greatest fury. but our second volley something abated their courage, when stopping a little, we hoped they would have made the best of their way, however, it did not prove so, for others made a new attempt upon us; and though in four firings, we killed seventeen or eighteen of them, laming twice as many, yet they several times successively came on, as though they valued not their lives for the sake of their prey. unwilling was i to spend our last shot too suddenly, and therefore calling my other servant, and giving him a horn of powder, bid him lay a large train quite along the timber, which he did, while friday was charging my fusee and his own, with the greatest dexterity. by this time the wolves coming up the timber, i set fire to the train, by snapping a discharged pistol close to the powder. this so scorched and terrified them, that some fell down, and others jumped in among us: but there were immediately dispatched, when all the rest, frighted with the light, which the darksome night caused to appear more dreadful, began at length to retire; upon which ordering our last pistols to be fired at once, giving at the same time a great shout, the wolves were obliged to have recourse to their swiftness, and turn tail; and then we sallied out upon twenty lame ones, cutting them in pieces with our swords, which obliged them to howl lamentably, to the terror of their fellows, who resigned to us the field as victorious conquerors. and, indeed, i question whether alexander king of macedonia, in any of his conquests, had more occasion for triumph than we had; for he was but attacked with numerous armies of soldiers; whereas our little army was obliged to combat a legion of devils, as it were, worse than the cannibals, who, the same moment they had slain us, would have sacrificed us, to satisfy their voracious appetites. thus ended our bloody battle with the beasts, having killed threescore of them, and saved our lives from their fury. we still had a league further to go, when, as we went, our ears were saluted with their most unwelcome howlings, and we expected every moment another attack. but, in an hour's time, we arrived at the town where we were to lodge; and here we found the place strictly guarded, and all in terrible confusion, as well they might, for fear of the bears and wolves breaking into the village, in order to prey upon their cattle and people. the next morning we were obliged to take a new guide, by reason the other fell very bad of his wounds, which he had received as before mentioned. after we had reached tholouse, we came into a warm, pleasant, and fruitful country, not infested with wolves, nor any sort of ravenous creatures: and when we told our story there, they much blamed our guide, for conducting us through the forest at the foot of the mountains, in such a severe season, when the snow obliged the wolves to seek for shelter in the woods. when we informed them in what manner we placed ourselves, and the horses in the centre, they exceedingly reprehended us, and told us, it was an hundred to one, but we had been all destroyed; for that it was the very sight of the horses, their so much desired prey, that made the wolves more ragingly furious than they would have been, which was evident, by their being at other times really afraid of a gun; but then being exceedingly hungry and furious upon that account, their eagerness to come at the horses made them insensible of their danger; and that, if we had not, by a continual fire, and at last by the cunning stratagem of the train of powder, got the better of them, it had been great odds if their number had not overpowered us; besides, it was a great mercy we alighted from our horses, and fought them with that courage and conduct, which, had we failed to do, every man of us, with our beasts, had been devoured: and, indeed, this was nothing but truth; for never in my life was i so sensible of danger, as when three hundred, devils came roaring upon us, to shun whose unwelcome company, if i was sure to meet a storm every week; i would rather go a thousand leagues by sea. i think i have, nothing uncommon in my passage through france to take notice of, since other travellers of greater learning and ingenuity, have given more ample account than my pen is able to set forth. from tholouse i travelled to paris, from thence to calais, where i took shipping, and landed at dover the 14th of january, in a very cold season. thus come to the end of my travels, i soon discovered my new found estate, and all the bills of exchange i had were currently paid. the good ancient widow, my only privy counsellor, thought no pains nor care too great to procure my advantage, nor had i ever occasion to blame her fidelity, which drew from me an ample reward. i was for leaving my effects in her hands, intending to set out for lisbon, and so the brazils; but as in the desolate island i had some doubt about the romish religion, so i knew there was little encouragement to settle there, unless i would apostatize from the orthodox faith, or live in continual fear of the inquisition. upon this account i resolved to sell my plantation; and, for that intent, i wrote to my old friend at lisbon, who returned to me an answer to my great satisfaction; which was, that he could sell it to good account; however, if i thought it convenient to give him liberty to offer it in my name to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees residing at the brazils, who consequently knew its intrinsic value, having lived just upon the spot, and who i was sensible were very rich, and therefore might be the more willing to purchase it: he did not in the least doubt, but that i should make four or five thousand pieces of eight more of it, than i could, if i disposed of it in any other manner whatsoever. you may be sure i could not but agree with this kind and ingenuous proposal; and immediately i sent him an order to offer it to them, which he accordingly did; so that about eight months after, the ship being in that time returned, he gave me a satisfactory account, that they not only willingly accepted the offer, but that they had also remitted 33,000 pieces of eight to a correspondence of their own at lisbon, in order to pay for the purchase. hereupon, in return, i signed the instrument of sale, according to form, which they had sent from lisbon, and returned it again to my old friend, he having sent me, for me estate, bills of three hundred and twenty-eight thousand pieces of eight, reserving the payment of one hundred moidores per annum, which i had allowed him during life, likewise: fifty to his son during life also, according to my faithful promise, which the plantation was to make good as a rent charge. and thus having led my reader to the knowledge of the first parts of my life so remarkable for the many peculiar providences that attended it, floating in the ocean of uncertainty and disappointment, of adversity and prosperity, beginning foolishly, and yet ending happily; methinks now that i am come to a safe & pleasant haven, it is time to cast out my anchor, &c, laying up my vessel, bid, for a while, adieu to foreign adventures. i had no other concerns to look after but the care of my brother's two sons, which, with the good widow's persuasions, obliged me to continue at home seven years. one of these children i bred up a gentleman, and the other an experienced sailor, remarkable for his courage and bravery. besides this, i married a virtuous young gentlewoman, of a very good family, by whom i had two sons and one daughter. but my dear and tender wife leaving this earthly stage (as in the second part of my life you will hear) which rent my soul as it were asunder, my native country became weary and tiresome to me; and my nephew happening to come from sea, tempted me to venture another voyage to the east indies, which i did in the year 1694, at which time i visited my island, and informed myself of every thing that happened since my departure. one might reasonably imagine, that what i had suffered, together with an advanced age, and the fear of losing not only what i had gotten, but my life also, might have choaked up all the seeds of youthful ambition and curiosity, and put a lasting period to my wandering inclinations. but as nothing but death can fully allay the active part of my life, no less remarkable for the many various contingencies of it, you will next perceive how i visited my little kingdom, saw my successors the spaniards, had an account of the usage they met with from the englishmen, agreeing and disagreeing, uniting and separating, till at last they were subjected to the spaniards, who yet used them very honorably, together with the wonderful and successful battles over the indians who invaded, and thought to have conquered the island, but were repelled by their invincible courage and bravery, having taken eleven men and five woman prisoners by which at my return, i found about twenty young children on my little kingdom. here i staid twenty days, left them supplies of all necessary things, as also a carpenter and smith, and shared the islands into parts, reserving the whole property to myself. nor will you be insensible, by the account of these things, of several new adventures i have been engaged in, the battles i have fought, the deliverances i have met with; and while, in the surprising relation of such remarkable occurrences, i shall describe many of god's kindest providences to me in particular, no less conspicuous in the same goodness, power, and majesty of our great creator, shown one way or other, over the face of the earth, if duly adverted to. the further adventures of robinson crusoe. _wherein are contained several strange and surprising accounts of his travels, and his most remarkable transactions both by sea and by land; with his wonderful vision of the angelic world_. * * * * * when we consider the puissant force of nature and, what mighty influence it has many times over the temper of the mind, it will be no such great wonder to think, that my powerful reason should be overcome by a much stronger inclination. my late acquired kingdom ran continually in my thoughts all the day, and i dreamed of it in the night: nay, i made it the continual subject of my talk, even to impertinence, when i was awake. i had such vapours in my head, that i actually supposed myself at my castle; that i not only perceived friday's father the old spaniard, and the wicked sailors, but that i talked and discoursed with them about their manner of living; that i heard the things related to me, which i found afterwards to be true; & that i executed my judgments with the greatest severity upon the offenders. and, indeed, this anticipating all the pleasing joys of my life, scarcely afforded me one pleasant hour: my dear and tender wife could not but take notice of it, which drew those affectionate speeches from her: _my dear,_ said she, _i am really persuaded that some secret impulse from heaven occasions in you a determination to see the island again; nor am i less sensible, but your being engaged to me and these dear children is the only hinderance of your departure. i know my dear, if i were in the grave, you would not long continue at home; prevent not your happiness on my account, whose only comfort centres in you. all that i can object is, that such an hazardous undertaking is no way consistent with a person of your years; but if you are resolved to go,_ added she, weeping, _only permit me to bear you company, and that is all that i desire._ such endearing tenderness, graced with the most innocent and yet most powerful charms, brought me insensibly into my right understanding; and when i considered all the transactions of my life, and particularly my new engagement, that i had now one child already born, and my wife big of another; and that i had no occasion to seek for more riches, who already was blessed with sufficiency, with much struggling i altered my resolutions at last, resolving to apply myself to some business or other, which might put a period to such wandering inclinations. hereupon i bought a little farm in the county of bedford, with a resolution to move thither; upon this there was a pretty convenient house surrounded with land, very capable of improvement, which suited my temper, as to planting, managing, and cultivating. nor was i long before i entered upon my new settlement, having bought ploughs, harrows, carts, waggons, horses, cows, and sheep; so that i now led the life of a country gentleman, and as happy in my retirement as the greatest monarch in the world. and what made me think my happiness the greater was, that i was in the middle state of life, which my father had so often recommended, much resembling the felicity of a rural retirement, which is elegantly described by the poet in these lines: _free from all vices, free from care, age has no pain, and youth no snare._ but, in the midst of this my happiness, i was suddenly plunged in the greatest sorrow that i could possibly endure; for when i least expected it, my dear and tender wife was forced to submit to the irresistable power of death, leaving this transitory life for a better. it is impossible for me to express the beauties of her mind, or the loveliness of her person; neither can i too much lament her loss, which my latest breath shall record; her influence was greater over me, than the powers of my own reason, the importunities of friends, the instructions of a father, or the melting tears of a tender and disconsolate mother; in a word, she was the spirit of all my affairs, and the centre of my enterprizes. but now, since the cruel hand of death had closed my dearest's eyes, i seemed in my thoughts a stranger to the world; my privy counsellor being gone, i was like a ship without a pilot, that could only run before the wind. and when i looked around me in this busy world, one party labouring for bread, and the other squandering away their estates; this put me in mind how i had lived in my little kingdom, where both reason and religion dictated to me, that there was something that certainly was the reason and end of life, which was far superior to what could be hoped for on this side the grave. my country delights were now as insiped and dull, as music and science to those who have neither taste nor ingenuity. in short, resolving to leave off house-keeping, i left my farm, and in a few months returned to london. but neither could that great city, so famous for its variety of entertainment, afford me any agreeable delight; a state of idleness i found to be the very dregs of life, and most hurtful to body and soul. it was now the beginning of the year 1684, at which time my nephew (who as i before observed had been brought up to the sea, and advanced to be captain of a ship) was returned from a short voyage to bilboz, the first he had made in that station. he comes to me one morning, telling me that some merchants of his acquaintance had proposed to him to go a voyage for them to the east indies and china in the manner of private traders; _and now uncle_, said he, _if you'll accompany me thither, i'll engage to land you upon your old island, to visit the state of your little kingdom_. just before he came in, my thoughts were fixed to get a patent for its possession, and then to fill it with inhabitants. after i had paused a while, and looked stedfastly on him. _what devil or spirit_, said i, _sent you with this unlucky errand_? he started at first; but recovering himself, when he perceived i was not offended; _sir_, replied he, _what i have proposed cannot i hope, be styled unlucky, since certainly you must be desirous to see your little territory, where you reigned with more content, than any of your brother kings in the universe. nephew_, said i, _if you will leave me there, and call for me as you came back, i care not if i give my consent_: but he answered, _that the merchants would not allow their vessel loaden with an infinite value, to return there again, which was a month's sail out of the way; besides, sir_ said he, _if i should miscarry, was your request granted, why then you would be locked up as before_. this indeed carried a great deal of reason in it; but we found out a remedy, and that was to carry a framed sloop on board, ready to be set up in the island, by the assistance of some carpenters, which we should carry with us, that might be fitted in a few days to go to sea. i was not long in forming my resolution, which overswayed my good friend the widow's persuasions, and the natural affection i bore to my young children. i made my will, and settled my estate in such manner, that i was perfectly sure my poor infants would have justice done them. the good widow not only undertook to make provision, for my voyage, but also took the charge of my domestic affairs, and to provide for my children's education; and indeed no mother could take more care, or understood that office better; for which i lived to reward and return her my hearty thanks. the beginning of january, 1694.5, my nephew being ready to sail, i and friday went on board in the downs on the 8th, having, besides that sloop already mentioned, a very considerable cargo for my new colony. first, i had some servants, whom i proposed to leave there, as they should appear willing; there were two carpenters, a smith, and a very ingenuous fellow who was jack-of-all-trades; for he was not only a cooper by trade, but also he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills to grind corn, likewise a good turner, and a good pot-maker. i also carried a tailor, who consented to stay in my plantation, and proved a most necessary fellow in the island. as to my cargo, it consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, and english stuffs for clothing the spaniards that i expected to find there; as likewise gloves, hats, shoes, stockings; together with beds, bedding, and household stuff, especially kitchen utensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c. also nails, tools of all sorts, staples, hooks, hinges, and all other things necessary; all which, i think, cost me about three hundred pounds. nor was this all for i carried an hundred spare arms, muskets, & fusees, besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of several sorts of shot, two brass cannon, besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes and halberts. i made my nephew take with us two small quarter-deck guns, more than he had occasion for in his ship, to leave behind, if there was a necessity; so that we might build a fort there, and man it against all opposers whatsoever. well, we put out to sea; and though i can't say this voyage was so unprosperous as my others had been, yet contrary winds drove us so far northward, that we were obliged to put in at galway in ireland, where we lay wind-bound two and twenty days. here indeed our provisions were very cheap, and we added to our ship's stores by taking several live hogs, two cows and calves, which i then resolved to put on shore in my island, if our necessities did not call for them. on the 5th of february we sailed from ireland, with a very fair gale, which lasted for some days; and i think it was about the 20th of the same month late in the evening, when the mate informed us, that he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun fired: and when he was speaking a boy came in and told us, that the boatswain had heard another. upon which we all ran to the quarter-deck, from whence, in a few moments, we perceived a terrible fire at a distance. we had immediately recourse to our reckonings, in which, we were all of opinion, that there could be no land that way, it appearing to be at n.n.w. hereupon we concluded that some ship had taken fire at sea, and that it could not be far off by the report of the guns which we had heard. we made up directly to it, and in half an hour's time the wind being fair, we could plainly perceive a great ship on fire in the middle of the sea. touched with this unhappy disaster, and considering my former circumstances, when the portuguese captain took me up, i immediately ordered five guns to be fired that the poor creatures, not seeing us, it being dark, (though we could perceive their flame) might be sensible there was deliverance at hand, and consequently might endeavor to save themselves in their boat. nor was it long before the ship blew up in the air and the fire was extinguished in the ocean. but supposing them all to be in their boats, we hung out our lanterns and kept firing till eight o'clock in the morning; when with our perspectives, we beheld two boats full of people making towards us tho' the tide was against them then spreading out our ancient; and hanging out a waft, as a signal for them to come on board, in half an hour's time; we came up to them, and took them all in, there being no less than sixty-four men, women, and children. it was a french merchant ship of three hundred tons; homeward bound from quebec in the river of canada. the master informed me how, by the negligence of the steersman, the steerage was set on fire: that, at his outcry for help, the fire was, as we thought totally extinguished; but, that some sparks getting between the timber, and within the ceiling, it proceeded into the hold, where there was no resisting it; & then they got into their boats, as creatures in the last extremity, with what provision they had, together with oars, sails, and a compass, intending to go back to newfoundland, the wind blowing at s.e. and by e. though there were several chances against them as storms to overset and founder them, rains and colds to benumb and perish their limbs, and contrary winds to keep them back and starve them; _but_, said he, _in this our great distress we heard the welcome report of your guns, when with unspeakable joy, taking down our masts and sails, we were resolved to lie by till morning; but perceiving your light, we set our oars at work, to keep our boat a head, the sooner to attain your ship, the happy instrument of our deliverance_. indeed no one can express the joy of these poor creatures on this occasion: fear and grief are easily set forth; sighs and tears, with a few motions of the hands and head, are all the demonstrations of these passions; but an excess of joy, carries in it a thousand extravagancies; especially, i think, among the french, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, passionate, sprightly, and gay, than that of other nations. some were weeping, tearing themselves in the greatest agonies of sorrow, and running stark mad about the ship, while the rest were stamping with their feet, wringing their hands, singing, laughing, swooning away, vomiting, fainting, with a few returning hearty thanks to the almighty; and crossing themselves. i think, if i am not mistaken, our surgeon was obliged to let thirty of them blood. but among the passengers, there were two priests, the one an old, and the other a young man; but what amazed me more was, that the oldest was in the worst plight; for no sooner did he perceive himself freed from danger, but he dropt down as it were without life, and to every one's appearance quite dead; but the surgeon chasing and rubbing his arm, opened a vein, which at first dropped, and then flowing more freely, the old man began to open his eyes; and in a quarter of an hour was well again. but soon remembering this happy change, the joy of which whirled his blood about faster than the vessels could convey it, he became so feverish, as made him more fit for bedlam than any other place. but the surgeon giving him a sleepy dose, he was perfectly composed the next morning. remarkable indeed was the behaviour of the young priest. at his entrance on board the ship, he fell on his face in the most humble prostration to the almighty. i thought, indeed, he had fallen into a swoon, and so ran to help him up; but he modestly told me, _he was returning his thanks to the almighty, desiring me to leave him a few moments, and that, next to his creator, he would return me thanks also_. and indeed he did so about three minutes after, with great seriousness, and affection, while the tears stood in his eyes, which convinced me of the gratitude of his soul. nor did he less show his piety and wisdom in applying himself to his country people, and labouring to compose them, by the most powerful reasons, arguments, and persuasions. and when, indeed, these people had taken their night's repose, in such lodgings as our ship would allow, we found nothing but the best of manners, and the most civil acknowledgements, for which the french are eminently remarkable. the next day the captain and one of the priests desired to speak with me and my nephew the commander. they told us, _that they had saved some money and valuable things out of the ruined vessel, which was at our service; only that they desired to be set on shore some where in our way_. at the first my nephew was for accepting the money; but i (who knew how hard my case would have been, had the portuguese captain served me so) persuaded him to the contrary; and therefore told them, _that as we had done nothing but what we were obliged to do, by nature and humanity, and what we ourselves might expect from others in such calamity; so we took them up to save them, not to plunder them, or leave them naked upon the land, to perish for want of subsistance, and therefore would not accept their money: but as to landing them, that was a great difficulty; for being bound to the east indies, it was impossible wilfully to change our voyage upon their particular account, nor could my nephew_ (who was under charter party to pursue it by was of brazil) _answer it to the freighters_. all that we could do, was to put ourselves in the way of meeting some ships homeward bound from the west indies, that, if possible, they might get a passage to france or england. indeed, they were very thankful for our first kindness; but were under great concern, especially the passengers, at their being carried to the east indies. _they begged therefore, i would keep on the banks of newfoundland, where, probably, they might meet with some ship, or sloop to carry them to canada, whence they came._ as this was but a reasonable request, i was inclined to grant it, since it was no breach of charter party, and that the laws of god and nature obliged us to do what good we could to our fellow-creatures; and besides the danger we ourselves should be in for want of provisions: so we consented to carry them to newfoundland, if wind and weather would permit; if not, that we should carry them to martinico in the west indies. but, as it happened, in a week's time we made the banks of newfoundland, where the french people hired a bark to carry them to france. but the young priest being desirous to go to the east indies, i readily agreed to it, because i liked his conversation, and two or three of the french sailors also entered themselves on board our ship. now directing our course for the west indies, steering s. and s. by e. about twenty days, with little wind, another adventure happened to exercise our humanity. in the latitude of 27 degrees, 5 minutes north, the 19th of march 1694-5, we perceived a sail, (our course s. e. and by s.) which bore upon us, and then she appeared to be a large vessel, having lost her main topmast and boltsprit; when firing a gun as a signal of distress, wind n. n.w. we soon came to speak with her. she was a ship from bristol, bound home from barbadoes, out of which road she had been forced in a hurricane to the westward, in which they lost their masts. they told us, _their expectations were to see the bahama islands, but were driven away by a strong wind at n.n.w. and having no sails to work the ship with, but the main-course and a kind of square sail upon a jury foremast, because they could not come near the land, were endeavouring to stand for the canaries: nay what was worse, besides all their fatigue, they were almost starved for want of provision, having ate nothing for eleven all that they had aboard, was sugar, a barrel of fresh water and seven casks of rum_. in this ship were passengers, a youth, his mother, and a maid-servant, who were in a most deplorable condition for want of food. if i had not gone on board their ship, the knowledge of their misery had been concealed from me, and they would have inevitably perished; though, indeed, their second mate who was captain, by reason the true captain was not on board when the hurricane happened, had before informed me that there was such persons on board, whom he supposed to be dead, being afraid to inquire after them, because he had nothing to give them for relief. hereupon we resolved to let them have what we could spare, ordering the mate to bring some of his men on board us, which he did accordingly: as he and they looked like skeletons, when meat was set before them, i ordered them to eat sparingly. but, however they soon fell sick; which obliged the surgeon to mix something in their broth, which was to be to them both food and physic. when they were fed, we ordered our mate to carry them a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef; but the surgeon charged them to see it boiled, and to keep a guard on the cook-room, to prevent the men from eating it raw, and consequently killing themselves with what was designed for their relief. but, particularly, i desired the mate to see what condition the poor passengers were in, and the surgeon gave him a pitcher of the same broth which he had prepared for the men. and being curious to see this scene of misery myself, i took the captain (as we called the mate of the ship) in our own boat, and sailed after them. here was a sad sight indeed! scarce were the victuals half boiled in the pot; but they were ready to break open the cook-room door. to stay their stomachs the mate gave them biscuits, which were dipped in and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they call _bruise_; telling them, it was for their own safety, that he was obliged to give them but a little at a time; and so feeding them gradually, their bellies were comfortable filled, and the men did very well again. but when they came to the poor gentlewoman in the cabin, who for several days had continued without food, giving what she had to her son, they found her as it were in the arms of death. she was sitting upon the floor of the deck, with her back up against the sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head shrunk, between her shoulders, like a senseless corpse. nothing was wanting in my mate to revive and encourage her; opening her lips, and putting some broth into her mouth with a spoon. but not having strength to speak, she lifted up her head with much difficulty, intimating that it was now too late! at the same time pointing to the youth her son, as though she desired him to do what he could to save the lad; and in a little time after she died. the youth, indeed, was not so far gone; yet lay stretched out on a cabin bed, like one that had scarce any life. in his mouth was a piece of an old glove, the rest of which he had ate up. at first he vomited what the mate had given him; but at length began sensibly to revive, though in the greatest concern for the death of his tender mother. as to the poor maid, she lay by her mistress, like one in the last pangs of death: her limbs were distorted, one of her hands were clasped round the frame of a chair, which she grasped so hard, that it was with some difficulty we separated her from it; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the frame of the cabin table; not only being, starved with hunger, but overcome with grief at the loss of her mistress, whom she loved most tenderly. it was a great while before the surgeon could bring her to life, and a much longer time before she came to her senses. after we had sailed with them some days, we sent them five barrels of beef, one of pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, with peas, flour, and other things; taking three casks of sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight as payment, we left them, but took the youth and maid with us, with all their goods. the lad was about seventeen years old, very handsome, modest, sensible, and well-bred, but mightily concerned for the loss of his honoured mother, having lost his father at barbadoes but a few months before. he beseeched the surgeon to intercede with me to take him out of the ship; for that the sailors, not sparing a small sustenance, had starved his mother. but hunger has no bounds, no right, and consequently is incapable of any compassion. when the surgeon told him, our voyage might put him in bad circumstances, and farther from his friends, he said _he did not care, if he was delivered from that terrible crew; that as the captain_ (meaning me) _had saved him from death, so he was sure he would do him no harm; and, as for the maid, when she was restored to her senses, she would be no less thankful, let us carry them where we would_. and indeed the surgeon so represented their case to me, that i consented, and took them on board with all their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar; but the youth having a bill of lading, i made the commander oblige himself to deliver a letter and the deceased widow's goods to mr. rogers, a merchant in bristol; but i believe the ship was lost at sea, for we never could hear what became of her afterwards. we were now in the latitude 19 deg. 32 min. having as yet a tolerable good voyage. but, passing by several little incidents relating to wind and weather, i shall relate what is most remarkable concerning my little kingdom, to which i was then drawing near. i had great difficulty in finding it, for as i came to, and went from it before, on the south and east side of the island, as coming from the brazils, so now approaching between the main and the island, not having any chart for the coast, nor land mark, it obliged us to go on shore on several islands in the mouth of the river oroonoko, but to the purpose. thus i perceived, that what i thought was a continent before, was no such thing, but a long island, or rather a ridge of sands. on one of these islands i found some spaniards, but they belonged to the isle of trinidad, who came hither in a sloop to make salt, and try to find some pearl muscles. but at length i came fair on the south side of my island, and there i presently knew the countenance of my little kingdom; so we brought the ship safe to an anchor, broadside within the creek, where stood my ancient and venerable castle. no sooner did i see the place, but calling for friday, i asked him where he was? but when he looked a little, he clapped his hands, crying, _o joy, o there, o yes, o there!_ pointing to our old abode, and then fell a dancing and capering as if he was mad, and i had much ado to keep him from jumping into the sea, to swim ashore. 'friday,' said i, 'what do you think, shall we go to see your father?' at the mentioning his father's name, the poor affectionate creature fell a-weeping: _no, no,_ says he, _me see him no more, never see poor father more! he long ago die, die long ago: he much old man._ 'you don't know that,' said i, 'but shall we see anybody else?' he looks about, and pointing to the hill above my house, cries out, _we see, we see there much men and there_: which, though i could not perceive them with my perspective glass, was true, by what the men themselves told me the next day. when the english ancient was spread, and three guns fired, as a signal of friendship, we perceived a smoke rise from the creek; upon which i ordered the boat out, taking friday with me, and hanging out a white flag of truce, i went on shore, accompanied also by the young friar, to whom i had related the history of the first part of my life; besides we had sixteen men well armed, in case we had met with any opposition. after we had rowed directly into the creek, the first man i fixed my eye upon was the spaniard, whose life i had saved, and whose face i perfectly well knew. i ordered them all to stay in the boat for a while: but friday, perceiving his father at a distance, would have jumped into the sea, had they not let the boat go. no sooner was he on shore, but he flew like a swift arrow out of a bow to embrace his aged father. certainly it would melt a man of the firmest resolution into the softest tears to see with what uncommon transports of joy he saluted him; he first kissed him, then stroked his face, took him in his arms, laid him under a shady tree, sat down by him, then looked as earnestly at him as one could do at a picture, for a quarter of an hour together. after this he would lie upon the ground, stroke his legs and kiss them, then get up and stare at him, as though he was bewitched; but the next day one could not forbear laughter to see his behaviour, for he would walk several hours with his father along the shore, leading him by the hand as tho' he was a lady; while, every now and then, he would run to the boat to get something for him, as a lump of sugar, dram, biscuit, or something or other that was good. his frolics ran in another channel in the afternoon; when he set old friday on the ground, he would dance round him, making comical postures and gestures; and all this while would be telling him one story or another of his travels and adventures. it was on the 10th of april, _anno_ 1695, that i set my foot upon the island a second time. when my faithful spaniard, accompanied by one more, approached the boat, he little knew who i was, till i discovered myself to him. _seignor_, said i, in portuguese, _don't you know me_? he spoke never a word, but giving his musket to his attendant, extended his arms, and saying something in spanish that i did not then understand, he came forward & embraced me, saying, _he was inexcusable not to know his deliverer: who, like an angel sent from heaven, had saved his life_; he then beckoned to the man to call out his companions, asking me if i would walk to my own habitation and take possession, where i should find some mean improvements; but indeed they were extraordinary ones: for they had planted so many trees so close together, that the place was like a labyrinth, which none could find out except themselves, who knew its intricate windings. i asked him the meaning of all these fortifications? he told me _he would give a large account of what had passed since my departure till this time, and how he had subdued some english, who thought to be their murderers, hoping i would not be displeased, since necessity compelled them to it_. as i knew they were wicked villains, so i told him, that i was not only far from finding fault with it, but was rather heartily glad that they had subdued them. while we were thus talking, the man whom he sent returned, accompanied by eleven more, but in such habits, that it was impossible to tell what nations they were of. he first turned to me, and pointing to them, _these sir,_ said he, _are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to your goodness_, then turning to them, and pointing to me, he made them sensible who i was; and, then indeed they saluted me one by one, not as ordinary men, but as tho' they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and i a triumphant conqueror; for their behaviour not only agreed with a manlike, majestic gravity, but at the same time was so obliging and courteous, as made them agreeable to the last degree. before i relate the history of the transactions of my kingdom, as i had it from the spaniard's own mouth, i must here insert what i omitted in my former relation. the matter is this: just before we weighed anchor and set sail, there happened a quarrel on board the ship, which had like to have occasioned a second mutiny, till such time the courageous capitan, taking two of the most refractory prisoners, laid them in irons threatening, as they were concerned in the former disorders, so have them hanged in england for running away with the ship. this frightened some of the rest, as thinking the captain would serve them in the same manner, though he seemed to give them good word for the present. but the mate having intelligence of this, mad me acquainted with their fears; so that to make them more easy, and ourselves more safe from their conspiracies i was obliged to go down, and pass my honour's word for it, that upon their good behaviour, all that was past should be forgiven; in testimony of which, i ordered the two men's irons to be taken off; & themselves forgiven. but as this had brought us to an anchor that night, in which there was a calm; the two men that had been in irons stole each of them a musket, and some other weapons, and taking the ship's pinnace, not yet hauled up, ran away to their brother rogues. the next morning we sent the long-boat with men to pursue them, but all in vain; the mate, in revenge, would have demolished my little castle, burnt his furniture and destroyed their plantations, but having no orders for it, he did not put it in execution. and thus there were five englishmen in the island, which caused great differences, as my faithful spaniard gave me a perfect account of, in the following manner: you cannot, sir, but remember the embassy you sent me about, and what a disappointment we met with, by your absence, at our return. there is but little variety in the relation of all our voyage, being blessed with calm weather and a smooth sea. great indeed was the joy of my countrymen to see me alive, having acted as the principal man on board, the captain of the shipwrecked vessel dying before; nor was their surprise less, as knowing i was taken prisoner by the savages of another nation, they had thought me long since entombed in their monstrous bowels. but when i showed them the arms, ammunition, and provisions i had brought for them, they looked upon me as a second joseph advanced in pharoah's court, and immediately prepared to come along with me. indeed they were obliged to trespass upon their friendly savages, by borrowing two of their canoes, under a pretext for fishing; and they came away the next morning, but without any provisions of their own, except a few roots which served them instead of bread. after three weeks absence we arrived at our habitation. here we met with three english sailors, who, i confess, gave us provisions, and that letter of direction you had left for us, which informed us how to bring up tame goats, plant corn, cure grapes, make pots, and, in short, every thing that was necessary for our life. as, in particular, i knew your method best, so taking friday's father to assist me, we managed all the affairs; nor were the rest of the spaniards wanting in their kind offices, dressing food for the englishmen, who did nothing but ramble and divert themselves in the woods, either shooting parrots, or catching tortoises. but we had not been long ashore, before we were informed of two more englishmen, unnaturally turned out of their common place of residence, by the three others above mentioned; this made my spaniards and me (whom they now looked upon as their governor in your absence) endeavour to persuade them to take them in, that we might be as one family; but all our intreaties were in vain, so that the poor fellows finding nothing to be done without industry, pitched their tents on the north side of the island, a little inclining to the west, for fear of savages. here they built two huts, one to lodge, and the other to lay their stores in; for my good natured spaniards giving them some seeds, they dug and planted as i had done, and began to live prettily. but while they were thus comfortably going on, the three unnatural brutes, their countrymen, in a mere bullying humour, insulted them by saying, 'the governor (meaning you) had given them a possession of the island, and d-mn 'em they should build no houses upon their ground, without paying rent.' the two honest men (for so let me now distinguish them) thought their three countrymen only jested, and one of them invited them in, to see their fine habitations; while the other facetiously told them 'that since they built tenements with great improvements, they should, according to the custom of lords, give them a longer lease;' at the same time desiring them to fetch a scriviner to draw the writings. one of these wretches swearing _he should pay for the jest_, snatches up a fire brand, and clapping it to the outside of their hut, very fairly set it on fire, which would soon have consumed it, had not the honest man thrust him away, and trod it with his feet. hereupon the fellow returns with his pole, with which he would have ended his days, had not the poor man avoided the blow when fetching his musket, he knocked down the villain that began the quarrel. the other two coming to assist their fellow, obliged the honest man to take his musket also, and both of them presenting their pieces bid the villains stand off; and if they did not lay down their arms, death should decide the dispute one way or other. this brought them to a parley, in which they agreed to take their wounded man and begone; but they were in the wrong that they did not disarm them when they had the power, and then make their complaint to me and my spaniards for justice, which might have prevented their farther designs against them. and indeed so many trespass did they afterwards commit, by treading down their corn, shooting their young kids and goats, and plaguing them night and day, that they resolved to come to my castle, challenge all the three, and decide their right by one plain battle, while the spaniards stood by to see fair play. one day it happened, that two of my spaniards (one of whom understood english) being in the woods, were met by one of the honest men, who complained how barbarous their countrymen had been in destroying their corn, killing their milk-goat and three kids, which deprived them of their subsistence; and that if we did not grant them relief, they must be inevitably starved, and so they parted; but when my spaniards came home at night, and supper being on the table, one of them began to reprehend the englishmen, but in a very mannerly way; which they resenting, replied, _what business had their countrymen in that place without leave, when it was none of their ground? why_, said my spaniard, calmly, _inglise, they must not starve:_ but they replied, _let them starve and be damn'd, they should neither plant nor build, and damn them, they should be their servants, and work for them, for the island was their's, and they would burn all the huts they should find in the island. by this rule_, said my spaniard, smiling, _we shall be your servants too. aye, by god, and so you shall_ replied the impudent rascal. upon which, starting up, will atkins cries, _come jack, let's have t'other brush with them; who dare to build in our dominions?_--thus leaving us something heated with just passion, away they trooped, every man having a gun, pistol, and sword, muttering some threatening words, that we could then but imperfectly understand. that night they designed to murder their two companions, and slept till midnight in the bower, thinking to fall upon them in their sleep: not were the honest men less thoughtful concerning them; for at this juncture they were coming to find them out, but in a much fairer way. as soon as the villains came to the huts, and found nobody there, they concluded that i and my spaniard had given them notice, and therefore swore to be revenged on us. then they demolished the poor men's habitations; not by fire, as they attempted before, but pulled down their houses, limb from limb, not leaving stick nor stone on the ground where they stood, broke their household stuff in pieces, tore up their trees, spoiled their inclosures, and, in short, quite ruined them of every thing they had. had these people met together, no doubt but there would have been a bloody battle; but providence ordered it for the better; for just as the three were got together the two were at our castle; and when they left us, the three came back again, but in great rage, scoffingly telling us what they had done; when one taking hold of a spaniard's hat, twirls it round, saying, _and you seignor jack spaniard, shall have the same sauce, if you don't mind your manners_. my spaniard, a grave but courageous man, knocked him down with one blow of his fist; at which another villain fired his pistol, and narrowly missed his body, but wounded him a little in the ear. hereat enraged, the spaniard takes up the fellow's musket who he had knocked down, and would have shot him, if i and the rest had not come out, and taken their arms from every one of them. "these englishmen perceiving they had made all of us their enemies, began to cool; but not withstanding their better words the spaniards would not return them their arms again, telling them, 'they would do them no manner of harm, if they would live peaceably; but if they offered any injury to the plantation or castle, they would shoot them as they would do ravenous beasts. this made them so mad, that they went away raging like furies of hell. they were no sooner gone, but in came the two honest men, fired with the justest rage, if such can be, having been ruined as aforesaid. and indeed it was very hard, that nineteen of us should be bullied by three villains, continually offending with impunity. "it was a great while, sir, before we could persuade the two englishmen from pursuing, and undoubtedly killing them with their fire-arms; but we promised them 'justice should be done them, and, in the mean time, they should reside with us in our habitation.' in about five days after, these three vagrants, almost starved with hunger, drew near our grove, and perceiving me, the governor, & two others walking by the side of the creek, they very submissively desired to be received into the family again. we told them of 'their great incivility to us, and of their unnatural barbarity to their countrymen; but yet we would see what the rest agreed to, and in half an hour's time would bring them word.' after some debate, we called them in, where their two countrymen laid a heavy charge against them, for not only ruining, but designing to murder them, which they could not deny. but here i was forced to interpose as a mediator, by obliging the two englishmen not to hurt them, being naked & unarmed, and that the other three should make them restitution, by building their two huts, and fencing their ground in the same manner as it was before. well, being in a miserable condition, they submitted to this at present, and lived some time regularly enough, except as to the working part, which they did not care for, but the spaniards would have dispensed with that, had they continued easy and quiet. their arms being given them again, they scarce had them a week when they became as troublesome as ever; but an accident happening soon after, obliged us to lay aside private resentments, and look to our common preservation. "one night, sir, i went to bed, perfectly well in health, and yet by no means could i compose myself to sleep; upon which, being very uneasy, i got up and looked out, but it being dark, i could perceive nothing but the trees around the castle. i went to bed again, but it was all one, i could not sleep; when one of my spaniards, hearing me walk about, asked who it was up? i answered, _it is i_. when i told him the occasion, _sir_, said he, _such things are not to be slighted; for certainly there is some mischief plotting against us. where are the englishmen?_ said i. he answered _in their huts_; for they lay separate from us, sir, since the last mutiny. _well,_ said i, _some kind spirit gives this information for advantage. come let us go abroad, and see if any thing offers to justify our fears._ upon which i and some of my spaniards went up the mountain, not by the ladder, but through the grove, and then we were struck with a panic fear on seeing a light, as though it were a fire, at a very little distance, and hearing the voices of several men. hereupon we retreated immediately, and raised the rest of our forces, and made them sensible of the impending danger; but with all my authority, i could not make them stay where they were, so earnest were they to see how things went. indeed the darkness of the night gave them opportunity enough to view them by the light of the fire undiscovered. as they were in different parties, and straggling over the shore, we were much afraid that they should find out our habitations, and destroy our flocks of goats: to prevent which, we sent immediately an englishman and two spaniards to drive the goats into the valley where the cave lay; or, if there was occasion, into the cave itself: as to ourselves, resuming our native courage and prudent conduct, had we not been divided, we durst venture to attack an hundred of them; but before it was very light, we resolved to send out friday's father as a spy, who, immediately stripping himself naked, gets among them undiscovered, and in two hours time brings word, that 'they were two parties of two different nations, who lately having a bloody battle with one another, happened to land by mere chance on the same island, to devour their miserable prisoners; that they were entirely ignorant of any person's inhabiting here; but rather filled with rage and fury against one another, he believed, that as soon as day light appeared, there would be a terrible engagement.' old friday had scarce ended his relation, when we heard an uncommon noise, and perceived that there was a horrid engagement between the two armies. "such was the curiosity of our party, especially the englishmen, that they would not lie close, tho' old friday told them, 'their safety depended upon it; and that if we had patience, we should behold the savages kill one another.' however they used some caution, by going farther into the woods, and placing themselves in a convenient place to behold the battle. "never could there be a more bloody engagement, or men of more invincible spirits and prudent conduct, according to their manner and way of fighting. it lasted near two hours, till the party which was nearest our castle began to decline, and at last to fly from their conquerors. we were undoubtedly put into a great consternation on this account, lest they should run into our grove, and consequently bring us into the like danger. hereupon we resolved to kill the first that came, to prevent discovery, and that too with our swords, and the butt end of our muskets, for fear the report of our guns should be heard. "and so indeed, as we thought, it happened; for three of the vanquished army crossing the creek, ran directly to the place, as to a thick wood for shelter; nor was it long before our scout gave us notice of it: as also, that the victors did not think fit to pursue them. upon this i would not suffer them to be slain, but had them surprised and taken by our party; afterwards they proved very good servants to us, being stout young creatures, and able to do a great deal of work. the remainder of the conquered savages fled to their canoes, and put out into the ocean, while the conquerors, joining together, shouted by way of triumph, and about three in the afternoon they also embarked for their own nation. thus we were freed at once from these savages and our fears, not perceiving any of these creatures for some considerable time after. we found two and thirty men dead in the field of battle; some were slain with long arrows, which we found sticking in their bodies; & the rest were killed with great unwieldy wooden swords, which denoted their vast strength, and of which we found seventeen, besides bows and arrows: but we could not find one wounded creature among them alive; for they either kill their enemies quite, or carry those wounded away with them. "this terrible fight tamed the englishmen for some time, considering how unfortunate they might have been had they fallen into their hands, who would not only kill them as enemies, but also for food, as we do cattle; and indeed so much did this nauseate their stomachs, that it not only made them very sick, but more tractable to the common necessary business of the whole society, planting, sowing, and reaping, with the greatest signs of amity and friendship; so, that being now all good friends, we began to consider of circumstances in general; and the first thing we thought of was, whether, as we perceived the savages haunted that side of the island, and there being more retired parts of it, and yet as well suited to our manner of living, and equally to our advantage, we ought not rather to move our place of residence, & plant it in a much safer place, both for the security of our corn and cattle. "after a long debate on this head; it was resolved, or rather voted, _nemine comradicente_, not to remove our ancient castle, and that for this very good reason, that some time or other we expected to hear from our supreme governor, (meaning you, sir) whose messengers not finding us there, might think the place demolished, and all his subjects destroyed by the savages. "as to the next concern relating to our corn and cattle, we consented to have them removed to the valley where the cave was, that being most proper and sufficient for both. but yet when we considered farther, we altered one part of our resolution, which was to remove part of our cattle thither and plant only part of our corn there; so that in case one part was destroyed, the other might be preserved. another resolution we took, which really had a great deal of prudence in it; and that was, in not trusting the three savages whom we had taken prisoners, with any knowledge of the plantations we had made in the valley, of what number of cattle we had there, much less of the cave, wherein we kept several arms, and two barrels of powder you left for us at your departure from this island. but though we could not change our habitation, we resolved to make it more fortified and more secret. to this end, sir, as you planted trees at some distance before the entrance of your palace; so we, imitating your example, planted and filled up the whole space of ground, even to the banks of the creek, nay, into the very ooze where the tide flowed, not leaving a place for landing; and among those i had planted, they had intermingled so many short ones, all of which growing wonderfully fast and thick, a little dog could scarcely find a passage through them. nor was this sufficient, as we thought, for we did the same to all the ground, on the right and left hand of us, even to the top of the hill, without so much as leaving a passage for ourselves, except by the ladder; which being taken down, nothing but what had wings or witchcraft could pretend to come near us. and indeed this was exceedingly well-contrived, especially to serve that occasion for which we afterwards found it necessary. "thus we lived two years in a happy retirement, having, all this time, not one visit from the savages. indeed one morning we had an alarm, which put us in some amazement; for a few of my spaniards being out very early, perceived no less than twenty canoes, as it were coming on shore: upon which returning home, with great precipitation, they gave us the alarm, which obliged us to keep at home all that day and the next, going out only in the night-time to make our observations; but, as good luck would have it, they were upon another design, and did not land that time upon the island. "but now there happened another quarrel between the three wicked englishmen, and some of my spaniards.--the occasion was this: one of them being enraged at one of the savages, whom he had taken prisoner, for not being able to comprehend something which he was showing him, snatched up a hatchet in a great fury not to correct, but to kill him; yet missing his head gave him such a barbarous--cut in the shoulder, that he had like to have struck off his arm; at which one of my good-natured spaniards interposing between the englishman and the savage beseeched the former, not to murder the poor creature, but this kindness had like to have cost the spaniard his life, for the englishman, struck at him in the same manner; which he nimbly and wisely avoiding, returned suddenly upon him with his shovel, (being all at work about their corn land), and very fairly knocked the brutish creature down. hereupon another englishman coming to his fellow's assistance, laid the good spaniard on the earth; when immediately two others coming to his relief were attacked by the third englishman, armed with an old cutlass, who wounded them both. this uproar soon reached our ears, when we rushing out upon them, took the three englishmen prisoners, and then our next question was, what would be done to such mutinous, and impudent fellows, so furious, desperate, and idle, that they were mischievious to the highest degree and consequently not safe for the society to let them live among them. "now, sir, as i was governor in your absence, so i also took the authority of a judge, and, having them brought before me; i told them, that if they had been of my country, i would have hanged every mother's son of them, but since it was an englishman (meaning you, kind sir,) to whom we were indebted for our preservation and deliverance, i would, in gratitude, use them with all possible mildness, but at the same time leave them to the judgment of the other two englishmen who, i hoped, forgetting their resentments, would deal impartially by them.' "hereupon one of his countrymen stood up: _sir_, said he, _leave it not for us, for you may be sensible we have reason to sentence them to the gallows: besides, sir, this fellow, will atkins, and the two others, proposed to us, that we might murder you all in your sleep, which we could not consent to: but knowing their inability, and your vigilance, we did not think fit to discover it before now._ "_how, signor_, said i, _do you hear what is alledged against you? what can you say to justify so horrid an action, as to murder us in cold blood?_ so far, sir, was the wretch from denying it, that he swore, _damn him but he would do it still. but what have we done to you, seignor atkins_, said i, _or what will you gain by killing us? what shall we do to prevent you? must we kill you, or you kill us? why will you seignor atkins,_ said i, smiling, _put us to such an unhappy dilemma, such a fatal necessity?_ but so great a rage did my scoffing and yet severe jest put him into, that he was going to fly at me and undoubtedly had attempted to kill me if he had been possessed of weapons, and had not been prevented by three spaniards. this unparalleled and villainous carriage, made us seriously consider what was to be done. the two englishmen and the spaniard, who had saved the poor indian's life, mightily petitioned me to hang one of them, for an example to the others, which should be him that had twice attempted to commit murder with his hatchet, it being at that time thought impossible the poor slave should recover. but they could never gain my consent to put him to death, for the reasons above mentioned, since it was an englishman (even yourself) who was my deliverer; and as merciful counsels are most prevailing when earnestly pressed, so i got them to be of the same opinion as to clemency. but to prevent them doing us any farther mischief; we all agreed, that they should have no weapons, as sword, gun, powder, or shot, but be expelled from the society, to live as they pleased by themselves; that neither the two englishmen, nor the rest of the spaniards, should have conversation with them upon any account whatsoever; that they should be kept from coming within a certain distance of our castle; and if they dared to offer us any violence, either by spoiling, burning, killing, or destroying any of the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle, belonging to the society, we would shoot them as freely as we would do beasts of prey, in whatsoever places we should find them. "this sentence seemed very just to all but themselves; when, like a merciful judge, i called out to the two honest englishmen, saying, _you must consider they ought not to be starved neither: and since it will be some time before they can raise corn and cattle of their own, let us give them some corn to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by which time they'll raise some for themselves; let us also bestow upon them six milch goats, four he ones, and six kids, as well for their present support, as for a further increase; with tools necessary for their work, as hatchets, an ax, saw, and other things convenient to build them huts:_ all which were agreed: but before they took them into possession, i obliged them solemnly to swear, never to attempt any thing against us, or their countrymen for the future. thus dismissing them from our society, they went away, sullen & refractory, as though neither willing to go nor stay; however seeing no remedy, they took what provision was given them, proposing to choose a convenient place where they might live by themselves. "about five days after, they came to those limits appointed, in order for more victuals, and sent me word by one of my spaniards, whom they called to, where they had pitched their tents; and marked themselves out an habitation and plantation, at the n.e. and most remote part of the island. and, indeed, there they built themselves two very handsome cottages, resembling our little castle, being under the side of a mountain, with some trees already growing on three sides of it; so that planting a few more, it would be obscured from sight, unless particularly sought for. when these huts were finished, we gave them some dry goat-skins for bedding and covering; & upon their giving us fuller assurances of their good behaviour for the future, we gave them some pease, barley, and rice for sowing and whatever tools we could spare. "six months did they live in this separate condition, in which they got their first harvest in, the quantity of which was but small, because they had planted but little land; for, indeed, all their plantations being to form, made it more difficult; especially as it was a thing out of their element; and when they were obliged to make their boards and pots, &c. they could make little or nothing of it. but the rainy season coming on, put them into a greater perplexity for want of a cave to keep their corn dry, and prevent it from spoiling: and so much did this humble them, that they begged of my spaniards to help them, to which the good-natured men readily consented, and in four days space, worked a great hole in the side of the hill for them, large enough for their purpose, to secure their corn and other things from the rain, though not comparable to ours, which had several additional appartments. "but a new whim possessed these rogues about three quarters of a year after, which had like to have ruined us, and themselves too: for it seems, being tired and weary of this sort of living, which made them work for themselves, without hopes of changing their condition, nothing would serve them, but that they would make a voyage to the continent, and try if they could seize upon some of the savages, and bring them over as slaves, to do their drudgery, while they lived at ease and pleasure. "indeed the project was not so preposterous, if they had not gone farther; but they neither did, nor proposed any thing, but what had mischief in the design, or the event. one morning, these three fellows came down to the limited station, and humbly desired to be admitted to talk with us, which we readily granted; they told us in short, that _being tired of their manner of living, and the labour of their hands in such employments, not being sufficient to procure the necessaries of life, they only desired one of the canoes we came over in, with some arms and ammunition for their defence, and they would seek their fortunes abroad, and never trouble us any more._ to be sure we were glad enough to get rid of such wretched plagues; but yet honesty made us ingenuously represent to them, by what we ourselves had suffered, the certain destruction they were running into, either of being starved to death or murdered by the savages. to this they very audaciously replied, _that they neither could nor would work: and consequently that they might as well be starved abroad as at home: & neither had they any wives or children to cry after them: nay, so intent were they upon their voyage, that if the spaniards had not given them arms, so they had but the canoe they would have gone without them._ "though we could not well spare our fire arms, rather than they should go like naked men, we let them have two muskets, a pistol, a cutlass, and three hatchets, which were thought very sufficient: we gave them also goat's flesh, a great basket full of dried grapes, a pot of fresh butter, a young live kid, and a large canoe sufficient to carry twenty men. and thus, with a mast made of a long pole, and a sail of six large goat-skins dried, having a fair breeze, and a flood-tide with them, they merrily sailed away, the spaniards calling after them, _bon voyaje_, no man ever expecting to see them more. "when they were gone, the spaniards and englishmen would often say to one another, _o how peaceably do we now live, since these turbulent fellows have left us!_ nothing could be farther from their thoughts than to behold their faces any more; and yet scarce two and twenty days had passed over their heads, but one of the englishmen, being abroad a planting, perceived at a distance, three men well armed, approaching towards him. away he flies with speed to our castle, and tells me and the rest, that we were all undone, for that strangers were landed upon the island, and who they were he could not tell; but added that they were not savages but men habited, bearing arms. _why then,_ said i, _we have the less occasion to be concerned, since, if they were not indians, they must be friends; for i am sure there is no christian people upon earth, but what will do us good rather than harm._ but while we were considering of the event, up came the three englishmen, whose voices we quickly knew, and so all our admiration of that nature ceased at once. and our wonder was succeeded by another sort of inquiry, which was, what could be the occasion of their returning so quickly to the island, when we little expected, and much less desired their company? but as this was better to be related by themselves, i ordered them to be brought in, when they gave me the following relation of their voyage. "after two days sail, or something less, they reached land, where they found the people coming to give them another sort of reception than what they expected or desired; for, as the savages were armed with bows and arrows, they durst not venture on shore, but steered northward, six or seven hours, till they gained an opening, by which they plainly perceived, that the land that appeared from this place, was not the main land, but an island. at their entrance into the opening of the sea, they discovered another island, on the right hand northward, and several more lying to the westward; but being resolved to go on shore some where or other, they put over to one of the western islands. here they found the natives very courteous to them, giving them several roots and dried fish; nay, even their women too were as willing to supply them with what they could procure them to eat, bringing it a great way to them upon their heads. among these hospitable indians they continued some days, inquiring by signs and tokens, what nations lay around them; and were informed, that there were, several fierce and terrible people lived every way, accustomed to eat mankind; but for themselves they never used such diet, except those that were taken in battle, and of them they made a solemn feast. "the englishmen inquired how long it was since they had a feast of that kind? they answered, _about two moons ago_, pointing to the moon, and then two fingers; that, _at this time, their king had two hundred prisoners, which were fattening up for the slaughter_. the englishmen were mighty desirous of seeing the prisoners, which the others mistaking, thought that they wanted some of them for their own food: upon which they beckoned to them, pointing to the rising, and then to the setting of the sun; meaning, that by the time it appeared in the east next morning, they would bring them some: and indeed they were as good as their word; for by that time they brought eleven men & five women, just as so many cows & oxen are brought to sea-port towns to victual a ship. but as brutish as these englishmen were, their stomachs turned at the sight. what to do in this case, they could not tell: to refuse the prisoner, would have been the highest affront offered to the savage gentry; and to dispose of them, they knew not, in what manner; however, they resolved to accept them, and so gave them, in return, one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets; things which, tho' they were wholly ignorant of, yet of seemed entirely contented with; & dragging the poor wretches into the boat, with their hands bound behind them, delivered them to the englishmen. but this obliged them to put off as soon as they had these presents, lest the donors should have expected two or three of them to be killed, and to be invited to dinner the next day; and so taking leave with all possible respect and thanks, though neither of them understood what the others said, they sailed away back to the first island, and there set eight of the prisoners at liberty. in their voyage they endeavoured to comfort, and have some conversation with the poor captives; but it was impossible to make them sensible of any thing; and nothing they could say or give, or do for them, could make them otherwise persuaded, but that they were unbound only to be devoured: if they gave them any food, they thought it was only to fatten them for the slaughter; or looked at any one more particularly, the poor creature supposed itself to be the 'first sacrifice'; and even when we brought them to our island, and began to use them with the greatest humanity and kindness, yet they expected every day that their new masters would devour them. "and thus, sir, did these three strange wanderers conclude their unaccountable relation of their voyage, which was both amazing and entertaining. hereupon, i asked them, where there new family was? they told me _they had put them into one of their huts, and they came to beg some victuals for them_. this, indeed, made us all long to see them; and taking friday's father with us, leaving only two at our castle, we came down to behold these poor creatures. "when we arrived at the hut, (they being bound again by the englishmen, for fear of escaping) we found them stark naked, expecting their fatal tragedy: there were three lusty men, well shaped, with straight and good limbs, between thirty and five and thirty years old; and five women, two of them might be from thirty to forty, two more not above four and twenty; and the last, a comely tall maiden of about seventeen. indeed, all the women were very agreeable, both in proportion and features, except that they were tawny, which their modest behaviour, and other graces, made amends for, when they afterwards came to be clothed. "this naked appearance, together with their miserable circumstances, was no very comfortable sight to my spaniards, who, for their parts, i may venture, sir, without flattery, to say, are men of the best behaviour, calmest tempers, and sweetest nature, that can possibly be; for they immediately ordered friday's father to see if he knew any of them, or if he understood what they could say. no sooner did the old indian appear, but he looked at them with great seriousness; yet, as they were not of his nation, they were utter strangers to him, and none could understand his speech or signs, but one woman. this was enough to answer the design, which was to assure them they would not be killed, being fallen into the hands of christians, who abhorred such barbarity. when they were fully satisfied of this, they expressed their joy by such strange gestures, and uncommon tones, as it is not possible for me to describe. but the woman their interpreter, was ordered next to enquire, whether they were content to be servants, and would work for the men who had brought them hither to save their lives? hereupon, (being at this time unbound) they fell a capering and dancing, one taking this thing upon her shoulders, and the other that, intimating, that they were willing to do any thing for them. but now, sir, having women among us, and dreading that it might occasion some strife, if not blood, i asked the three men 'what they would do, and how they intended to use these creatures, whether as servants or women?' one of them very pertly and readily answered, 'they would use them as both,' _gentlemen_, said i _as you are your own masters, i am not going to restrain you from that; but methinks, for avoiding dissentions among you, i would only desire you to engage, that none of you will take more than one for a woman or wife, and that having taken this one, none else should presume to touch her; for though we have not yet a priestly authority to marry you, yet it is but reasonable, that whoever thus takes a woman, should be obliged to maintain her, since nobody has any thing to do with her_; and this, indeed, appeared so just to all present, that it was unanimously agreed to. the englishmen then asked my spaniards, 'whether they designed to take any of them? but they all answered, _no_; some declaring they had already wives in spain; and others that they cared not to join with infidels. on the reverse, the englishmen took each of them a temporary wife, and so set up a new method of living. as to friday's father, the spaniards, and the three savage servants we had taken in the late battle, they all lived with me in our ancient castle; and indeed we supplied the main part of the island with food, as necessity required. but the most remarkable part of the story is, how these englishmen, who had been so much at variance, should agree about the choice of those women; yet they took a way good enough to prevent quarreling among themselves. they let the five women in one of their huts, and going themselves to the other, drew lots which should have the first choice. now, he that had the first lot went to the hut, and fetched out her he chose; and it is remarkable, that he took her that was the most homely and eldest of the number, which made the rest of the englishmen exceedingly merry; the spaniards themselves could not help but smile at it; but as it happened, the fellow had the best thought, in choosing one fit for application and business; and indeed she proved the best wife of all the parcel. "but when the poor creatures perceived themselves placed in a row, and separated one by one, they were again seized with an unspeakable terror, as now thinking they were going to be slain in earnest; and when the englishmen came to take the first, the rest set up a lamentable cry, clasped their arms around her neck, and hanging about her, took their last farewell, as they thought, in such trembling agonies, and affectionate embraces, as would have softened the hardest heart in the world, and made the driest eyes melt into tears; nor could they be persuaded but that they were going to die, till such time as friday's father made them sensible that the englishmen had chosen them for their wives, which ended all their terror and concern upon this occasion. "well, after this, the englishmen went to work, and being assisted by my good natured spaniards, in a few hours they, erected every one of them a new hut or tent for their separate lodging, since those they had already were, filled with tools, household stuff, and provision. they all continued on the north shore of the island, but separate as before; the three wicked ones pitching farther off, and the two honest men nearer our castle; so that the island seemed to be peopled in three places, three towns beginning to be built for that purpose. and here i cannot but remark, what is very common, that the two honest men had the worst wives, (i mean as to industry, cleanliness, and ingenuity) while the three reprobates enjoyed women of quite contrary qualities. "but another observation i made was, in favour of the two honest men, to show what disparity there is between a diligent application to business, on the one hand, and a slothful negligent, and idle temper, on the other. both of them had the same parcel of ground laid out, and corn to sow, sufficient either in their cultivation or their planting. the two honest men had a multitude of young trees planted about their habitations, so that when you approached near them, nothing appeared but a wood, very pleasing and delightful. every thing they did prospered and flourished: their grapes, planted in order, seemed as though managed in a vineyard and were infinitely preferable to any of the others. nor were they wanting to find out a place of retreat, but dug a cave in the most retired part of a thick wood, to secure their wives and children, with their provision and chiefest goods, surrounded with innumerable stakes, and having a most subtle entrance, in case any mischief should happen either from their fellow countrymen, or the devouring savages. "as to the reprobates, (though i must own they were much more civilized than before) instead of delightful wood surrounding their dwellings, we found the words of king solomon too truly verified: _i went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it was all overgrown with thorns_. in many places their crop was obliterated by weeds: the hedges having several gaps in them, the wild goats had got in, and eaten up the corn, and here and there was a dead bush to stop these gaps for the present, which was no more than shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen away. but as to their wives, they (as i observed before) were more diligent, and cleanly enough, especially in their victuals, being instructed by one of the honest men, who had been a cook's mate on board a ship: & very well it was so, for as he cooked himself, his companion and their families lived as well as the idle husbands, who did nothing but loiter about, fetch turtle's eggs, catch fish and birds, and do any thing but work, and lived accordingly; while the diligent lived very handsomely and plentifully, in the most comfortable manner. "and now, sir, i come to lay before your eyes a scene quite different from any thing that ever happened to us before, and perhaps ever befel you in all the time of your residence on this island. i shall inform you of its original in the following manner. "one morning, sir, very early, there came five or six canoes of indians on shore, indisputably upon their old custom of devouring their prisoners. all that we had to do upon such an occasion, was to lie concealed, that they, not having any notice of inhabitants, might depart quietly after performing their bloody execution: whoever first discovered the savages, was to give notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and then a proper scout was to be placed to give intelligence of their departure. but notwithstanding these wise measures, an unhappy disaster discovered us to the savages, which was like to have caused the desolation of the whole island; for, after the savages were gone off in their canoes, some of my spaniards and i looking abroad; and being inflamed with a curiosity to see what they had been doing, to our great amazement beheld three savages fast asleep on the ground, who, either being gorged, could not awake when the others went off, or having wandered too far into the woods, did not come back in time. "what to do with them as first, we could not tell; as for slaves we had enough of them already; and as to killing them, neither christianity or humanity would suffer us to shed the blood of persons who never did us wrong. we perceived they had no boat left them to transport them to their own nation; and that, by letting them wander about, they might discover us, and inform the first savages that should happen to land upon the same bloody occasion, which information might entirely ruin us; and therefore i counselled my spaniards to secure them, and set them about some work or other, till we could better dispose of them. "hereupon we all went back, and making them awake, took them prisoners. it is impossible to express the horror they were in, especially when bound, as thinking they were going to be murdered and eaten, but we soon eased them of their fear as to that point. we first took them to the bower, where the chief of our country work lay as keeping goats, planting corn, &c and then carried them to the two englishmen's habitation, to help them in their business; but happy it was for us all we did not carry them to our castle, as by the sequel will appear. the englishmen, indeed, found them work to do; but whether they did not guard them strictly, or that they thought they could not better themselves, i cannot tell; but certainly one of them ran away into the woods, and they could not hear of him for a long time after. "undoubtedly there was reason enough to suppose he got home in some of the canoes, the savages returning in about four weeks time, and going off in the space of two days. you may be certain, sir, this thought could not but terrify us exceedingly, and make us justly conclude, that the savage would inform his countrymen of our abode in the island, how few and weak we were in comparison to their numbers & we expected it would not be long before the englishmen would be attacked in their habitations; but the savages had not seen their places of safety in the woods, nor our castle, which it was a great happiness they did not know. "nor were we mistaken in our thoughts upon this occasion: for, about eight months after this, six canoes, with about ten men in each canoe, came sailing by the north side of the island, which they were never accustomed to do before, and landed about an hour after sunrise, near a mile from the dwelling of the two englishman, who, it seems, had the good fortune to discover them about a league off: to that it was an hour before they could come at them. and now being confirmed in this opinion that they were certainly betrayed, they immediately bound the two slaves which were left, causing two of the three men, whom they brought with the women, and who proved very faithful to lead them with their wives, and other conveniences, into their retired care in the wood, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot till they had further orders. they then opened their fences, where they kept their milch goats, and drove them all out, giving the goats liberty to ramble in the woods, to make the savages believe that they were wild ones; but the slave had given a truer information, which made them come to the very inclosures. the two frighted men sent the other slave of the three, who had been with them by accident, to alarm the spaniards, and desire their assistance; in the mean time they took their arms and ammunition, and made to the cave where they had sent their wives, and securing their slaves, seated themselves in a private place, from whence they might behold all the actions of the savages. nor had they gone far, when ascending a rising ground, they could see a little army of indians approach to their beautiful dwelling, and in a few moments more, perceive the same, and their furniture, to their unspeakable grief, burning in a consuming flame, and when this war done, they spread here and there, searching every bush and place for the people, of whom it was very evident, they had information. upon which the two englishmen, not thinking themselves secure where they stood, retreated about half a mile higher in the country, rightly concluding, that the farther the savages strolled, there would be less numbers together: upon which they next took their stand by the trunk of an old tree, very hollow and large, whence they resolved to see what would offer: but they had not stood long there, before two savages came running directly towards them, as though having knowledge of their being there, who seemed resolved to attack them; a little farther were three more, and five more behind them again, all running the same way. it cannot be imagined the perplexity the poor men were in at this sight, thinking that if assistance did not speedily come their cave in the wood would be discovered, and consequently all therein lost; so they resolved to resist them there, and, when overpowered, to ascend to the top of the trees, where they might defend themselves as long as their ammunition lasted, and sell their lives as dear as possible to those devouring savages. thus fixed in their resolution, they next considered, whether they should fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the middle party, by which the two first & the five last would be separated. in this regulation the two savages also confirmed them, by turning a little to another part of the wood: but the three, & the five after them, came directly towards the tree. hereupon they resolved to take them in a direct line, as they approached nearer, because perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; and upon this occasion, the man who was to fire, charged his piece with three or four bullets. and thus while they were waiting, the savages came on, one of them was the runaway, who had caused all the mischief; so they resolved he should not escape, if they both fired at once. but, however, though they did not fire together, they were ready charged; when the first that let fly, was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for he killed the foremost outright, the second (_who was the runaway indian_) fell to the ground, being shot through the body, but not dead and the third was a little wounded in the shoulder, who, sitting down on the ground, fell a screaming in a most fearful manner. the noise of the guns, which not only made the most resounding echoes, from one side to the other, but raised the birds of all sorts, fluttering with the most confused noise, so much terrified the five savages behind that they stood still at first, like so many inanimate images. but when all things were in profound silence, they came to the place where there companions lay; and here, not being sensible that they were liable to the same fate, stood over the wounded man, undoubtedly inquiring the occasion of this sad calamity; and 'tis as reasonable to suppose he told them, that it came by thunder and lightning from the gods, having never seen or heard of a gun before, in the whole course of their lives. by this time the englishmen, having loaded their pieces, fired both together a second time, when seeing them all fall immediately on the ground, they thought they had killed every creature of them. this made them come up boldly before they had charged their guns, which indeed was a wrong step; for, when they came to the place, they found four alive, two of them very little wounded, and one not at all, which obliged them to fall upon them with their muskets: they first knocked the runaway savage on the head, and another that was but a little wounded in the arm, & then put the other languishing wretches out of their pain: while he that was not hurt, with bended knees and uplifted hands, made piteous moans, and signs to them to spare his life; nor, indeed, were they unmerciful to the poor wretch, but pointed to him to sit down at the root of a tree hard by; and then, one of the englishmen, with a piece of rope twine he had in his pocket, by mere chance, tying his two feet fast together, and his two hands behind him, they left him there, making all the haste they could after the other two, fearing they should find out their cave; but though they could not overtake them, they had the satisfaction to perceive them at a distance, cross a valley towards the sea, a quite contrary way to their retreat: upon which they returned to the tree, to look after their prisoner; but when they came there, he was gone, leaving the piece of rope-yarn, wherewith he was bound, behind him. "well, now they were as much concerned as ever, as not knowing how near their enemies might be, or in what numbers. immediately they repaired to the cave, to see if all was well there, and found every thing safe, except the women, who were frightened upon their husbands account, whom they now loved entirely. they had not been long here, before seven of my spaniards came to assist them; while the other ten, their servants, and friday's father, were gone to defend their bower, corn, and cattle, in case the savages should have rambled so far. there accompanied the seven spaniards, one of the three savages that had formerly been taken prisoner; and with them also that very indian whom the englishmen had, a little before, left under the tree; for it seems, they passed by that way where the slaughter was made, and so carried along with them that poor wretch that was left bound. but so many prisoners now becoming a burthen to us, and fearing the dreadful consequence of their escaping, most of the spaniards and english urged the absolute necessity there was of killing them for our common preservation; but, sir, the authority i bore, as a governor, over-ruled that piece of cruelty; and then i ordered them to be sent prisoners to the old cave in the valley, bound hands and feet, with two spaniards to guard them. "so much encouraged were the englishmen at the approach of the spaniards, and so great was their fury against the savages for destroying their habitations, that they had not patience to stay any longer; but, taking five spaniards along with them, armed with four muskets, a pistol, and a quarter staff, away they went in pursuit of their enemies. as they passed by the place where the savages were slain, it was very easy to be perceived that more of them had been there, having attempted to carry off their dead bodies, but found it impracticable. from a rising ground our party had the mortification to see the smoke that proceeded from their ruins; when coming farther in flight of the shore, they plainly perceived that the savages had embarked in their canoes, and were putting out to sea. this they were very sorry for, there being no coming at them to give them a parting salute, but however, they were glad enough to get clear of such unwelcome guests. "thus the two honest, but unfortunate englishmen, being ruined a second time, and their improvements quite destroyed, most of my good natured spaniards helped them to rebuild, and we all assisted them with needful supplies; nay, what is more remarkable, their three mischievous countrymen, when they heard of it _(which was after all these disasters were over, they living more remote eastward)_ very friendly sympathised with them, and worked for them several days; so that, in a little, their habitations were rebuilt, their necessities supplied, and themselves restored to their former tranquility. "though the savages had nothing to boast of in this adventure, _(several canoes being driven ashore, followed by two drowned creatures, having undoubtedly met with a storm at sea that very night they departed)_ yet it was natural to be supposed, that those whose better fortune it was to attain their native shore, would inflame their nation to another ruinous attempt, with a greater force, to carry all before them. and, indeed, so it happened: for about seven months after, our island was invaded with a most formidable navy, no less than eight and twenty canoes full of savages, armed with wooden swords, monstrous clubs, bows and arrows, and such like instruments of war, landing at the east end of the island. "you may well, sir, imagine what consternation our men were in upon this account, and how speedy they were to execute their resolution, having only that night's time allowed them. they knew that since they could not withstand their enemies, concealment was the only way to procure their safety; and, therefore, they took down the huts that were built for the two englishmen, and drove their flocks of goats together with their own at the bower, to the old cave in the valley, leaving as little appearance of inhabitants as possible; and then posted themselves, with all their force, at the plantation of the two men. as they expected, so it happened: for early the next morning, the indians, leaving their canoes at the east-end of the island, came running along the shore, about two hundred and fifty in number, as near as could be guessed. our army was but little indeed; and what was our greatest misfortune, we had not arms sufficient for them. the account, as to the men, sir, is an follows: viz. 17 _spaniards_, 5 _englishmen, old friday, the three savages, taken with the five women, who proved faithful servants, and three other slaves, living with the spaniards. to arm these they had_ 11 _muskets_, 5 _pistols_, 3 _fowling-pieces_, 2 _swords_, 3 _old halberts_, 5 _muskets, or fowling-pieces, taken from the sailors whom you reduced. as to the slaves, we gave three of them halberts, and the other three long staves, with great iron spikes at the end of them, with hatchets by their sides; we also had hatchets sticking in our girdles, besides the fire-arms: nay, two of the women, inspired with amazonian fortitude, could not be dissuaded from fighting along with their dear husbands, and if they died, to die with them, seeing their resolution, we gave them hatchets likewise; but what pleased them best, were the bows and arrows (which they dexterously knew how to use) that the indians had left behind them, after their memorable battle one against another_. "over this army, which though little, was of great intrepidity, i was constituted chief general and commander: and knowing will atkins, though exceedingly wicked, yet a man of invincible courage, i gave him the power of commanding under me: he had six men with their muskets loaded with six or seven bullets a-piece, and were planted just behind a small thicket of bushes, as an advanced guard, having orders to let the first pass by; and then, when he fired into the middle of them, making a nimble retreat round a part of the wood, and so come in the rear of the spaniards, who were shaded by a thicket of trees: for though the savages came on with the fierceness of lions, yet they wanted the subtility of foxes, being out of all manner of order, and straggling in heaps every way: and, indeed, when will atkins, after fifty of the savages had passed by, had ordered three of his men to give fire, so great was their consternation, to see so many men killed and wounded, and hear such a dreadful noise, and yet knew not whence it came, that they were frightened to the highest degree: and when the second volley was given, they concluded no less but that their companions were slain by thunder and lightning from heaven. in this notion they would have continued, had will atkins and his men retired, as soon as they fired, according to order: or had the rest been near them, to pour in their shot continually, their might have been a complete victory obtained: but staying to load their pieces again, discovered the whole matter. they were perceived by some of the scattering savages at a distance, who let fly their arrows among them, wounded atkins himself, and killed his fellow englishman, and one of the indians taken with the women. our party did not fail to answer them, and in their retreat killed about twenty savages. here i cannot but take notice of our poor dying slave, who, tho' stopt from his retreat by a fatal arrow, yet with his staff and hatchet, desperately and gallantly assailed his pursuers, and killed five of the savages, before his life submitted to a multiplicity of wounds. nor is the cruelty or malice of the indians to be less remarked, in breaking the arms, legs, and heads of the two dead bodies, with their clubs and wooden swords, after a most wretched manner. as atkins retreated our party advanced, to interpose between him and the savages: but after three vollies, we were obliged to retreat also: for they were so numerous and desperate, that they came up to our very teeth, shot their arrows like a cloud, and their wounded men, enraged with cruel pain, fought like madmen. they did not, however, think fit to follow us, but drawing themselves up in a circle, they gave two triumphant shouts in token of victory, though they had the grief to see several of their wounded men bleed to death before them. "after i had, sir, drawn up our little army together, upon a rising ground, atkins, wounded as he was, would have had us attack the whole body of the savages at once, i was extremely well pleased with the gallantry of the man: but, upon consideration, i replied, _you perceive, seignor atkins, how their wounded men fight; let them alone till morning, when they will be faint, stiff, and sore, and then we shall have fewer to combat with_. to which atkins, smiling, replied, _that's very true, seignor, so shall i too; and that's the reason i would fight them now i am warm_. we all answered, _seignor atkins for your part you have behaved very gallantly; and, if you are not able to approach the enemy in the morning, we will fight for you, till then we think it convenient to wait_, and so we tarried. "by the brightness of the moon that night, we perceived the savages in great disorder about their dead and wounded men. this made us change our resolution, and resolve to fall upon them in the night, if we could give them one volley undiscovered. this we had a fair opportunity to do, by one of the two englishmen leading us round, between the woods and the sea-side westward, and turning short south, came privately to a place where the thickest of them were. unheard and unperceived, eight of us fired among them, and did dreadful execution; and in half a minute after, eight more of us let fly, killing and wounding abundance of them; and then dividing ourselves into three bodies, eight persons in each body we marched from among the trees, to the very teeth of the enemy, sending forth the greatest shouts and acclamations. the savages hearing a different noise from three quarters at once, stood in the utmost confusion; but coming in sight of us, let fly a volley of arrows, which wounded poor old friday, yet happily it did not prove mortal. we did not, however, give them a second opportunity; but rushing in among them, we fired three several ways, and then fell to work with our swords, staves, hatchets, and the butt-end of our muskets, with a fury not to be resisted; so that with the most dismal screaming and howling they had recourse to their feet, to save their lives by a speedy flight. nor must we forget the valour of the two women; for they exposed themselves to the greatest dangers, killed many with their arrows, and valiantly destroyed several more with their hatchets. "in fighting these two battles, we were so much tired, that we did not then trouble ourselves to pursue them to their canoes, in which we thought they would presently put to the ocean; but their happening a dreadful storm at sea, which continuing all that night, it not only prevented their voyage, but dashed several of their boats to pieces against the beach, and drove the rest so high upon the shore, that it required infinite labour to get them off. after our men had taken some refreshment and a little repose, they resolved early in the morning to go towards the place of their landing, and see whether they were gone off, or in what posture they remained. this necessarily led them to the place of battle, where several of the savages were expiring, a sight no way pleasing to generous minds, to delight in misery, though obliged to conquer them by the law of arms; but our own indian slaves put them out of their pain, by dispatching them with their hatchets. at length, coming in view of the remainder of the army, we found them leaning upon their knees, which were bended towards their mouth, and the head between the two hands. hereupon, coming within musket shot of them, i ordered two pieces to be fired without ball, in order to alarm them, that we might plainly know, whether they had the courage to venture another battle, or were utterly dispirited from such an attempt, that so we might accordingly manage them. and indeed, the prospect took very well; for, no sooner did the savages hear the first gun, and perceive the flash of the second, but they suddenly started upon their feet in the greatest consternation; and when we approached towards them, they ran howling and screaming away up the hill into the country. "we could rather, at first, have wished, that the weather had permitted them to have gone off to the sea; but when we considered, that their escape might occasion the approach of multitudes, to our utter ruin and dissolution; we were very well pleased the contrary happened; and will atkins (who, tho' wounded, would not part from us all this while) advised us not to let slip this advantage, but clapping between them and their boats, deprive them of the capacity of ever returning to plague the island: _i know_, said he, _there is but on objection you can make, which is, that these creatures, living like beasts in the wood, may make excursions, rifle the plantations, and destroy the tame goats; but then, consider, we had better to do with an hundred men whom we can kill, or make slaves of at leisure, than with an hundred nations, whom it is impossible we should save ourselves from, much less subdue_. this advice, and these arguments being approved of, we set fire to their boats; and though they were so wet that we could not burn them entirely, yet we made them incapable for swimming in the seas. as soon as the indians perceived what we were doing, many of them ran out of the woods, in fight of us, and kneeling down, piteously cried out, _oa, oa! waramakoa_. intimating, i suppose, that, if we would but spare their canoes, they would never trouble us again. "but all their complaints, submissions, and entreaties, were in vain; for self-preservation obliging us to the contrary, we destroyed every one of them that had escaped the fury of the ocean. when the indians perceived this, they raised a lamentable cry, and ran into the woods, where they continued ranging about; making the woods ring with their lamentation. here we should have considered, that making these creatures, thus desperate, we ought, at the same time to have set a sufficient guard upon the plantations: for the savages, in their ranging about, found out the bower, destroyed the fences, trod the corn down under their feet, and tore up the vines and grapes. it is true, we were always able to fight these creatures; but, as they were too swift for us, and very numerous, we durst not go out single, for fear of them; though that too was needless, they having no weapons, nor any materials to make them; and, indeed, their extremity appeared in a little time after. [illustration: the spaniard, &c. burning the indian canoes. _dr. & eng. by a. carse, edin._] "though the savages, as already mentioned, had destroyed our bower, and all our corns, grapes, &c. yet we had still left our flock of cattle in the valley, by the cave, with some little corn that grew there, and the plantation of will atkins and his companions, one of whom being killed by an arrow, they were now reduced to two: it is remarkable that this was the fellow who cut the poor indian with his hatchet, and had design to murder me and my countrymen the spaniards. as our condition was low, we came to the resolution to drive the savages up to the farther part of the island, where no indians landed, to kill as many of them as we could, till we had reduced their number; and then to give the remainder some corn to plant, and to teach them how to live by their daily labour, accordingly we pursued them with our guns, at the hearing of which they were so terrified, that they would fall to the ground. every day we killed and wounded some of them, and many were found starved to death, so that our hearts began to relent at the sight of such miserable objects. at last, with great difficulty, taking one of them alive, and using him with kindness, & tenderness, we brought him to old friday, who talked to him, & told him how good we would be to them all, giving them corn and land to plant and live in, and present nourishment, provided they should keep within such bounds as should be allotted them, and not do prejudice to others: _go then_, said he, _and inform your countrymen of this; which, if they will not agree to, every one of them shall be slain_. "the poor creatures, thoroughly humbled, being reduced to about thirty-seven, joyfully accepted the offer, and earnestly begged for food; hereupon we sent twelve spaniards and two englishmen well armed, together with old friday, and three indian slaves were loaded with a large quantity of bread and rice cakes, with three live goats: and the poor indians being ordered to sit down on the side of the hill, they ate the victuals very thankfully, and have proved faithful to the last, never trespassing beyond their bounds, where at this day they quietly and happily remain, and where we now and then visit them. they are confined to a neck of land about a mile and a half broad, and three or four in length, on the south-east corner of the island, the sea being before, and lofty mountains behind them, free from the appearance of canoes; and indeed their countrymen never made any inquiry after them. we gave them twelve hatchets, and three or four knives; have taught them to build huts, make wooden spades, plant corn, make bread, breed tame goats and milk them, as likewise to make wicker work, in which i must ingenuously confess, they infinitely out do us, having made themselves several pretty necessaries and fancies, as baskets, sieves, bird-cages, and cupboards, as also stools, beds and couches, no less useful than delightful; and now they live the most innocent and inoffensive creatures that ever were subdued in the world, wanting nothing but wives to make them a nation. "thus, kind sir, have i given you, according to my ability, an impartial account of the various transactions that have happened, in the island since your departure to this day; and we have great reason to acknowledge the kind providence of heaven in our merciful deliverance. when you inspect your little kingdom, you will find in it some little improvement, your flocks increased, and your subjects augmented, so that from a desolate island, as this was before your wonderful deliverance upon it, here is a visible prospect of its becoming a populous and well governed little kingdom, to your immortal fame and glory." there is no doubt to suppose but that the preceeding relation of my faithful spaniard was very agreeable and no less surprising to me, to the young priest, and to all who heard it: now were these people less pleased with those necessary utensils that i brought them, such as the knives, scissars, spades, shovels, and pick-axes, with which they now adorn their habitations. so much had they addicted themselves to wicker-work, prompted by the ingenuity of the indians, who assisted them, that when i viewed the englishmen's colonies, they seemed at a distance as though they had lived like bees in a hive: for will atkins, who was now become a very industrious and sober man, had made himself a tent of basket-work round the outside; the walls were worked in as a basket, in pannels or strong squares of thirty-two in number, standing about seven feet high: in the middle was another, not above twenty-two paces round, but much stronger built, being of an octagonal form, and in the eight corners stood eight strong poles, round the top of which he raised a pyramid for the roof, mighty pretty, i assure you, and joined very well together, with iron spikes, which he made himself; for he had made him a forge, with a pair of wooden bellows and charcoal for his work, forming an anvil cut of one of the iron crows, to work upon, and in the manner would he make himself hooks, staples, spikes, bolts, and hinges. after he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he made it so firm between the rafters with basket-work, thatching that over again with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or slated. the outer circuit was covered as a lean-to, quite round this inner appartment, laying long rafters from the thirty-two angles to the top posts of the inner house, about twenty-feet distant, so that there was a space like a wall between the outer and inner wall, near twenty feet in breadth. the inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker-work, dividing it into six neat apartments every one of which had a door, first into the entry of the main tent, and another into the space and walk that was round it, not only convenient for retreat, but for family necessaries. within the door of the outer circle, there was a passage directly to the door of the inner house; on either side was a wicker partition, and a door, by which you go into a room twenty-two feet wide, and about thirty long, and through that into another of a smaller length; so that in the outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were only to be come at through the apartments of the inner tent, serving as retiring rooms to the respective chambers of the inner circle, and four large warehouses, which went in through one another, two on either hand of the passage that led through the outer door to the inner tent. in short, nothing could be built more ingeniously, kept more neat, or have better conveniences; and here lived the three families, will atkins, his companion, their wives and children, and the widow of the deceased. as to religion, the men seldom taught their wives the knowledge of god, any more than the sailors' custom of swearing by his name. the greatest improvement their wives had, was, they taught them to speak english, so as to be understood. none of their children were then above six years old; they were all fruitful enough; and i think the cook's mate's wife was big of her sixth child. when i inquired of the spaniards about their circumstances while among the savages, they told me, _that they abandoned themselves to despair, reckoning themselves a poor and miserable people, that had no means put into their hands, and consequently must soon be starved to death._ they owned, however, that they were in the wrong to think so, and for refusing the assistance that reason offered for their support, as well as future deliverance, confessing that grief was a most insignificant passion, as it looked upon things as without remedy, and having no hope of things to come; all which verified this noted proverb, _in trouble to be troubled, is to have your trouble doubled._ nor did his remarks end here, for, making observations upon my improvement, and on my condition at first, infinitely worse than theirs, he told me that englishmen had, in their distress, greater presence of mind than those of any other country that he had met with; and that they and the portuguese were the worst men in the world to struggle under misfortunes. when they landed among the savages, they found but little provision except they would turn cannibals, there being but a few roots and herbs, with little substance in them, and of which the natives gave them but very sparingly. many were the ways they took to civilize and teach the savages, but in vain; for they would not own them to be their instructors, whose lives were owing to their bounty. their extremities were very great and many days being entirely without food, the savages there being more indolent and less devouring than those who had better supplies. when they went out to battle they were obliged to assist these people, in one of which my faithful spaniard being taken, had like to have been devoured. they had lost their ammunition, which rendered their fire-arms useless; nor could they use the bows and arrows that were given them, so that while the armies were at a distance, they had no chance but when close, then they could be of service with halberts, & sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets. they made themselves targets of wood covered with the skins of wild beasts; and when one happened to be knocked down, the rest of the company fought over him till he recovered; and then standing close in a line, they would make their way through a thousand savages. at the return of their friend, who they thought had been entombed in the bowels of their enemies, their joy was inconceivable. nor were they less surprised at the sight of the loaves of bread i had sent them, things that they had not seen for several years, at the same time crossing and blessing it, as though it was manna sent from heaven: but when they knew the errand, and perceived the boat which was to carry them back to the person and place from whence such relief came, this struck them with such a surprise of joy as made some of them faint away, and others burst out into tears. this was the summary account that i had from them. i shall now inform the reader what i next did for them, and in what condition i left them. as we were all of opinion that the savages would scarce trouble them any more, so we had no apprehensions on the score. i told them i was come purely to establish, and not to remove them; and upon that occasion, had not only brought them necessaries for convenience and defence, but also artificers, and other persons, both for their necessary employments, and to add to their number. they were altogether when i thus talked to them; and before i delivered to them the stores i brought, i asked them, one by one, if they had entirely forgot their first animosities, would engage in the strictest friendship; and shake hands with one another? on this will atkins, with abundance of good humour, said, _they had afflictions enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends: as for himself, he would live and die among them, owning that what the spaniards had done to him, his own mad humour had made necessary for them to do_. nor had the spaniards occasion to justify their proceeding to me; but they told me, _that since will atkins had behaved himself so valiantly in fight, and at other times showed such a regard to the common interest of them all, they had not only forgotten all that was past, but thought he ought as much to be trusted with arms and necessaries as any of them, which they testified by making him next in command to the governor: and they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving me this solemn assurance, that they would never separate their interest again, as long as they lived_. after these kind declarations of friendship, we appointed all of us to dine together the next day; upon this i caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore for that purpose, to assist in dressing our dinner. we brought from the ship six pieces of beef, and four of pork, together with our punch bowl, and materials to fill it; and in particular i gave them ten bottles of french claret, and ten of english beer, which was very acceptable to them. the spaniards added to our feast, five whose kids, which being roasted, three of them were sent as fresh meat to the sailors on board, and the other two we ate ourselves. after our merry and innocent feast was over, i began to distribute my cargo among them. first, i gave them linen sufficient to make every one four shirts, and at the spaniard's request made them up six. the thin english stuffs i allotted to make every one a light coat like a frock, agreeable to the climate, and left them such a quantity as to make more upon their decay; as also pumps, shoes, hats, and stockings. it is not to be expressed the pleasing satisfaction which sat upon the countenances of these poor men, when they perceived what care i took of them, as if i had been a common father to them all; and they all engaged never to leave the island, till i gave my consent for their departure. i then presented to them the people i brought, viz. the tailor, smith, and the two carpenters; but my jack-of-all-trades was the most acceptable present i could make them. my tailor fell immediately to work, and made every one of them a shirt; after which, he learned the women how to sew and stitch, thereby to become the more helpful to their husbands. neither were the carpenters less useful, taking in pieces their clumsy things; instead of which they made convenient and handsome tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, and shelves. but when i carried them to see will atkins's basket-house, they owned they never saw such a piece of natural ingenuity before: _i am sure,_ said one of the carpenters, _the man that built this has no need of us; you need, sir, do nothing but give him tools._ i divided the tools among them in this manner: to every man i gave a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, as having no harrows or ploughs; and to every separate place a pickax, a crow, a broad ax, and a saw, with a store for a general supply, should any be broken or worn out. i left them also nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of tools and iron work; & for the use of the smith, gave them three tons of unwrought iron, for a supply; and as to arms and ammunition, i stored them even to profusion; or at least to equip a sufficient little army against all opposers whatsoever. the young man (whose mother was unfortunately starved to death) together with the maid, a pious and well educated young woman, seeing things so well ordered on shore (for i made them accompany me) and considering they had no occasion to go so far a voyage as to the east indies, they both desired of me, that i would leave them there, and enter them among my subjects. this i readily agreed to, ordering them a plat of ground, on which were three little houses erected, environed with basket-work, pallisadoed like atkins's and adjoining to his plantation. so contrived were their tents that each of them had a room apart to lodge in, while the middle tent was not only their store-house, but their place for eating and drinking. at this time the two englishmen removed their habitation to their former place; in that now the island was divided into three colonies: first, those i have just now mentioned; secondly that of will atkins, where there were four families of englishmen, with their wives and children, the widow and her children; the young man and the maid, who, by the way, we made a wife of before our departure; three savages, who were slaves; the tailor, smith, (who served also as a gunsmith) and my other celebrated person called jack-of-all-trades. thirdly, my chief colony, which consisted of the spaniards, with old friday, who still remained at my old habitation, which was my capital city, and surely never was there such a metropolis, it now being hid in so obscure a grove, that a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and looked purposely for it, without being able to find it, though the spaniards had enlarged its boundaries, both without and within, in a most surprising manner. but now i think it high time to speak of the young french priest of the order of st. benedict, whose judicious and pious discourses, upon sundry occasions, merit an extraordinary observation; nor can his being a french papist priest, i presume, give offence to any of my readers, when they have this assurance from me, that he was a person of the most courteous disposition, extensive charity, and exalted piety. his arguments were always agreeable to reason, and his conversation the most acceptable of any person that i had ever yet met with in my life. _sir,_ said he, to me, one day, _since, under god,_ at the same time crossing his breast, _you have not only saved my life; but, by permitting me to go this voyage, have granted me the happiness of free conversation, i think is my duty as my profession obliges me, to save what souls i can, by bringing them to the knowledge of some catholic doctrine, necessary to salvation; and since these people are under your immediate government, in gratitude, justice, and decency, for what you have done for me, i shall offer no farther points in religion, that what shall merit your approbation_. being a-pleased with the modesty of his carriage, i told him he should not be worse used for being of a different persuasion, if upon that very account, we did not differ in points of faith, not decent in a part of the country where the poor indians ought to be instructed in the knowledge of the true god, and his son jesus christ. to this he replied, that conversation might easily be separated from disputes; that he would discourse with me rather as a gentleman than a religious: but that, if we did enter upon religious argument, upon my desiring the same, i would give him liberty to defend his own principles. he farther added, that he would do all that became him in his office, as a priest as well as a christian, to procure the happiness of all that were in the ship: that though he could not pray with, he would pray for us on all occasions; and then he told me several extraordinary events of his life, within a few years past; but particularly in this last, which was the most remarkable: that, in this voyage, he had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped: his first design was to have gone to martinico; for which, taking ship at st. malos, he was forced into lisbon by bad weather, the vessel running aground in the mouth of the tagus; that from thence he went on board a portuguese ship, bound to the madeiras, whose master being but an indifferent mariner, and out of his reckoning, they were drove to fial, where selling their commodity, which was corn, they resolved to take in their loading at the isle of may, and to sail to newfoundland; at the banks of which, meeting a french ship bound to quebec, in the river of canada, and from thence to martinico, in this ship he embarked; the master of which dying at quebec, that voyage was suspended; and lastly, shipping himself for france, this last ship was destroyed by fire, as before has been related. at this time we talked no further; but another morning he comes to me, just as i was going to visit the englishman's colony, and tells me, that as he knew; the prosperity of the island, was my principal desire, he had something to communicate agreeable to my design, by which perhaps he might put it, more than he yet thought it was, in the way of the benediction of heaven. _how, sir,_ said i, in a surprise, _are we not yet in the way of god's blessings, after all these signal providences and deliverances, of which you have had such an ample relation?_ he replied, _nope, sir, you are in the way, and that your good design will prosper: but still there are some among you that are not equally right in their actions; and remember, i beseech you, sir, that achan, by his crime, removed god's blessing from the camp of the children of israel; that though six and thirty were entirely innocent, yet they became the object of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of his punishment accordingly._ so sensibly was i touched with this discourse, and so satisfied with that ardent piety that inflamed his soul, that i desired him to accompany me to the englishman's plantations, which he was very glad of, by reason they were the subject of what he designed to discourse with me about: and while we walked on together, he began in the following manner: "sir, said he, i must confess it as a great unhappiness that we disagree in several doctrinal articles of religion; but surely both of us acknowledge this, that there is a god, who having given us some stated rules for our service and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him; either by neglecting what he has commanded, or by doing what he has forbidden. this truth every christian owns, that when any one presumptuously sins against god's command, the almighty then withdraws his blessing from him; every good man therefore ought certainly to prevent such neglect of, or sin against, god and his commands." i thanked the young priest for expressing so great a concern for us, and desired him to explain the particulars of what he had observed, that according to the parable of achan, i _might remove the accursed thing from among us_ "why then, sir, said he, in the first place, you have four englishmen, who have taken savage women to their wives, by whom they have several children, though none of them are legally married, as the law of god and man requires; they, i say, sir, are no less than adulterers, and as they still live in adultery, are liable to the curse of god. i know, sir, you may object the want of a priest or clergyman of any kind; as also, pen, ink and paper, to write down a contract of marriage, and have it signed between them. but neither this, nor what the spanish governor has told you of their choosing by consent, can be reckoned a marriage, nor any more than an agreement to keep them from quarrelling among themselves; for, sir, the essence or sacrament of matrimony (so he called it) not only consists in mutual consent, but in the legal obligation, which compels them to own and acknowledge one another, to abstain from other persons, the men to provide for their wives and children, and the woman to the same and like conditions, _nutatis mutandis,_ on their side: whereas, sir, these men, upon their own pleasure, on any occasion, may forsake those women and marry others, and by disowning their children, suffer them utterly to perish. now, sir, 'added he, 'can god be honoured in such an unlawful liberty as this; how can a blessing succeed to the best endeavours, if men are allowed to live in so licentious a way?" i was indeed struck with the thing myself, and thought that they were much to blame, that no formal contract had been made, though it had been but breaking a stick between them, to engage them to live as man and wife, never to separate, but love, cherish, and comfort one another all their lives; _yet sir,_ said i, _when they took these wommen, i was not here, and if it is adultery, it is past my remedy, and i cannot help it_. "true, sir,' answered the young priest, you cannot be charged with that part of the crime which was done in your absence: but i beseech you, don't flatter yourself, that you are under no obligation now to put a period to it: which if you neglect to do, the guilt will be entirely on you alone, since it is certainly in nobody's power but yours, to alter their condition." i must confess, i was so dull, that i thought he meant, i should part them, and knowing that this would put the whole island in confusion, i told him, i could not consent to it upon any account whatsoever. "sir,' said he, in a great surprise, 'i do not mean that you should separate, but marry them, by a written contract, signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the european laws decree to be of sufficient efficacy." amazed with such true piety and sincerity, and considering the validity of a written contract, i acknowledged all that he said to be very just and kind, and that i would discourse with the man about it; neither could i see what reason they could have not to let him marry them, whose authority in that affair is owned to be as authentic as if they were married by any of our clergymen in england. the next complaint he had to make to me was this, that though these english subjects of mine have lived with these women seven years, and though they were of good understanding, and capable of instruction, having learned not only to speak, but to read english, yet all this while they had never taught them any thing of the christian religion, or the knowledge of god, much less in what manner he ought to be served. "and is not this an unaccountable neglect:' said he warmly. 'depend upon it, god almighty will call them to account for such contempt. and though i am not of your religion, yet i should be glad to see these people released from the devil's power, and be saved by the principles of the christian religion, the knowledge of god, of a redeemer, the resurrection, and of a future state. but as it is not too late, if you please to give me leave to instruct them, i doubt not but i shall supply this great defect, by bringing them into the great circle of christianity, even while you continue in the island." i could hold no longer, but embracing him, told him, with a thousand thanks, i would grant whatever he requested, and desired him to proceed in the third article, which he did in the following manner; "sir,' said he, 'it should be a maxim among all christians, that christian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible means, and on all occasion. upon this account our church sends missionaries into persia, india, and china, men who are willing to die for the sake of god & the christian faith, in order to bring poor infidels into the way of salvation. now, sir, as here is an opportunity to convert seven & thirty poor savages, i wonder how you can pass by such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth the expence of a man's whole life." i must confess i was so confounded at this discourse, that i could not tell how to answer him. "sir,' said he, feeling me in disorder, 'i shall be very sorry if i have given you offence." _no sir,_ said i, _i am rather confounded; and you know my circumstances, that being bound to the east indies in a merchant ship, i cannot wrong the owners so much, as to detain the ship here, the men lying at victuals and savages on their account. if i stay aboard several days, i must pay 3l. sterling_ per diem _demurage, nor must the ship stop above eight days more; so that i am unable to engage in this work, unless i would leave the ship, and be reduced to my former condition._ the priest, though he owned this was hard upon me, yet laid it to my conscience, whether the blessing of saving seven and thirty souls was not worth venturing all that i had in the world? _sir,_ said i, _it is very true; but as you are an ecclesiastic, it naturally falls into your profession: why, therefore, don't you rather offer to undertake it yourself than press me to it?_ upon this he turned about, making a very low bow, "i most humbly thank god and you, sir, (said he) for so blessed a call; and most willingly undertake so glorious an office, which will sufficiently compensate all the hazards and difficulties i have gone through in a long and uncomfortable voyage." while he was thus speaking, i could discover a rapture in his face, by his colour going and coming; at the same time his eyes sparkled like fire, and all the signs of the most zealous transports. and when i asked whether he was in earnest? _sir,_ said he, _it was to preach to the indians i consented to come along with you; these infidels, even in this little island, are infinitely of more worth than my poor life: if so that i should prove the happy instrument of saving these poor creatures' souls, i care not if i never see my native country again. one thing i only beg of you more is, that you would leave friday with me, to be my interpreter, without whose assistance neither of us will understand each other._ this request very sensibly troubled me; first, upon friday's being bred a protestant; and secondly, for the affection i bore to him for his fidelity: but, immediately the remembrance of friday's father coming into my head, i recommended him to him as having learned spanish, which the priest also understood; and so was thoroughly satisfied with him. when we came to the englishmen, after i had told them what necessary things i had done for them, i talked to them of the scandalous life they led, told them what notice the clergyman had taken of it, and asked them if they were married men or bachelors? they answered, two of them were widowers, and the other three single men. but, said i, with what conscience can you call these your wives, by whom you have so many children, and yet are not lawfully married? they all said that they took them before the governor as such, having nobody else to marry them, which they thought as legal, as if they had had a parson. no doubt, said i, but in the eye of god it is so: but unless i am assured of your honest intent, never to desert these poor creatures, i can do nothing more for you, neither can you expect god's blessing while you live in such an open course of adultery. hereupon, will atkins, who spoke for the rest, told me 'that they believed their wives the most innocent and virtuous creatures in the world; that they would never forsake them while they had breath; and that, if there was a clergyman in the ship, they would be married to them with all their hearts.' i told you before, said i, that i have a minister with me, who shall marry you to-morrow morning, if you are willing; so i would have you consult to-night with the rest about it. i told him the clergyman was a frenchman, and knew not a word of english, but that i would act as clerk between them. and indeed this business met with such speedy success, that they all told me, in a few minutes after, 'that they were ready to be formally married as soon as i pleased;' with which informing the priest, he was exceedingly rejoiced. nothing now remained, but that the women should be made sensible of the meaning of the thing; with which being well satisfied, they with their husbands attended at my apartment the next morning; there was my priest, habited in a black vest, something like a cassock, with a sash round it; much resembling a minister, and i was his interpreter. but the seriousness of his behaviour, and the scruples he made of marrying the women, who were not baptized, gave them, an exceeding reverence for his person: nor indeed would he marry them at all, till he obtained my liberty to discourse both with the men and women, and then he told them, 'that in the sight of all indifferent men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had lived in open adultery, which nothing new, but their consent to marry, or final separation, could put an end to; and even here was a difficulty with respect to the laws of christian matrimony, in marrying a professed christian to a heathen idolater, unbaptized; but yet there was time enough to make them profess the name of christ, without which nothing could be done; that, besides, he believed themselves very indifferent christians; and consequently had not discoursed with their wives upon that subject; and that unless they promised him to do so, he could not marry them, as being expressly forbidden by the laws of god.' all this they heard attentively, and owned readily. _but, lord, sir,_ said will atkins to me _how could we teach them religion, who know nothing of it ourselves? how can we talk to our wives of god, jesus christ, heaven, and hell? why they would only laugh at us, who never yet have practiced religion, but on the contrary all manner of wickedness. will atkins,_ said i, _cannot you tell your wife she is in the wrong, and that her gods are idols, which can neither speak nor understand; but that our god, who has made, can destroy all things; that he rewards the good and punishes the wicked; and at last will bring us to judgment; cannot you tell her these things? that's true,_ said atkins, _but then she'll tell me it is utterly false, since i am not punished and sent to the devil, who hath been such a wicked creature._ these words i interpreted to the priest. "oh!" said he, "tell him, his repentance will make him a very good minister to his spouse, and qualify him to preach on the mercy and long suffering of a merciful being, who desires not the death of a sinner, and even defers damnation to the last judgment; this will lead him to the doctrine of the resurrection and will make him an excellent preacher to his wife." i repeated this to atkins, who being more than ordinary affected with it, replied, _i know all this, sir, and a great deal more; but how can i have the impudence to talk thus to my wife, given my conscience witnesses against me? alas!_ said he (with tears in his eye, and giving a great sigh) _as for repenting, that is for ever past me. past you! atkins,_ said i, _what do you mean? you know well enough,_ said he, _what i mean, i mean it is too late._ when i told the priest what he said, the poor affectionate man could not refrain from weeping; but recovering himself "pray, sir," said he, "ask him if he is contented that it is too late; or is he concerned, and wishes it were not so?" this question i put fairly to atkins, who replied in a passion, _how can i be easy in a state which i know must terminate in my ruin? for i really believe, some time or other, i shall cut my threat, to put a period both to my life, and to the terrors of my conscience._ at this, the clergyman shook his head, "sir," said he, "pray tell him it is not too late; christ will give him repentance, if he has recourse to the merit of his passion. does he think he is beyond the power of divine mercy? there may indeed be a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive, but never too late for men to repent in this world." i told atkins every word the priest had said, who then parted from us to walk with his wife, while we discoursed with the rest. but these were very stupid in religious matters; yet all of them promised to do their endeavours to make their wives turn christians; and upon which promises the priest married the three couple. but as atkins was the only sincere convert and of more sense than the rest, my clergyman was earnestly inquiring after him: "sir," said he, "let us walk out of this labyrinth, & i dare say we shall find this poor man preaching to his wife already." and indeed we found it true; for coming to the edge of the wood, we perceived atkins and his savage wife sitting under the shade of a bush, in very earnest discourse; he pointed to the sun, to the quarters of the earth, to himself, to her, the woods, and the trees. immediately we could perceive him start upon his feet, fall down upon his knees, and lift up both his hands; at which the tears ran down my clergyman's cheeks; but our great misfortune was, we could not hear one word that passed between them. another time he would embrace her, wiping the tears from her eyes, kissing her with the greatest transports, and then both kneel down for some minutes together. such raptures of joy did this confirm in my young priest, that he could scarcely contain himself: and a little after this, we observed by her motion, as frequently lifting up her hands, and laying them on her breast, that she was mightily affected with his discourse, and so they withdrew from our sight. when we came back, we found them both waiting to be called in; upon which he agreed to examine him alone, and so i began thus to discourse him. "prithee, will atkins," said i, "what education have you? what was your father?" _w.a._ a better man than ever i shall be; he was, sir, a clergyman, who gave me good instruction, or correction, which i despised like a brute as i was, and murdered my poor father. _pr._ ha! a murderer! [_here the priest started and looked pale, as thinking he had really killed his father_.] _r.c._ what, did you kill him with your hands? _w.a._ no, sir, i cut not his throat, but broke his heart by the most unnatural turn of disobedience to the tenderest and best of fathers. _r.c._ well, i pray god grant you repentance: i did not ask you to exhort a confession; but i asked you because i see you have more knowledge of what is good than your companions. _w.a._ o sir, whenever i look back upon my past life, conscience upbraids me with my father: the sins against our parents make the deepest wounds, and their weight lies the heaviest upon the mind. _r.c._ you talk, will, too feelingly and sensibly for me; i am not able to bear it. _w.a._ you bear it, sir! you know nothing of it. _r.c._ but yes, atkins, i do; and every shore, valley, and tree in this island, witness the anguish of my soul for my undutifulness to my kind father, whom i have murdered likewise; yet my repentance falls infinitely short of yours. but, will, how comes the sense of this matter to touch you just now? _w.a._ sir, the work you have set me about, has occasioned it; for talking to my wife about god and religion, she has preached me such a sermon, that i shall retain it in lasting remembrance. _r.c._ no, no, it is your own moving pious arguments to her, has made conscience fling them back upon you. but pray, atkins, inform us what passed between you and your wife, and in what manner you did begin. _w.a._ i talked to her of the laws of marriage, the reason of such compacts, whereby order and justice is maintained; without which men would run from their wives and children, to the dissolution of families or inheritances. _r.c._ well, and what did she say to all this? _w.a._ sir, we began our discourse in the following manner, which i shall exactly repeat according to my mean capacity, if you think it worth you while to honour it with your attention. * * * * * _the dialogue between will atkins and his wife in the wood._ _wife._ you tell me marriage god appoint, have you god in your country? _w.a._ yes, child, god is in every nation. _wife._ no; great old benamuckee god is in my country, not yours. _a._ my dear, god is in heaven, which he made; he also made the earth, the sea and all that is therein. _wife._ why you no tell me much long ago? _a._ my dear i have been a wicked wretch, having a long time lived without the knowledge of god in the world. _wife._ what, not know great god in own nation? no do good ting? no say o to him? that's strange! _a._ but, my dear, many live as if there was no god in heaven for all that. _wife._ why god suffer them? why makee not live well? _a._ it is our own faults, child. _wife._ but if he is much great, can makee kill, why no makee kill when no serve him? no be good mans, no cry o to him? _a._ that's true, my dear, he may strike us dead, but his abundant mercy spareth us. _wife._ did not you tell god thanked for that? _a._ no, i have neither thanked him for his mercy, nor feared him for his power. _wife._ then me not believe your god be good, nor makee kill, when you makee him angry. _a._ alas! must my wicked life hinder you from believing in him? _wife_. how can me tink your god lives there? _(pointing to heaven.)_ sure he no ken what you do here. _a._ yes, my dear, he hears us speak, sees what we do, and knows what we even think. _wife._ where then makee power strong, when he hears you curse, swear de great damn? _a._ my dear, this shows indeed he is a god and not a man who has such tender mercy. _wife._ mercy i what you call mercy? _a._ he pities and spares us: as he is our great creator, so he is also our tender father. _wife._ so god never angry, never kill wicked, then he no good, no great mighty. _a._ o my dear, don't say so, he is both; and many times he shows terrible examples of his judgment and vengeance. _wife._ then you makee de bargain with him; you do bad ting, he no hurt you, he hurt other mans. _a._ no, indeed, my lips are all presumptions upon his goodness. _wife._ well, and yet no makee you dead; and you give him no tankee neither? _a._ it is true, i an ungrateful, unthankful dog, that i am. _wife._ why, you say, he makee you, why makee you no much better then? _a._ it is i alone that have deformed myself, and abused his goodness. _wife._ pray makee god know me, me no makee him angry, no do bad ting. _a._ you mean, my dear, that you desire i would teach you to know god: alas! poor dear creature, he must teach thee, and not i. but i'll pray earnestly to him to direct thee, and to forgive me, a miserable sinner. _(hereupon he went a little distance, and kneeling down, prayed earnestly to god to enlighten her mind, and to pardon his sins; when this was done, they continued their discourse thus.)_ _wife._ what you put down knee for? for what hold up hand? who you speak to? _a._ my dear, i bowed in token of submission to him that made me, and prayed that he would open your eyes and understanding. _wife._ and can he do that too? and will he hear what you say? _a._ yes, my dear, he bids us pray, and has given us promise that he will hear us. _wife._ when did he bid you pray? what i do you hear him speak? _a._ no, my dear, but god has spoken formerly to good men from heaven; and by divine revelation they have written all his laws down in a book. _wife_. o where dat good book? _a_. i have it not now by me; but one time or other i shall get it for you to read. _then he embraced her with great affection_. _wife_. pray tell a mee, did god, teachee them write that book? _a_. yes, and by that rule we know him to be god. _wife_. what way, what rule you know him? _a_. because he teaches what is good, just, and holy; and forbids all wicked and abominable actions that incur his displeasure. _wife_. o me fain understand that, and if he do all things you say he do, surely he hear me say o to him; he makee me good if i wish to be good, he no kill me if i love him; me tink, believe him great god; me say o to him, along with you, my dear. _here the poor man fell upon his knees, and made her kneel down by him praying with the greatest fervency, that god would instruct her by his holy spirit; and that god by his providence would send them a bible for both their instructions. and such was the early piety of this new convert, that she made him promise never to forsake god any more, lest being_ made dead, _as she called it; she should not only want her instructor, but himself be miserable in a long eternity_. such a surprising account as this was, proved very affecting to us both, but particularly to the young clergyman, who was mightily concerned he could not talk to her himself. "sir," said he, "there, is something more to be done to this woman then to marry her; i mean that she ought to be baptized." to this, i presently agreed: "pray," said he, "ask her husband, whether he has ever talked to her of jesus christ, the salvation of sinners, the nature of faith, and redemption in and by him, of the holy spirit, the resurection, last judgment, and a future state;" but the poor fellow melted into tears at this question, saying, that he had said something to her of these things, but his inability to talk of them, made him afraid, lest her knowledge of them should rather make her contemn religion, than be benefited by it; but that if i would discourse with her, it would be very evident my labour would not be in vain. accordingly i called her in, and placing myself as interpreter between the religious priest and the woman, i entreated him to go on; but surely never was such a sermon preached by any clergyman in these latter days, with so much zeal, knowledge, and sincerity; in short, he brought the woman to embrace the knowledge of christ, and of redemption by him, with so surprising a degree of understanding, that she made it her own request to be baptized. he than performed his office in the sacrament of baptism, first, by saying some words over to himself in latin, and then asking me to give her a name, as being her godfather, and pouring a whole dish-full of water upon the woman's head, he said, "_mary_, i baptize thee in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost;" so that none could know of what religion he was. after this he pronounced the benediction in latin. thus the woman being made a christian, he married her to will atkins; which being finished, he affectionately exhorted him to lead a holy life for the future; and since the almighty, for the convictions of his conscience, had honoured him to be the instrument or his wife's conversion, he should not dishonor the grace of god, that while the savage was converted, the instrument should be cast away. thus ended a ceremony, to me the most pleasant and agreeable i ever passed in my life. the affairs of the island being settled, i was preparing to go on board, when the young man (whose mother was starved) came to me, saying, that as he understood i had a clergyman with me, who had married the englishmen with savages, he had a match to make between two christians, which he desired might be finished before i departed. thinking that it was he himself that had courted his mother's maid, i persuaded him not to do any thing rashly upon the account of his solitary circumstances; that the maid was an unequal match for him, both in respect to substance and years; and that it was very probable he would live to return to his own country, where he might have a far better choice. at these words, smiling, he interrupted me, thanking me for my good-advice; that as he had nothing to beg of me but a small settlement, with a servant or two, or some new necessaries, so he hoped i would not be unmindful of him when i returned to england, but give his letter to his friends; and that when he was redeemed, the plantation, and all its improvements, however valuable, should be returned to me again. but as for the marriage he proposed, that it was not himself, but that it was between my jack-of-all-trades and the maid susan. i was indeed agreeably surprised at the mentioning this match, which seemed very suitable, the one being a very ingenious fellow, and the other an excellent, dexterous, and sensible housewife, fit to be governess of the whole island; so we married them the same day; and as i was her father, and gave her away, so i gave her a handsome portion, appointing her and her husband a convenient large space of ground for their plantation. the sharing out of the land i left to will atkins, who really divided if very justly, to every person's satisfaction; they only desired one general writing under my hand for the whole, which i caused to be drawn up, signed, and sealed to them, setting out their bounds, and giving them a right to the whole possession of their respective plantations, with their improvements, to them and their heirs, reserving all the rest of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for every particular plantation, after eleven years. as to their laws and government, i exhorted them to love one another; and as to the indians who lived in a nook by themselves, i allotted three or four of them plantations, and the rest willingly chose to become servants to the other families, by which means they were employed in useful labour, and fared much better than they did before. besides the savages thus mixed with the christians, the work of their conversion might be set on foot by the latter, in the clergyman's absence, to our equal satisfaction. the young priest, however, was a little anxious lest the christians should not be willing to do their parts in instructing these poor indians; i therefore told him we should call them all together; that he should speak to the spaniards who were papists, and i to the english, who were protestants, and make them promise that they would never make any distinction in religion, but teach the general true knowledge of god, and his son jesus christ, in order to convert the poor savages. and this, indeed, they all promised us accordingly. when i came to will atkins's house, i found his baptized wife, and the young woman newly married to my jack-of-all-trades, were become great intimates, and discoursing of religion together. _o, sir,_ says will atkins, _when god has sinners to reconcile to himself, he never wants an instructor; i knew i was unworthy of so good a work, and therefore this young woman has been sent hither as it were from heaven, who is sufficient to convert a whole nation of savages_. the young woman blushed, and was going to rise; but i desired her to sit still, and hoped that god would bless her in so good a work; and then pulling out a bible (which i brought on purpose in my pocket for him.) _here atkins_, said i, _here is an assistant that perhaps you had not before_. so confounded was the poor man, that is was some time before he could speak; at last turning to his wife, _my dear_, he said, _did i not tell you that god could hear what we said? here's the book i prayed for, when you and i kneeled under the bush: god then heard us, and now has sent it_. the woman was surprised, and thought really god had sent that individual book from heaven; but i turned to the young woman, and desired her to explain to the young convert, that god may properly be said to answer our petitions, when, in the course of his providence, such particular things came to pass as we petitioned for. this the young woman did effectually; but surely will atkins's joy cannot be expressed; no man being more thankful for any thing in the world, than he was for his bible, nor desired it from a better principle. after several religious discourses, i desired the young woman to give me an account of the anguish she felt when she was starving to death with hunger; to which she readily consented, and began in the following manner: "sir," said she, "all our victuals being gone, after i had fasted one day, my stomach was very sickly, and, at the approach, of night, i was inclined to yawning and sleepy. when i slept upon the couch three hours, i awaked a little refreshed: three hours after, my stomach being more and more sickly, i lay down again, but could not sleep, being very faint and ill. thus i passed the second day with a strange variety, first hungry, then sick again, with reachings to vomit: that night i dreamed i was at barbadoes, buying plenty of provisions; and dined heartily. but when i awaked, my spirits were exceedingly sunk, to find myself in the extremity of famine. there was but one glass of wine, which being mixed with sugar, i drank up; but for want of substance to digest upon, the fumes of it got into my head, & made me senseless for some time. the third day i was so ravenous and furious, that i could have eaten a little child if it had come in my way; during which time, i was as mad as any creature in bedlam. in one of these fits i fell down, and struck my face against the corner of a pallet bed, where my mistress lay; the blood gushed out of my nose, but by my excessive bleeding, both the violence of the fever, and the ravenous part of the hunger abated. after this, i grew sick again, strove to vomit, but could not; then bleeding a second time, i swooned away as dead; when i came to myself, i had a dreadful gnawing pain in my stomach, which went of towards night, with a longing desire for food. i took a draught of water and sugar, but it came up again; then i drank water without sugar, and that staid with me. i laid me down on the bed, praying god would take me away: after i had slumbered, i thought myself a-dying, therefore recommended my soul to god, and wished somebody would throw me into the sea. all this while my departing mistress lay by me: the last bit of bread she had, she gave to her dear child my young master. the morning after, i fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that into hunger. i espied the blood that came from my nose in a basin, which i immediately swallowed up. at night i had the usual variations, as the pain in the stomach, sick, sleepy, and ravenous: and i had no thought but that i should die before morning. in the morning came on terrible gripings in my bowels. at this time i heard my young master's lamentations, by which i understood his mother was dead. soon after this, the sailors cried, _a sail! a sail!_ hallooing as if they were distracted for joy of that relief, which afterwards we received from your hands." surely never was a more distinct account of starving to death than this. but to return to the disposition of things among my people, i did not take any notice to them of the sloop that i had framed, neither would i leave them the two pieces of brass cannon, or the two quarter-deck guns that i had on board, lest, upon any disgust, they should have separated, or turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober pious people: but leaving them in a flourishing condition, with a promise to send them further relief, from brazil, as sheep, hogs, and cows (being obliged to kill the latter at sea, having no hay to feed them) i went on board the ship again, the first of may, 1695, after having been twenty days among them: and next morning, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set sail for the brazils. the third day, towards evening, there happening a calm, and the current being very strong, we were drove to the n.n.e. towards the land. some hours after, we perceived the sea covered as it were with something very black, not easily at first to be discovered: upon which our chief mate ascending the shrouds a little way, and taking a view with a perspective glass, he cries out, _an army! an army! you fool_, said i, _what do you mean? nay, sir_, said he, _don't be angry. i assure you, it is not only an army, but a fleet, too, for i believe there are a thousand canoes paddling along, and making with great haste towards us_. indeed every one of us were surprised at this relation; and my nephew the captain could not tell what to think of it, but thought we should all be devoured. nor was i free from concern, when i considered how much we were becalmed, and what a strong current set towards the shore; however, i encouraged him not to be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor as soon as we were certain that we must engage them. accordingly we did so, and furled all our sails, as to the savages we feared nothing, but only that they might se the ship on fire; to prevent which, i ordered them to get their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head, and the other by the stern, well manned, with skeets and buckets to extinguish the flames, should it so happen. the savages soon came up with us, but there were not so many as the mate had said, for instead of a thousand canoes there were only one hundred and twenty; too many indeed for us, several of their canoes containing about sixteen or seventeen men. as they approached us, they seemed to be in the greatest amazement, not knowing what to make of us. they rowed round the ship, which occasioned us to call to the men in the boats, not to suffer them to come near them. hereupon they beckoned to the savages to keep back, which they accordingly did; but at their retreat they let fly about fifty arrows among us, and very much wounded one of our men in the long-boat. i called to them not to fire upon any account, but handing them down some deal boards, the carpenters made them a kind of fence to shield them from the arrows. in half an hour after they came so near astern of us, that we had a perfect sight of them; then they rowed a little farther out, till they came directly along-side of us, and then approached so near, that they could hear us speak; this made me order all our men to keep close, and get their guns ready. in the mean time i ordered friday to go out upon deck, and ask them in his language what they meant. no sooner did he do so, but six of the savages, who were in the foremost canoes, stooping down, showed us their naked backsides, as much as to say in english, _kiss our_----: but friday quickly knew what this meant, by immediately crying out they were going to shoot; unfortunately for him, poor creature, who fell under the cloud of three hundred arrows, no less than seven piercing through his body, killing one of the best servants, and faithfullest of companions in all my solitudes and afflictions. so enraged was i at the death of poor friday, that the guns, which before were charged only with powder, to frighten them, i ordered to be loaded with small shot; nor did the gunners fail in their aim, but at this broadside split and overset thirteen or fourteen of their canoes, which killed numbers of them, and set the rest a swimming, the others, frightened out of their wits, little regarding their fellows drowning, scoured away as fast as they could. one poor wretch our people took up, swimming for his life, an hour after. he was very sullen at first, to that he would neither eat nor speak; but i took a way to cure him, by ordering them to throw him into the sea, which they did, and then he came swimming back like a cork, calling in his tongue, as i suppose, to save him. so we took him on board, but it was a long time before we could make him speak or understand english; yet when we had taught him, he told us, 'they were going with their kings to fight a great battle;' and when we asked him, what made them come up to us? he said, _to makee de great wonder look_; where it is to be noted, that those natives, and those of africa, always add to _e_'s at the end of english words, as _makee, takee_, and the like, from which it is very difficult thing to make them break off. being now under sail, we took our last farewell of poor honest friday, and interred him with all possible decency and solemnity, putting him in a coffin, and committing him to the deep, at the same time cauling eleven guns to be fired at him. thus ended the life of one of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and affectionate servants, that ever any man was blessed with in the world. having now a fair wind for brazil, in about twelve days time we made land in the latitude of five degrees south of the line. four days we kept on s. by e. in sight of shore, when we made cape st. augustin, and in three days we came up to an anchor off the bay of all saints. i had great difficulty here to get leave to hold correspondence on shore; for neither the figure of my partner, my two merchant trustees, nor the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could procure me the favour, till such time as the prior of the monastery of the augustines (to whom i had given 500 moidores) obtained leave from the governor, for me personally, with the captain & one more, together with eight sailors, to come on shore; upon this condition, that we should not land any goods out of the ship, nor carry any person away without licence; i found means, however, to get on shore three bales of english goods, such as fine broad cloths, stuffs, and some linen, which i brought as a present for my partner, who had sent me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine and sweetmeats, worth about thirty moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine gold medals. [illustration: revenging the death of friday.] here i delivered my partner in goods to the value of 100â£ sterling, and obliged him to fit up the sloop i bought for the use of my island, in order to send them refreshments; and so active was he in this matter, that he had the vessel finished in a few days, to the master of which i gave particular instructions to find the place. i soon loaded him with a small cargo; and one of our sailors offered to settle there, upon my letter to the spanish governor, if i would allot him tools and a plantation. this i willingly granted, and gave him the savage we had taken prisoner to be his slave. all things being ready for the voyage, my old partner told me there was an acquaintance of his, a brazil planter, who having fallen under the displeasure of the church, & in fear of the inquisition which obliged him to be concealed, would be glad of such an opportunity to make his escape, with his wife & two daughters; & if i would allot them a plantation in my island, he would give them a small stock to begin with, for that the officers had already seized his effects and estate, and left him nothing but a little household stuff and two slaves. this request i presently granted, concealing him and his family on board our ship, till such time as the sloop (where all the effects were) was gone out of the bay, and then we put them on board, who carried some materials, and plants for planting sugar-canes, along with them. by this sloop, among other things, i sent my subjects three milch cows and five calves, about 22 hogs, three sows big with pig, two mares and a stone horse. i also engaged three portugal women to go for sake of the spaniards, which, with the persecuted man's two daughters, were sufficient, since the rest had wives of their own, though in another country; all which cargo arrived safe, no doubt to their exceeding comfort, who, with this addition, were about sixty or seventy people, besides children. at this place, my truly honest and pious clergyman left me; for a ship being ready to set sail for lisbon, he asked me leave to go thither, but i assure you it was with the greatest reluctance i parted from a person, whose virtue and piety merited the greatest esteem. from the brazils, we made directly over the atlantic ocean to the cape of good hope, having a tolerable good voyage, steering for the most part s.e. we were on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, who was to direct all the ship's motions after she arrived at the cape, only being limited to a certain number of days, for stay, by charter party, at the several ports she was to go to. at the cape we only took in fresh water, and then sailed for the coast of coromandel; we were there informed, that a french man of war of 50 guns, and two large merchant ships were sailed for the indies, but we heard no more of them. in our passage, we touched at the island of madagascar, where, though the inhabitants are naturally fierce and treacherous, & go constantly armed with bows & lances, yet for some time they treated us civily enough; and, in exchange for knives, scisors, and other trifles, they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, which we took partly for present victuals, and the remainder to salt for the ship's use. so curious was i to view every corner of the world where i came to, that i went on shore as often as i could. one evening when on shore, we observed numbers of the people stand gazing at us at a distance. we thought ourselves in no danger, as they had hitherto used us kindly. however, we cut three boughs cut of a tree, sticking them at a distance from us, which it seems, in that country, is not only a token of truce and amity, but when poles or boughs are set up on the other side, it is a sign the truce is accepted. in these treaties, however, there is one principal thing to be regarded, that neither party come beyond one another's three poles or boughs; so that the middle space is not only secure, but is also allowed as a market for traffic and commerce. when the truce is thus accepted, they stick up their javelins and lances at the first poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered, away they run to their poles, take up their weapons, and then the truce is at an end. this evening it happened that a greater number of people than usual, both men and women, traded among us for such toys as we had, with such great civility, that we made us a little tent, of large boughs of trees, some of the men resolving to lie on shore all night; but, for my part, i and some others took our lodging in the boat, with boughs of trees spread over it, having a sail spread at the bottom to lie upon. about two o'clock in the morning we were awakened by the firing of muskets, and our men crying out for help, or else they would all be murdered. scarce had we time to get the boat ashore, when our men came plunging themselves into the water, with about four hundred of the islanders at their heels. we took up seven of the men, three of them very much wounded, and one left behind killed, while the enemy poured their arrows so thick among us, that we were forced to make a barricade, with boards lying at the side of the boat, to shield us from danger: and, having got ready our fire-arms, we returned them a volley, which wounded several of them, as we could hear by their cries. in this condition we lay till break of day, and then making signals of distress to the ship, which my nephew the captain heard and understood, he weighed anchor, & stood as near the shore as possible, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her to assist us; but we called to them not to come near, informing them of our unhappy condition. however they ventured; when one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in one hand, and keeping our boat between him and our adversaries, swam to us, and slipping our cables, they towed us, out of reach of their arrows, and quickly after a broadside was given them from the ship, which made a most dreadful havoc among them. when we got on board, we examined into the occasion of this fray. the men who fled informed us that an old woman who sold milk within the poles, had brought a young woman with her, who carried roots or herbs, the sight of whom so much tempted our men, that they offered rudeness to the maid, at which the old woman set up a great cry: nor would the sailors part with the prize, but carried her among the trees, while the old woman went, and brought a whole army down upon them. at the beginning of the attack, one of our men was killed with a lance, and the fellow who began the mischief, paid dear enough for his mistress, though as yet we did not know what had become of him; the rest luckily escaped. the third night after the action, being curious to understand how affairs stood, i took the supercargo and twenty stout fellows with me, and landed about two hours before midnight, at the same place where those indians stood the night before, and there we divided our men into two bodies, the boatswain commanding one, and i another. it was so dark, that we could see nobody, neither did we hear any voice near us: but by & bye the boatswain falling over a dead body, we agreed to halt till the moon should rise, which he knew would be in an hour after. we perceived here no fewer than two and thirty bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead. satisfied with this discovery i was for going on board again; but the boatswain and the rest told me, they would make a visit to the indian town, where these dogs (so they called them) resided, asking me at the same time to go along with them; for they did not doubt, besides getting a good booty, but they should find tom jeffery there, for that was the unhappy man we missed. but i utterly refused to go, and commanded them back, being unwilling to hazard their lives, as the safety of the ship wholly depended upon them. notwithstanding all i could say to them, they all left me but one, and the supercargo; so we three returned to the boat, where a boy was left, resolving to stay till they returned. at parting i told them i supposed most of them would run the same fate with tom jeffery. to this they replied, _come boys, come along, we'll warrant we'll come off safe enough_; and so away they went, notwithstanding all my admonitions, either concerning their own safety or the preservation of the ship. indeed they were gallantly armed, every man having a musket, bayonet, and a pistol, besides cutlasses, hangers, pole-axes, and hand granades. they came to a few indian houses at first, which not being the town they expected they went farther, & finding a cow tied to a tree, they concluded that she would be a sufficient guide, and so it proved; for, after they untied her, she led them directly to the town, which consisted of above two hundred houses, several families living in some of the huts together. at their arrival, all being in a profound sleep, the sailors agreed to divide themselves into three bodies, and set three parts of the town on fire at once, to kill those that were escaping, and plunder the rest of the houses. thus desperately resolved, they went to work; but the first party had not gone far, before they called out to the rest, that they had found tom jeffery; whereupon they all ran up to the place, and found the poor fellow indeed hanging up naked by one arm, and his throat almost cut from ear to ear. in a house that was hard by the tree, they found sixteen or seventeen indians, who had been concerned in the fray, two or three of them being wounded, were not gone to sleep: this house they set on fire first, and in a few minutes after, five or six places more in the town appeared in flames. the conflagration spread like wild-fire, their housing being all of wood, and covered with flags or rushes. the poor affrighted inhabitants endeavoured to run out to save their lives, but they were driven back into the flames by the sailors, and killed without mercy. at the first house above mentioned, after the boatswain had slain two with his pole-ax, he threw a hand-granade into the house, which bursting, made a terrible havoc, killing and wounding most of them; and their king and most of his train, who were then in that house, fell victims to their fury, every creature of them being either smothered or burnt. all this while they never fired a gun, lest the people should awaken faster than they could overpower them. but the fire awakened them fast enough, which obliged our fellows to keep together in bodies. by this time the whole town was in a flame, yet their fury rather increased, calling out to one another to remember tom jeffery. the terrible light of this conflagration made me very uneasy, and roused my nephew the captain, and the rest of his men, who knew nothing of the matter. when he perceived the dreadful smoke, and heard the guns go off, he readily concluded his men were in danger; he therefore takes another boat, and comes ashore himself, with thirteen men well armed. he was greatly surprised to see me and only two men in the boat, but more so when i told him the story: but though i argued with him, as i did with the men, about the danger of the voyage, the interests of the merchants and owners, and the safety of the ship, yet my nephew, like the rest, declared, that he would rather lose the ship, his voyage, his life and all, than his men should be lost for want of help; and so away he went. for my part, seeing him resolved to go, i had not power to stay behind. he ordered the pinnace back again for twelve men more, and then we marched directly as the flame guided us. but surely never was such a scene of horror beheld, or more dismal cries heard, except when oliver cromwell took drogheda in ireland, where he neither spared man, woman, nor child. the first object, i think, we met with, was the ruins of one of their habitations, before which lay four men and three woman killed, and two more burnt to death among the fire, which was now decaying. nothing could appear more barbarous than this revenge; none more cruel than the authors of it. as we went on, the fire increased, and the cry proceeded in proportion. we had not gone much farther, when we beheld three naked women, followed by sixteen or seventeen men, flying with the greatest swiftness from our men, who shot one of them in our sight. when they perceived us, whom they supposed also their murderers, they set up a most dreadful shriek, and both of them swooned away in the fright. this was a sight which might have softened the hardest heart; and in pity we took some ways to let them know we would not hurt them, while the poor creatures with bended knees, and lifted up hands, made piteous lamentations to us to save their lives. i ordered our men not to hunt any of the poor creatures whatsoever; but being willing to understand the occasion of all this, i went among these unhappy wretches, who neither understood me, nor the good i meant them. however being resolved to put an end to this barbarity, i ordered the men to follow me. we had not gone fifty yards before we came up with the boatswain, with four of our men at his heels, all of them covered with blood and dust, and in search of more people to satiate their vengeance. as soon as we saw them, we called out, and made them understand who we were; upon which they came up to us, setting up a holloo of triumph, in token that more help was come. _noble captain_, said he to my nephew, _i'm glad your come: we have not half done with these villainous hell-hound dogs; wee'll root out the very nation of them from the earth, and kill more than poor tom has hairs upon his head:_ and thus he went on till i interrupted him.--"blood-thirsty dog," said i, "will your cruelty never end? i charge you touch not one creature more; stop your hands and stand still, or you're a dead man this moment." _why sir_, said he, _you neither know whom you are protecting, nor what they have done: but pray come hither, and behold an instance of compassion, if such can merit your clemency_; and with that he shewed me the poor fellow with his throat cut, hanging upon the tree. indeed, here was enough to fill their breasts with rage, which, however, i thought had gone too far, agreeable to these words of jacob to his sons simeon and levi: _cursed be their anger for it was fierce; and their wrath; for it was cruel._ but this sight made my nephew and the rest as bad as they: nay, my nephew declared, his concern was only for his men; as for the people, not a soul of them ought to live. upon this, the boatswain and eight more directly turned about, and went to finish the intended tragedy; which being out of my power to prevent, i returned back from the dismal sight, & the piteous cries of those unfortunate creatures, who were made victims to their fury. indeed, it was an egregious piece of folly in me to return to the boat with but one attendant; and i had very near paid for it, having narrowly escaped forty armed indians, who had been alarmed by the conflagration; but having passed the place where they stood, i got to the boat accompanied with the supercargo, and so went on board, sending the pinnace back again, to assist the men in what might happen. when i had got to the boat, the fire was almost extinguished, and the noise abated; but i had scarce been half an hour on board the ship, when i heard another volley given by our sailors, and a great smoke, which, as i afterwards found, was our men falling upon those houses and persons that stood between them and the sea; but here they spared the wives and children, and killed only the men, to the number of about sixteen or seventeen. by the time they got to the shore, the pinnace and the ship's boat were ready to receive them, and they all got safe on board, not a man of them having received the least hurt, except two, one of whom strained his foot, and the other burnt his hand a little; for they met with no resistance, the poor indians being unprepared, amazed, and confounded. i was extremely angry with every one of them, but particularly with the captain, who instead of cooling the rage of the men, had prompted them on to further mischief: nor could he make me any other excuse, but that as he was a man, he could not master his passions at the sight of one of his men so cruelly murdered. as for the rest, knowing they were not under my command, they took no notice of any anger, but rather boasted of their revenge. according to all their accounts, they killed or destroyed about 150 men, women, and children, besides burning the town to ashes. they took their companion tom jeffery from the tree, covered him with some of the ruins, and so left him. but however this action of our men might seem to them justifiable, yet i always openly condemned it with the appellation, of the massacre of madagascar. for tho' the natives had slain this jeffery, yet certainly he was the first aggressor, by attempting to violate the chastity of a young innocent woman, who ventured down to them, on the faith of the public capitulation, which was so treacherously broken. while we were under sail, the boatswain would often defend this bloody action, by saying, that the indians had broke the truce the night before, by shooting one of our men without just provocation: and what if the poor fellow had taken a little liberty with the wench, he ought not to have been murdered in so villainous a manner: and that they had acted nothing but what the divine laws commissioned to be done to such homicides. however i was in the same mind as before, telling them that they were murderers, and bid them depend upon it that god would blast their voyage, for such an unparalleled piece of barbarity. when we came to the gulph of persia, five of our men, who ventured on shore, were either killed or made slaves by the arabians, the rest of them having scarce time to escape to their boat. this made me upbraid them afresh with the just retribution of heaven for such actions; upon which the boatswain very warmly asked me, _whether those men on whom the tower of siloam fell, were greater sinners than the rest of the galileans? and besides, sir_, said he, _none of these five poor men that are lost, were with us at the massacre of madagascar, as you call it, and therefore your representation is very unjust, and your application improper. besides_, added he, _you are continually using the men very ill upon this account, and, being but a passenger yourself, we are not obliged to bear it; nor can we tell what evil designs you may have to bring us to judgment for it in england: and, therefore, if you do not leave this discourse, as also not concern yourself with any of our affairs, i will leave the ship, and not sail among such dangerous company._ all this i heard very patiently; but, it being often repeated, i at length told him, the concern i had on board was none of his business; that i was a considerable owner in the ship, and therefore had a right to speak in common, and that i was no way accountable to him, nor to any body else. as no more passed for some time after, i thought all had been over. at this time we were in the road of bengal, where, going on shore with the supercargo one day, in the evening, as i was preparing to go on board, one of the men came to me, and told me, i need not trouble myself to come to the boat, for that the cockswain and others had ordered him not to carry me on board any more. this insulent message much surprised me; yet i gave him no answer to it, but went directly and acquainted the supercargo, entreating him to go on board, and, by acquainting the captain with it, prevent the mutiny which i perceived would happen. but before i had spoken this, the matter was effected on board; for no sooner was he gone off in the boat, but the boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and all the inferior officers, came to the quarter-deck, desiring to speak with the captain; & there the boatswain made a long harangue, exclaiming against me, as before mentioned, that, if i had not gone on shore peaceably, for my own diversion, they, by violence would have compelled me, for their satisfaction: that as they had shipped with the captain, so they would faithfully serve him; but if i did not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to it, they would leave the ship immediately: hereupon, turning his face about by way of signal, they all cried out, "one and all! one and all!" you may be sure, that though my nephew was a man of great courage, yet he could not but be surprised at their sudden and unexpected behaviour; and though he talked stoutly to them, and afterwards expostulated with them, that in common justice to me, who was a considerable owner in the ship, they could not turn me as it were out of mine own house, which might bring their lives in danger should they ever be taken in england; nay, though he invited the boatswain on shore to accomodate matters with me, yet all this i say, signified nothing; they would have nothing to do with me; and they were resolved to go on shore if i came on board. _well,_ said my nephew, _if you are so resolved, permit me to talk with him, and then i have done; and so he came to me, giving me an account of their resolution, how one and all designed to forsake the ship when i came on board, for which he was mightily concerned._ "i am glad to see you, nephew," said i, "and rejoice it is no worse, since they have not rebelled against you; i only desire you to send my necessary things on shore, with a sufficient sum of money, and i will find my way to england as well as i can." though this grieved my nephew to the heart, yet there was no remedy but complience; in short, all my necessaries were sent me, and so this matter was over in a few hours. i think i was now near a thousand leagues farther off england by sea, than at my little kingdom, except this difference, that i might travel by land over the great mogul's country to surat, from thence to baffora, by sea up the persian gulph, then take the way of the caravans over the arabian desert to alleppo and scanderoon, there take shipping to italy, and so travel by land into france, and from thence cross the sea to england. my nephew left me two persons to attend me; one of them was his servant, and the other clerk to the purser, who engaged to be mine. i took lodging in an english woman's house, where several french, one english, and two italian merchants resided. the handsome entertainment i met with here, occasioned me to stay nine months, considering what course i should take. some english goods i had with me of great value, besides a thousand pieces of eight, and a letter for more, if there was such necessity. the goods i soon disposed of to advantage, and bought here several good diamonds, which i could easily carry about with me. one morning the english merchant came to me, as being very intimate together, _countryman_, said he, _i have a project to communicate to you, which i hope will suit to both our advantage. to be short, sir, we are both in a remote part of the world from our country; but yet in a place where men of business may get a great deal of money. now, if you will put a thousand pounds to my thousand pounds, we will hire a ship to our satisfaction; you shall be captain, i will be merchant: and we'll go a trading voyage to china, for why should we lie still like drones, while the whole world is in a continual motion_. this proposal soon got my consent, being very agreeable to my rambling genius; and the more so, because i looked upon my countryman to be a very sincere person; it required some time before we could get a vessel to our mind, and sailors to man it accordingly; at length we bought a ship, and got an english mate, boatswain, and gunner, a dutch carpenter, and three portuguese foremast men; and, for want of others, made shift with indian seamen. we first sailed to achin, in the island of sumatra, and then to siam, where we bartered our wares for some arrack and opium, the last of which bore a great price among the chinese; in a word, we went up to suskan, making a very great voyage; &, after eight months time, i returned to bengal, very well satisfied with this adventure, having not only got a sufficient quantity of money, but an insight of getting a great deal more. the next voyage my friend proposed to me, was to go among the spice islands, and bring home a load of cloves from the manillas, or thereabouts; islands belonging partly to spain, but where the dutch trade very considerably. we were not long in preparing for this voyage, which we made no less successful than the last, touching at borneo, and several other places which i do not perfectly remember, and returning home in about five months time. we soon sold our spices, which were chiefly cloves and some nutmegs, to the persian merchants, who carried them away to the gulph; and, in short, making five to one advantage, we were loaded with money. not long after my friend and i had made up our accounts, to our entire satisfaction, there came in a dutch coaster from batavia of about two hundred tons. the crew of this vessel pretended themselves so sickly, that there were not hands sufficient to undertake a voyage; and the captain having given out that he intended to go to europe, public notice was given that the ship was to be sold. no sooner did this come to our ears, but we bought the ship, paid the master, and took possession. we would also have very willingly entertained some of the men; but they having received their share of booty, were not to be found, being altogether fled to agra, the great city of the mogul's residence; and from thence went to travel to surat, and so by the sea to the persian gulph. and indeed they had reason to fly in this manner; for the truth of it was the pretended captain was the gunner only, and not the commander; that having been on a trading voyage, they were attacked on shore by the malayans, who killed three men and the captain; after whose death the other eleven men ran away with the ship to the bay of bengal, and left the mate and five men more on shore: but of this affair we shall have occasion to speak more at length hereafter. however they came by the ship, we thought we bought it honestly; neither did we suspect any thing of the matter, when the man showed us a bill of sale for the ship (undoubtedly forged) to one emanuel clostershoven, which name he went by. and so without any more to do, we picked up some dutch and english seamen, resolving for another voyage for cloves among the phillippine and molucca islands: in short, we continued thus five or six years, trading from port to port with extraordinary success. in the seventh year, we undertook a voyage to china, designing to touch at siam, and buy some rice by the way. in this voyage, contrary winds beat us up and down for a considerable time among the islands in the straits of molucca. no sooner were we clear of those rugged seas, but we perceived our ship had sprung a leak, which obliged us to put into the river cambodia, which lies northward of the gulph, and goes up to siam. one day, as i was on shore refreshing myself, there comes to me an englishman, who was gunner's mate on board an english east india ship, riding up the river near the city of cambodia. _sir_, said he, _you may wonder at my business, having never seen me in your life; but tho' i am a stranger, i have something to tell you that very nearly concerns you: & indeed it is the imminent danger you are in has moved me to give you this timely notice_. "danger!" said i, "what danger? i know of none, except my ship being leaky, for which i design to have her run aground to-morrow morning" _i hope you will be better employed when you shall hear what i have to say to you. you know the town of cambodia is about fifteen leagues up this river; about three leagues on this side of it, there lie two dutch and three english ships. and would you venture here without considering what strength you have to engage them_? i knew not what he meant by this discourse, and turning short upon him, "sir," said i, "i know no reason i have to be afraid either of any dutch or english ships. i am no interloper, and what business have they with me?" _well, sir,_ said the man, _if you do think yourselves secure, all as i can say, you must take your chance; however, i am very sorry you are so deaf to good advice; but i assure you; if you do not put to sea immediately, you will be attacked by five long-boats full of men, hanged yourself for a pirate, if you are taken, and the particulars examined afterwards. i thought, sir_, added he, _i might have met a better reception for such a singular piece of service_. "sir," said i, "i was never ungrateful to any man; but pray explain yourself and i'll go on board this minute, whether the leak be stopped or no." _why, sir,_ said he, _to be short, because time is precious, the matter is this: you know well enough that you was with the ship at sumatra, when your captain was murdered by the malayans, with three of his sailors; and that either you, or some who were on board you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned pirates at sea. now, sir, this is the sum of what i had to say: and i can positively assure you, that if you are taken, you will be executed without much ceremony, for undoubtedly you cannot but be sensible what little law merchant ships show to pirates, whenever they fall into their hands_. "sir,' said i, 'i thank you for your kind information; and though i am sure no man could come more honestly by the ship than i have done, yet knowing their enterprize, and being satisfied of your honest intention, i'll be upon my defence. _pr'ythee, sir,_ said the man, _don't talk of being upon your defence, the best that you can make is to be out of danger; and therefore, if you have any regard for your life, & the lives of your men, take the advantage, without fail, of putting out to sea at high-water: by which means, as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out of their reach before they can come down._ "i am mighty well satisfied," said i, "in this particular, and for your kindness, which merits my great esteem; pray, sir, what amends shall i make you?" he replied, "i know not what amends you are willing to make, because you may have some doubts of its certainty: but, to convince you of the truth of what i say, i have one offer to make to you. on board one of the english ships, i have nineteen months pay due to me, and this dutchman that is with me has seven months pay due to him, which if you will make good to us, we will go along with you. if you shall find that there is nothing in what we have said, then we shall desire nothing; but when you are convinced that we have saved the ship, your life, and the lives of the men, we will leave the whole to your generosity." so reasonable did this every way appear, that i immediately consented, and we went directly on board. as soon as we came on board, my partner calls joyfully out, _that they had stopped the leak?_ "well, thank god," said i, "but pray let us weigh anchor forthwith."--_weigh,_ said he, _what is the meaning of this hurry_? "pray ask no questions," said i, "but all hands to work, without losing a moment's time." upon which, in great surprise, the captain was called, who immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite down, yet being assisted with a little land breeze, we stood to sea. i then called my partner into the cabin, and related the story at large, which was confirmed and more amplified by the two men i had brought on board. scarce had we finished our discourse upon this head, but a sailor came to the cabin door, with a message from the captain, that we were chased by five sloops full of armed men. "very well," said i, "it is plain now there is something in it." and so, going upon deck, i told all the men there was a design for seizing the ship, and of executing us for pirates; and asked them whether they would faithfully stand by us, and by one another? to which they unanimously replied, "that they would fight to their last drop of blood." i then asked the captain, which way he thought best for us to manage the battle? _sir_, said he, _the only method is to keep them off with our great shot as long as we are able, and then have recourse to our small arms: and when both these fail us, then retire to close quarters, when perhaps the enemy wanting materials, can neither break open our bulk heads, nor get in upon us_. meantime, the gunner was ordered to bring two guns to bear fore and aft out of the steerage, and so load them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron; and the deck being cleared, we prepared for the engagement, still, however, keeping out at sea. the boats followed us, with all the sail they could make, and we could perceive the two foremost were english, which out-sailed the rest by two leagues, and which we found would come up with us: hereupon, we fired a gun without a ball, intimating that they should bring to, and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but finding them crowding after us, till they came within shot, we took in our white, and hanging out the red flap, immediately fired at them with ball: we then called to them with a speaking trumpet, bidding them at their peril keep off. but all this signified nothing; for depending upon the strength that followed them, they were resolutely bent for mischief: hereupon i ordered them to bring the ship to, by which means, they lying upon our broadside, we let fly at them at once, one of whom carried away the stern of the hindermost boat, and obliged them not only to take down their sail, but made them all run to the head of the boat, to keep them from sinking, and so she lay by, having enough of it. in the meantime, we prepared to welcome the foremost boat in the same manner. while we were doing this, one of the three hindermost boats came up to the relief of that which was disabled, and took the men out of her. we again called to parley with them; but, instead of an answer, one of the boats came close under our stern; whereupon our gunner let fly his two chase guns, but missing, the men in the boat shouted, and, waving their caps, came on with greater fury. to repair this seeming disgrace, the gunner soon got ready, and firing a second time, did a great deal of mischief among the enemy. we waved again, and, bringing our quarter to bear upon them, fired three guns more, when we found the boat a sinking, and several men already in the sea; hereupon, manning our pinnace, i gave orders to save as many as they could, and instantly to come on board, because the rest of their boats were approaching: accordingly they did so, and took up three of them, one of whom was almost past recovery; and then crowding all the sail we could, after our men came on board, we stood out farther to sea, so that the other three boats gave over the chase, when they came up to the first two. thus delivered from imminent danger, we changed our course to the eastward, quite out of the course of all european ships. being now at sea, and inquiring more particularly of the two seamen, the meaning of all this, the dutchman at once let us into the secret. he told us, that the fellow who sold us the ship was an errant thief, who had run away with her; that the captain was treacherously murdered on the coast of molucca by the natives there, with three of his men; that he, the dutchman, and four more, being obliged to have recourse to the woods for their safety, at length escaped by means of a dutch ship in its way to china, which had sent their boat on shore for fresh water: that, after this, he went to batavia, where two of the seamen belonging to the ship (who had deserted the rest in their travels) arrived, and there gave an account that the fellow who ran away with the ship had sold her at bengal to a set of pirates, who went a cruising, and had already taken one english and two dutch ship, richly laden. now, tho' this was absolutely false, my partner truly said, that our deliverance was to be esteemed so much the more, by reason, had we fallen into their hands, we could have expected nothing from them but immediate death, considering our accusers would have been our judges; and, therefore, his opinion was to return directly to bengal, where, being known, we could prove how honestly we came by the ship, of whom we bought her, and the like, and where we were sure of some justice; at least would not be hanged first, and judged afterwards. i was at first of my partner's opinion, but when i had more seriously considered of the matter, i told him, we ran a great hazard in attempting to return, being on the wrong side of the straits of molucca and that, if, upon alarm given, we should be taken by the dutch at batavia, or english elsewhere, our turning away would be a sufficient evidence to condemn us. this danger indeed startled not only my partner, but likewise all the ship's company; so we changed our former resolution, and resolved to go to the coast of tonquin, and so to that of china, where, pursuing our first design as to trade, we might likewise have an opportunity to dispose of the ship some way or other, and to return to bengal in any country vessel we could procure. this being agreed to, we steered away n.n.e. about 50 leagues off the usual course to the east; which put us to some inconveniences. as the wind blew steadily against us, our voyage became more tedious, and we began to be afraid of want of provision; and what was still worse, we apprehended, that as those ships from whose boat we had escaped, were bound to china, they might get before us, and have given fresh information, which might create another vigorous pursuit. indeed, i could not help being grieved, when i considered that i who had never wronged or defrauded any person in my life, was now pursued like a common thief, and if taken to run the greatest danger of being executed as such; and, though innocent, i found myself under the necessity of flying for my safety; and thereby escape being brought to shame, of which i was even more afraid than death itself. it was easy to read my dejection in my countenance. my mind was oppressed, like those unhappy innocent persons, who being overpowered by blasphemous and perjured evidences, wickedly resolved to take away their lives, or ruin their reputation, have no other recourse in this world to ease their sorrow, but sighs, prayers, and tears. my partner seeing me so concerned, encouraged me as well as he could; and, after describing to me the several ports of that coast, he told me, he would either put me in on the coast of cochinchina, or else in the bay of tonquin, from whence we might go to macao, a town once possessed by the portuguese, and where still many european families resided. to this place we steered, and, early next morning, came in sight of the coast; but thought it advisable to put into a small river where we could, either over land, or by the ship's pinnace, know what vessels were in any ports thereabouts. this happy step proved our deliverance; for, next morning, there came to the bay of tonquin two dutch ships, and a third without any colours; and in the evening, two english ships steered the same course. the river where we were was but small, and ran but a few leagues up the country northward; the country was wild and barbarous, and the people thieves, having no correspondence with any other nation; dealing only in fish, oil, and such gross commodities: and one barbarous custom they still retained, that when any vessel was unhappily shipwrecked upon their coast, they make the men prisoners or slaves, so that now we might fairly say we were surrounded by enemies both by sea and land. as the ship had been leaky, we took the opportunity, in this place to search her, and to stop up the places which let in the water. we accordingly lightened her, and bringing our guns and other moveable things to one side, we essayed to bring her down, that we might come to her bottom: but, upon second consideration, we did not think it safe to let her lie on dry ground, neither indeed was the place convenient for it. the inhabitants not used to such a sight as to see a ship lie down on one side; and heel in towards the shore, and not perceiving her men, who were at work on her bottom, with stages and boats on the off side, presently imagined the ship had been cast away, and lay fast on the ground. agreeable to this supposition, they surrounded us with ten or twelve large boats, with a resolution, undoubtedly to plunder the ship, and to carry away those they found alive for slaves to their king. but when they perceived our men hard at work on the ship's bottom and side, washing, graving, and stopping her, it filled them all with such surprise, that they stood gazing as though they were confounded. nor could we imagine what their design was; however, for fear of danger, we handed down arms and ammunition to those at work, in order to defend themselves; and, indeed, this precaution was absolutely necessary; for, in a quarter of an hour after, the natives, concluding it was really a shipwreck, and that we were saving our lives and goods, which they thought belonged to them, came down upon our men as though it had been in line of battle. we lay at present but in a very unfit posture to fight; and before the stages could be got down, or the men in the boat come on board as they were ordered, the cochinchinese were upon them, and two of their boats boarding our long boat, they began to lay hold of our men as prisoners. the first they seized was a stout english sailor, who never fired his musket, like a fool, as i imagined, but laid it down in the boat: but he knew what he was doing; for, by main force, he dragged the pagan out of the boat into ours by the two ears, and knocked his brains out against the boat's gunnel; a dutchman that was next him, snatched up the musket, and knocked down five more with the but-end of it; however, this was doing very little to their number; but a strange unexpected accident, which rather merits laughter than any thing else, gave our men a complete victory over them. it seems the carpenter, who was preparing to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams, where he caulked to stop the leaks, had gotten two kettles just let down in the boat, one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, oil, and such stuffs as the shipwrights use; the carpenter's man had a great iron ladle with which he used to supply the workmen with hot stuff, & as two of the enemies entered the boat where the fellow stood, he saluted them with a full ladle of the hot boiling liquor; which, the poor creatures being half naked, made them roar out, and jump into the sea. _well done, jack_, says the carpenter, _give them the other dose_: and so stepping forward himself, takes a mop, and dipping it into the pitch-pot, he and his man so plentifully flung it among them, as that none escaped being scalded; upon which they all made the best of their way, crying and howling in such a frightful manner, that, in all my adventures, i never heard the like. and, indeed, never was i better pleased with any conquest than i was with this, there being so little bloodshed, and having an aversion to killing such savage wretches, (more than was necessary) as knowing they came on errands, which their laws and customs made them think were just and equitable. by this time, all things being in order, and the ship swimming, they found their mistake, so they did not venture a second attack. thus ended our merry fight; and, having got rice, bread, roots, and sixteen good hogs on board the day before we set sail, not daring to go into the bay of tonquin, but steering n.e. toward the isle of formosa, or as tho' we would go to the manillas, or phillippine islands, for fear of meeting with any european ships; when we anchored at the isle of formosa, the inhabitants not only courteously supplied us with provisions and fresh water, but dealt very fairly and honestly with us in their bargains and agreements. from this place we steered north, keeping still off the coast of china, till we were beyond all its ports where european ships usually come; and, at length, being come to the latitude of thirty degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and standing for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old portuguese pilot on board, who offered his service; we very gladly accepted him, and sent the boat back again. and now, having the man on board, i talked to him of going to nanquin, the most northward part of the coast of china. _what will you do there_? said he, smiling. i told him that we would sell our cargo, and purchase calicoes, raw and wrought silks, tea, &c. and so return the same way back. _o_, said he, _you had better put in at macao, where you may buy china wares as cheap as at nanquin, and sell your opium at a greater advance_. "but' said i 'we are gentlemen as well as merchants, and design to see the great city of pekin, and the magnificent court of the monarch of china," _why then_, said he, _you should go to ningpo, where is a navigable river that goes through the heart of that vast empire, two hundred and seventy leagues from the sea, which crosses all the rivers, passes considerable hills, by the help of the sluices and gates, and goes even up to the city of pekin. you may go to nanquin if you please, and travel to pekin, and there is a dutch ship just before bound that way_. at the name of a dutch or english ship, i was struck with confusion; they being as great a terror to me in this vessel, as an algerine man of war is to them in the mediterranean. the old man finding me troubled, _sir_, said he, _i hope the dutch are not now at war with your nation_. "no," said i, "but god knows what liberty they may take when out of the reach of the law." _why_, says he _what occasion is there for peaceable merchants to fear? for believe me, they never meddle with any but pirates._ [illustration: the carpenter and his man defeats the cochinchinese.] at the mentioning the word _pirates_, my countenance turned to that of scarlet; nor was it possible for me to conceal it from the old pilot; who was taking notice of it, _sir_, said he _take what course you please, i'll do you all the service i can._ "seignior," said i, "i am a little concerned at your mentioning pirates; i hope there are none such in these seas, because you see in what weak condition we are to defend ourselves." _o, sir_, said he, _if that's all, don't be concerned, i don't remember one in these seas these fifteen years, except above a month ago one was seen in the bay of siam, but he is gone to the southward; neither was she built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate captain, and some of his men, the right captain having been murdered by the malayans_. "what," said i, (as though ignorant of what had happened) "did they kill the captain?" _no_, said he, _it is generally thought the malayans murdered him; but they justly deserve hanging. the rogues were lately discovered in the bay of siam, in the river of cambodia, by some dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and had much ado to escape the five boats that pursued them, but they have solemnly sworn to give no quarter to the captain or the seamen but hang them every one up at the yard-arm, without any formal business of bringing them to a court of judicature_. being sensible, that, having the old man on board, he was incapable of doing me any mischief, "well, seignior, (said i) it is for this very reason i would have you carry us up to nanquin, where neither english nor dutch ships come; and i must tell you, their captains are a parcel of rash, proud, insolent rascals, that neither know what belongs to justice, nor how to behave themselves as the laws of god or nature direct; fellows that would prove murderers to punish robbers, and take upon them to adjudge innocent men to death, without any proof to prove them guilty, but perhaps i may live to call them to account for it, in a place where they may be taught how justice is to be executed." and so i told him all the story of buying the ship, and how we were saved by the means of two men; that the murder of the captain by the malayans, as also the running away with the ship, i believed to be true; but that we, who bought it, were turned pirates, was a mere fiction to cover their cowardice and foolish behaviour, when they attacked us, & the blood of those men we killed in our own just defence, lay at their door, who sent to attack us by surprise. "sir, (said the old man, amazed) you have taken the right course to steer to the north, and, if i might advise you, i would have you sell your ship in china, and buy or build another in that country; and i'll procure people to buy the one and sell the other." "well, but, seignior, (said i) if i sell the ship in this manner, i may bring some innocent persons into the same dangers i have gone through, perhaps worse, even death itself; whereby i should be as guilty of their murder as their villainous executioners." "that need not trouble you, (says the old man) i'll find a way to prevent that; for these commanders you talk of i know very well, and will inform them rightly of the matter as you have related, and i am persuaded they will not only believe me, but act more cautiously for the future." "and will you deliver one message from me to them?" "yes, (said he) if you will give it under your hand, that i may prove it is not of my own production," hereupon i wrote a large account of their attacking me in their long-boat, the pretended reason and unjust design of it; that they had done what they might be ashamed of, and could not answer for at any tribunal in england. but this letter was writ in vain. providence ordered things another way. we sailed directly for nanquin, and in about thirteen day's sail, came to an anchor at the south-west point of the great gulf of that place, where we learned, that two dutch ships were gone the length before us, and that we should certainly fall into their hands. we were all at a great loss in this exigency, and would very gladly have been on shore almost any where; but our old pilot told me, that if i would sail to the southward about two and forty leagues, there was a little port called quinchange, where no european ships ever came, and where we might consider what was further to be done. accordingly we weighed anchor the next day, calling only twice on shore by the way to get fresh water. the country people very courteously sold us roots, tea, rice, fowls, and other provisions. after five days sail we came to the port, and landed with unspeakable joy. we resolved to dispose of ourselves and effects in any other way possible, than enter on board that ill-fated vessel more; for no state can be more miserable than a continued fear, which is a life of death, a confounder of our understandings, that sets the imagination at work to form a thousand frightful things that may never happen. and we scarce slept one night without dreaming of halters, yard-arms, or gibbets, of fighting, being taken, and being killed; nay, so violent were our apprehensions, that we would bruise our hands and heads against the sides of the cabin, as though actually engaged. the story of the dutch cruelty at amboyns, often came into our thoughts when awake; and, for my part, i thought my condition very hard; that after so many difficulties and such signal deliverances, i should be hanged in my old age, though innocent of any crime that deserved such punishment; but then religion would seem to represent to me, as though the voice of it had said; 'consider, o man! what sins you have been formerly guilty of; which now thou art called to an account for, to expiate with thy blood! and as to thy innocence, what art thou more innocent than thy blessed redeemer, jesus christ, who suffered for thy offences, and to whose providence you ought to submit, let what will happen?' after this, natural courage would inspire me to resist to the last drop of blood, and sooner die than suffer myself to be taken by boorish, rascally dutchmen, who had arts to torment beyond death itself. but now, thank kind heaven, being ashore; our old pilot procured us a lodging and a warehouse for our goods; it was a little hut with a large warehouse joining to it, all built with canes, and pallisadoed round with large ones, to keep out pilfering thieves, which are very numerous in that country. the magistrates allowed us a little guard during the night, and we employed a centinel with a kind of halbert for three pence a day. the fair, or mart, we found, had been over for some time; however, there remained in the river four junks and two japan ships, the merchants of the latter being on shore. in the first place, our old pilot brought us acquainted with the missionary roman priests, who were converting the people to christianity: two of them were reserved, rigid, and austere, applying themselves to the work they came about with great earnestness, but the third, who was a frenchman, called father simon, was of a freer conversation, not seemingly so serious and grave, yet no worse christian than the other two, one of whom was a portuguese, and the other a genoese. father simon, it seems, was appointed to go to pekin, the royal seat of the emperor of the chinese; and he only waited for another priest, who was ordered from macao to accompany him. we never met together, but he was prompting me to accompany him in that journey: _sir_, said he, _i will show you the glorious things of this mighty empire, and a city, the city of pekin, far exceeding london and paris, put them both together_. one day in particular, being at dinner with him, i showed some inclination to go; which made him press the more upon me and my partner, to gain our perfect consent. _but, father simon_, said my partner, _what satisfaction can you have in our company, whom you esteem as heretics, and consequently objects not worthy your regard? o_, said he, _you may be as good catholics in time as those i hope to convert to our religion. and so_, said i, _we shall have you preaching to us all the way, instead of pleasing us with a description of the country. sir_, said he, _however our religion may be villified by some people, it is very certain it neither divests us of good manners or christian charity; and as we are gentlemen, as such we may converse together, without making one another uneasy_. but we shall leave him a while, to consider our ship and the merchandise which we had to dispose of. there was but very little trade in the place where we were; and i was once resolved to venture to sail to the river kilam, and so to the city of nanquin; but providence ordered it otherwise, by our old pilot's bringing a japan merchant to us, to see what goods we had. he immediately bought our opium, for which he gave us a very good price in gold by weight, some wedges of which were about ten or eleven ounces. it came into my head that perhaps he might buy the ship too; and i ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. he said nothing then, but shrugged up his shoulders; yet in a few days after he came accompanied by a missionary priest, who was his interpreter, with this proposal, _that as he had bought a great quantity of our goods, he had not money enough to purchase our ship; but if i pleased he would hire her, with all my men, to go to japan, and from thence with another loading to the philippine islands, the freight of both which he would very willingly pay to us before; and at their return to japan, would buy the ship_. upon this we asked the captain and his men if they were willing to go to japan; to which they unanimously agreed. while this was in agitation, the young man my nephew left to attend me, told me, "that as i did not care to accept his prospect of advantage he would manage it for me as i pleased, and render me a faithful account of his success, which would be wholly mine." indeed i was very unwilling to part with him; but considering it might be for the young man's good, i discoursed with my partner about it, who, of his own generosity, gave him his share of the vessel, so that i could do no otherwise than give him mine: but, however, we let him have but the proper half of it, and preserved a power, that when we met in england, if he had obtained success, he should account to us for one half of the profit of the ship's freight and the other should be his own. thus having taken a writing under his hand, away he sailed to japan, where the merchant dealt very honestly by him, got him a licence to come on shore, sent him loaded to the philippines with a japanese supercargo, from whence he came back again loaded with european goods, cloves, and other spiceries. by this voyage he cleared a considerable sum of money, which determined him not to sell his ship, but to trade on his own account; so he returned to the manillas, where, getting acquaintance, he made his ship free, was hired by the governor privately to go to acapulco in america, on the mexican coast, with a licence to travel to the great city of mexico. this traffic turned out greatly to account, and my friend finding means to get to jamaica, returned nine years after exceedingly rich into england. in parting with the ship, it comes in course to consider of those men who had saved our lives when in the river of cambodia; and though, by the way, they were a couple of rogues, who thought to turn pirates themselves, yet we paid them what they had before demanded, and gave each of them a small sum of money, making the englishman a gunner, and the dutchman a boatswain, with which they were very well contented. we were now about 1000 leagues farther from home, than when at bengal. all the comfort we could expect was, that there being another fair to be kept in a month's time, we might not only purchase all sorts of that country's manufactures, but very possibly find some chinese junks, or vessels from tonquin, to be sold, which would carry us and our goods wheresoever we pleased. upon these hopes, we resolved to continue; and, to divert ourselves, we took several little journies in the country. about ten days after we parted with the ship, we travelled to see the city of nanquin. the city lies in latitude 30 degrees north of the line: it is regularly built, and the streets are exactly straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which sets it out to the greatest advantage. at our return, we found the priest was come from macao, that was to accompany father simon to pekin. that father earnestly solicited me to accompany him, & i referred him to my partner. in short, we both agreed, and prepared accordingly; and we were so lucky as to have liberty to travel among the retinue of one of their mandarines, who is a principal magistrate, and much reverenced by the people. we were five and twenty days travelling thro' this miserable country, infinitely populous, but as indifferently cultivated; and yet their pride is infinitely greater than their poverty, insomuch that they priests themselves derided them. as we passed by the house of one of their country gentlemen, two leagues off nanquin, we had the honour, forsooth, to ride with the chinese squire about two miles. never was don quixote so exactly imitated! never such a compound of pomp and poverty seen before! his habit, made of calico, was dirty, greasy, and very proper for a mersy andrew or scaramouch, with all its tawdry trappings, as hanging sleeves, tassels, &c. though torn and rent in almost every part; his vest underneath it was no less dirty, but more greatly; resembling the most exquisite sloven or greasy butcher; his horse (worse than rosinante, or the famous steed of doughty hudibras) was a poor starved decrepid thing, that would not sell for thirty shillings in england; and yet this piece of worshipful pomp was attended with ten or twelve slaves who guarded their master to his country seat. we stopped at a little village for refreshment; and when we came by the country seat of this great man, we found him sitting under a tree before his door, eating a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlic in the middle, and a bag filled with green pepper by him, and another plant like ginger, together with a piece of lean mutton in it: this was his worship's repast: but pray observe the state of the food! two women slaves brought him his food, which being laid before him, two others appeared to perform their respective offices; one fed him with a spoon, while the other scraped off what fell upon his beard and taffety vest, and gave it to a particular favourite to eat. and thus we left the wretch pleased with the conceit of our admiring his magnificence, which rather merited our scorn and detestation. at length we arrived at the great city of pekin, accompanied by two servants, and the old portuguese pilot, whose charges we bore, and who served us as an interpreter by the way. we had scarce been a week at pekin, but he comes laughing to us. "ah! seignior inglise, (said he) me something tell you make your heart glad, but make me sorry: for your bring me here twenty-five days journey, and now you leave me go back alone; and which way shall i make my port after, without de ship, without de horse, without pecune?" so he called money in his broken latin. he then informed me, that there was a great caravan of muscovite and polish merchants in the city, who were preparing to set out for muscovy by land within six weeks; and, that he was certain we would take this opportunity, and consequently that he must go home by himself. indeed this news infinitely surprised & pleased me. "are you certain of this?" said i, "yes, sir, (says he) me sure its true." and so he told me, that having met an old acquaintance of his, an armenian, in the street, who was among them, and who had come from astracan, with a design to go to tonquin, but for certain reasons having altered his resolutions, he was now resolved to go with the caravan, and to return by the river wolga to astracan. "well, seignior, (said i) don't be discontented about your returning alone; and if, by this means, i can find a passage to england, it will be your own fault if you return to macao at all." and so consulting with my partner what was best to be done, he referred it to me as i pleased, having our affairs so well settled at bengal, that if he could convert the good voyage he had made in china silks, wrought or raw, he would be satisfied to go to england; and so return to bengal in the company's ships. thus resolved, we agreed that if our pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges either to moscow or england; and to give him in a present the sum of one hundred and seventy pounds sterling. hereupon we called him in, and told him the cause of his complaint should be removed, if he would accompany us with the caravans; and, therefore, we desired to know his mind. at this he shook his head, "great long journey, (said he) me no pecune carry me to moscow, or keep me there." but we soon put him out of that concern, by making him sensible of what we would give him here to lay out the best advantage; and, as for his charges, we would set him safe on shore, god willing, either in muscovy or england, as he pleased, at our own charge, except the carriage of his goods. at this proposal, he was like a man transported, telling us he would go with us all the world over; and we made preparations for our journey; but it was near four months before all the merchants were ready. in the mean time, my partner and the pilot went express to the port where we first put in, to dispose of what goods had been left there, while i accompanied a chinese merchant who was going to nanquin, and there bought twenty-nine pieces of damask, with about three hundred more of other fine silks; and, by the time my partner returned to pekin, i had them all carried thither; our cargo in silks amounted to 45col. sterling, which, together with tea, fine calicoes, nutmegs, and cloves, loaded eighteen camels for our share, besides what we rode upon, with two or three spare horses, and two more loaden with provisions; the company now was very great, making about four hundred horse, and above one hundred and twenty men, well armed and provided. we were of several nations, among whom were five scotch merchants, inhabiting in moscow, and well experienced in trade. we set out from pekin the beginning of february our stile; and in two days more, we passed through the gate of the great china wall, which was erected as a fortification against the tartars, being one hundred english miles long. we then entered a country not near so populous, chiefly under the power of plundering tartars, several companies of whom we perceived riding on poor starved horses, contemptible as themselves without order of discipline. one time our leader, for the day, gave us leave to go a hunting; but what do you think we hunted? only a parcel of sheep, which indeed exceeded any in the world for wildness and swiftness; but while we were pursuing this game, it was our chance to meet with about forty tartars, who no sooner perceived us, but one of them blew a horn, at the sound of which there soon appeared a troop of forty or fifty more, at about a mile's distance. hereupon, one of the scots merchants (who knew their ways) ordered us to advance towards them, and attack them immediately, as we advanced, they let fly a volley of arrows, which happily fell a little short of us; this made us halt a little, to return the compliment with bullets; and then being led up by the bold scot, we fired our pistols in their faces, and drew out our swords; but there was no occasion; for they flew like timorous sheep, & only three of them remained, beckoning to the rest to come back. but our brave commander gallops up to them by himself, shot one dead, knocked another of his horse, while the third ran away; and thus ended our battle with the tartars. we travelled a month more through the emperor of china's dominions; and at length coming to one of their towns about a day and a half's journey from the city of naum, i wanted to buy a camel. the person i spoke to would have brought me one, but, like a fool, i must go along with him, about two miles from the village. my old pilot and i walked on foot, forsooth, for some variety, when coming to the place where the camels were kept as in a park guarded by chinese soldiers, we there agreed and bought one, which the chinese man that came along with me led along the road. but we had not gone far, before we were attacked by five tartars, mounted on horseback, two of whom seized the man, took the camel from him, and rode away, while the other three approached us, the first of whom suddenly seized me as i was drawing my sword, the second; knocked me down, but my old trusty portuguese taking a pistol out of his pocket, which i knew nothing of, and coming up to the fellow that struck me, he with one hand pulled him off his horse, and then shot him dead upon the spot; then taking his scymitar, he struck at the man that stopped us, but missing him, cut off one of his horses ears, the pain of which made him throw his rider to the ground. the poor chinese who had led the camel, seeing the tartar down, runs to him, and seizing upon his pole-ax, wrenched it from his hands, and knocked his brains out. but there was another tartar to deal with, who seeming neither inclined to fight nor fly, and my old man having begun to charge his pistol, the very sight of it struck such a terror into the wretch, that away he scoured, leaving my old pilot, rather my champion and defender, an absolute victory. by this time being awakened from my trance, i began to open my eyes, wondering where i was, having quite forgot all that passed; but my senses returning, and feeling a great pain in my head, and seeing the blood was running over my clothes, i instantly jumped upon my feet, and grasped my sword in my hand, with a resolution to take revenge: but no enemies now remained, except the dead tartar, with his horse standing by him. the old man seeing me recovered, whom he thought slain, ran towards me, and embraced me with the greatest tenderness, at the same time examining into my wound, which was far from being mortal. when we returned to the village, the man demanded payment for his camel, which i refusing, we brought the cause, before a chinese judge, who acted with great impartiality: having heard both sides, he asked the chinese man that went with me, whose servant he was? _sir,_ said he, _i am nobody's, but went with the stranger at his request: why then_, said the judge, _you are the stranger's servant for the time, and the camel being delivered to his servant, it is the same as though delivered to himself, and accordingly he must pay for it._ indeed the case was so fairly stated, that i had nothing to object to it; so, having paid for that i was robbed of, i sent for another, but did not go myself to fetch it, as i had enough of that sport before. the city of naum is a frontier of the chinese empire, so fortified, as some will tell you, that millions of tartars cannot batter down their walls; by which certainly one might think one of our cannons would do more execution than all their legions. when we were within a day's march of that city, we had information that the governor had sent messengers to every part of the road, to inform the travellers and caravans to halt, till a guard was sent to protect them from the numerous bodies of tartars that lately appeared about the city. this news put us into great consternation; but, obeying the orders, we stopt; & two days after, there came two hundred soldiers from a garrison of the chinese, and three hundred more from naum; thus guarded both in the front and rear, with our own men in the flanks, we boldly advanced, thinking we were able to combat with ten thousand mogul tartars, if they appeared. early next morning, in our march from a little well situated town called changu, after having passed a river, and entered upon a desert of about fifteen or sixteen miles over, we soon beheld by a cloud of dust that was raised, that the enemy was approaching. this much dispirited the chinese. my old pilot took notice of it, and called out, _seignor inglise, those fellows must be encouraged, or they will ruin us all, and i am afraid if the tartars attack us, they will all run away_. "why, seignor, (said i), what shall be done in this case?" _done_, says he, _why let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each wing. i know the fellows will fight well enough in company_. we accordingly took his advice, and marched fifty to the right wing, and the same number to the left, and with the rest made a line of reserve, leaving the last two hundred men to guard the camels, or to assist us, as occasion required. thus prepared, a party of the enemy came forward, viewing our posture, and traversing the ground on the front of our line. hereupon we ordered the two wings to move on, and give them a salute with their shot; which accordingly was done. this put a stop to their proceedings; for immediately wheeling off to their left, they all marched away, and we saw no more of them. they had undoubtedly given an account to their companions of what reception they might expect, which made them to easily give over their enterprize. when we came to the city of naum, we returned the governor hearty thanks, and distributed a hundred crowns among the soldiers that guarded us. we rested there one day, and then proceeded on our travels, passing several great rivers and deserts and on the 13th of april we came to the frontiers of muscovy, the first town of which was called argun. this happy occasion, as i thought, of coming into a christian country, made me congratulate the scots merchant upon it. he smiled at that, telling me not to rejoice too soon; _for_, said he, _except the russian soldiers in garrison, and a few inhabitants of the cities upon the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thousand miles, is inhabited by the most ignorant and barbarous pagans_. we advanced from the river arguna, by moderate journies and found convenient garrisons on the road, filled with christian soldiers for the security of commerce, and for the convenient lodgings of travellers: but the inhabitants of the country were mere pagans, worshiping the sun, moon, and stars. we particularly observed this idolatry near the river arguna, at a city inhabited by tartars and russians, called nerisinkey. being curious to see their way of living, while the caravan continued to rest themselves in that city, i went to one of their villages, where there was to be one of their solemn sacrifices. there i beheld upon the stump of an old tree, an idol of wood, more ugly than the representation of the devil himself: its head resembled no living creature; its ears were as big and as high as goat's horns, a crooked nose, four-cornered mouth, and horrible teeth: it was clothed in sheep skins, had a great tartar bonnet, with two horns growing thro' it, and was eight feet high, without feet, legs or proportion. before this idol their lay sixteen or seventeen people, who brought their offerings, and were making their prayers, while at a distance stood three men and one bullock, as victims to this ugly monster. such stupendous sacrilege as this, in robbing the true god of his honour, filled me with the greatest astonishment and reflection: which soon turning to rage and fury, i rode up to the image, and cut in pieces the bonnet that was upon his head with my sword, so that it hung down by one of the horns, while one of my men that was with me pulled at it by his sheep-skin garment. immediately an hideous howling and outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundred people coming about our ears, we were obliged to fly for it. but i had not done with the monster; for the caravan being to rest three nights in the town, i told the scots merchant what i had seen, and that i was resolved to take four or five men well armed with me, in order to destroy the idol, and show the people how little reason they had to trust in a god who could not save himself. at first he laughed at me, representing the danger of it, and when it was destroyed, what time had we to preach to them better things, whole zeal and ignorance was in the highest degree, and both unparalleled? that if i should be taken by them, i should be served as a poor ruffian, who contemned their worship; that is, to be stripped naked, and tied to the top of the idol, there shot at with arrows till my body was fall of them, and then burnt as a sacrifice to the monster; _but sir_, said he, _since your zeal carries you so far, rather than you should be alone i will accompany you, and bring a stout fellow equal to yourself, if you will, to assist you in this design:_ and accordingly he brought one captain richardson, who, hearing the story, readily consented; but my partner declined it, being altogether out of his way: and so we three, and my servant, resolved to execute this exploit about midnight; but upon second thoughts we deferred it to the next night, by reason that the caravan being to go from hence the next morning, we should be out of the governor's power. the better to effectuate my design, i procured a tartar's sheep-skin robe, a bonnet, with bow and arrows, and every one of us got the like habits, the first night we spent in mixing combustible matter with aqua vitae, gunpowder, &c. having a good quantity of tar in a little pot: next night we came up to the idol about eleven o'clock, the moon being up. we found none guarding it; but we perceived a light in the house, where we had seen the priests before. one of our men was for firing the hut, another for killing the people, and a third for making them prisoners, while the idol was destroyed. we agreed to the latter; so knocking at the door, we seized the first that opened it, and stopping his mouth and tying his feet, we left him. we served the other two in the like manner; and then the scots merchant set fire to the composition, which frightened them so much, that we brought them all away prisoners to their wooden god. there we fell to work with him, daubing him all over with tar mixed with tallow and brimstone stopping his eyes, ears, and mouth full of gunpowder, with a great piece of wild-fire in his bonnet, and environed it with dry forage. all this being done, we unloosed and ungagged the prisoners, and set the idol on fire, which the gunpowder blowing up, the shape of it was deformed, rent and split, which the forage utterly consumed; for we staid to see its destruction, lest the ignorant idolatrous people should have thrown themselves into the flames, and thus we came away undiscovered, in the morning appearing as busy among our fellow travellers, as no body could have suspected any other, but that we had been in our beds all night. next morning we let out, and had gone but a small distance from the city, when there came a multitude of people of the country to the gates of the city, demanding satisfaction of the ruffian governor for insulting their priests, and burning their great cham cai-thaungu, who dwelt in the sun, and no mortal would violate this image but some christian miscreants; and being already no less than thirty thousand strong, they announced war against him and all his christians. the governor assured them he was ignorant of the matter, and that none of his garrison had been abroad; that indeed there was a caravan that went away that morning, and that he would send after them to inquire into it; and whoever was the offender, should be delivered into their hands. this satisfied them for the present, but the governor sent to inform us, that if any of us had done it, we should make all the haste away possible, while he kept them in play as long as he could. upon this we marched two days and two nights, stopping but very little, till at last we arrived at a village called plothus, and hasted to jerawena, another of the czar's colonies. on the third day, having entered the desert, and passed the lake called shaks oser, we beheld a numerous body of horde on the other side or it to the north, who supposed we had passed on that side of the lake; but either having found the mistake, or being certainly informed of the way we took, they came upon us towards the dusk of the evening, just as we had pitched our camp between two little but very thick woods, with a little river running before our front and some felled trees with which we covered our rear; a precaution we always took, and which we had just finished when the enemy came up. they did not fall on us immediately, but sent three messengers, demanding the men who had insulted their priests, & burnt their god, cham chi-thaungu, that they might be burnt with fire; that if this was complied with, they would peaceably depart; but if not, they would destroy one and all of us. our men stared at one another on receipt of this message, but nobody was the word, as indeed nobody knew it, but he who did it. upon which the leader of the caravan returned for answer, _that they were peaceable merchants, who meddled with none of their priests and gods and therefore desired, them not to disturb us, and put us to the necessity of defending ourselves_. but do far was this from satisfying them, that the next morning coming to our right, they let fly a volley of arrows among us, which happily did not hurt any, because we sheltered ourselves behind our baggage. we expected however to come to a closer engagement; but were happily saved by a cunning fellow, a cossack, who obtaining leave of the leader to go out, mounts his horse, rides directly from our rear, and taking a circuit, comes up to the tartars, as tho he had been sent express, and tells them a formal story, that the wretches who had burnt the cham chi-thaungu, were gone to shiheilka, with a resolution to burn the god shal-ifar, belonging to the tongueses. upon which, believing this cunning tartar, who was servant to our muscovites, away they drove to shiheilka, and in less than three minutes were out of sight, nor did we ever hear of them more. when we came to the city of jarawena, we rested five days, and then entered into a frightful desert, which held us twenty-three days march, infested with several small companies of robbers, or mogul tartars, who never had the courage to attack us. after we had passed over this desert, we found several garisons to defend the caravans from the violence of the tartars. in particular the governor of adinskoy offered us a guard of fifty men to the next station, if we apprehended any danger. the people here retained the same paganism and barbarity, only they were not so dangerous, being conquered by the muscovites. the clothing, both of men & women, is of the skins of beasts, living under the ground in vaults & caves, which have a communication with one another. they have idols almost in every family; besides, they adore the sun and stars, water and snow; and the least uncommon thing that happens in the elements, alarms them as much as thunder and lightning does the unbelieving jews. nothing remarkable occurred in our march through this country. when we had gone through the desert, after two days farther travel; we came to jenezoy, a muscovite city, on the great river so called, which we were told, parted europe from asia. the inhabitants here were very little better, though intermixed with the muscovites, but the wonder will cease, when i inform my readers of what was observed to me, that the czar rather converts the tartars with soldiers than clergymen, and is more proud to make them faithful subjects, than good christians. from this city to the river oby, we travelled over a pleasant, fruitful, but very uncultivated country, for want of good management and people, and those few are mostly pagans. this is the place where the muscovite criminals are banished to, if they are not put to death. the next city we came to, was the capital city of siberia, called tobolski when having been almost seven months on our journey, and winter drawing on apace, my partner and i consulted about our particular affairs in what manner we should dispose of ourselves. we had been told of sledges and rein-deer to carry us over the snow in the winter season, the snow being frozen so hard, that the sledges can run upon the surface without any danger of going down. as i was bound to england, i now behoved either to go with the caravan to jerosaw, from thence west to marva, and the gulph of finland, and so by land or sea to denmark; or else i must leave the caravan at a little town on the dwina, and so to archangel, where i was certain of shipping either to england, holland, or hamburgh. one night i happened to get into the company of an illustrious, but banished prince, whose company and virtues were such as made me to propose to him a method how he might obtain his liberty. _my dear friend_, said he, _as i am here happily free from my miserable greatness with all its attendants of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, if i should escape from this place, those pernicious seeds may again revive, to my lasting disquietude; therefore let me remain in a blessed confinement, for i am but flesh, a mere man, with passions and affections as such; o be not my friend and tempter too!_ struck dumb with surprise, i stood silent a-while; nor was he less in disorder, by which perceiving he wanted to give vent to his mind, i desired him to consider of it, and so withdrew. but about two hours after he came to my apartment: _dear friend_, said he, _though i cannot consent to accompany you, i shall have this satisfaction in parting, that you leave me an honest man still: but as a testimony of my affection to you, be pleased to accept this present of sables_. in return for his compliment, i sent my servant next morning to his lordship with a small present of tea, two pieces of china damask, and four little wedges of gold; but he only accepted the tea, one piece of damask, and one piece of gold, for the curiosity of the japan stamp that was upon it. not long after he sent for me, and told me, _that what he had refused himself, he hoped upon his account, i would grant to another whom he should name:_ in short it was his only son, who was about two hundred miles distant from him, on the other side of the city, whom he said he would send for, if i gave my consent. this i soon complied with; upon which he sent his servants next day for his son, who returned in twenty days time, bringing seven horses loaded with valuable furs. at night the young lord was conducted incognito into our apartment, where his father presented him to me. we then concerted the best ways for travelling, and after having bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, fine ermines, &c. (which i sold at archangel at a good price) we set out from this city the beginning of june, making a small caravan, being about thirty-two horses and camels, of which i represented the head. my young lord had with him a very faithful siberian servant, well acquainted with the roads: we shunned the principal towns and cities, as tumen, soli kamoskoi, and several others, by reason of their strictness in examining travellers, lest any of the banished persons of distinction should escape. having passed the river kama, we came to a city on the european side, called soloy kamoskoi, where we found the people mostly pagans as before. we then passed a desert of about two hundred miles over; but in other places it is near seven hundred. in passing this wild place, we were beset by a troop of men on horseback, and about five and forty men armed with bows and arrows. at first they looked earnestly on us, and then placed themselves in our way. we were above sixteen men, and drew up a little line before our camels. my young lord sent out his siberian servant, to know who they were; but, when he approached them, he neither knew a word they said; nor would they admit him to come near them at his peril, but prepared to shoot him. at his return, he told us he believed them to be calmuc tartars; and that there were more upon the desert. this was but a small comfort to us; yet seeing a little grove, about a quarter of a mile's distance, we moved to it, by the old portuguese pilot's advice, without meeting with any opposition. here we found a marshy piece of ground, and a spring of water running into a little brook on one side, which joined another like it a little further off, and these two formed the head of the river called writska. as soon as we arrived, we went to work, cutting great arms off the trees, and laying them hanging (not quite off from one tree to another). in this situation we waited the motion of the enemy, without perceiving any advancement they made towards us. about two hours before night, being joined by some others, in all about fourscore horse, among whom we fancied were some women, they came upon us with great fury. we fired without ball, calling to them in the russian tongue, to know their business; but they, either not knowing, or seeming not to understand us, came directly to the wood side, nor considering that we were to be fortified, as that they could not break in. our old pilot, the portuguese, proved both our captain and engineer, and desired us not to fire, till they came within pistol shot; and when he gave the word of command, then to take the surest aim: but he did not bid us give fire, till they were within two pikes length of us, and then we filled fourteen of them, wounded several, as also their horses, having every one of us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets at least. so much were they surprised at our undauntedness, that they retired about a hundred roods from us. in the mean while we loaded our pieces again, and sallying out, secured four or five of their horses, whose riders we found were killed, and perceived them to be tartars. about an hour after, they made another attempt, to see where they might break in; but finding us ready to receive them, they retired. all that night we wrought hard, in strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the woods; but when day-light came, we had a very unwelcome discovery; for the enemy, being encouraged by their numbers, had set up eleven or twelve tents, in form of a camp, about three quarters of a mile from us. i must confess, i was never more concerned in my life, giving myself and all that i had over for lost. and my partner declared, that as the loss of his goods would be his ruin, before they should be taken from him, he would fight to the last drop of his blood. as we could not pretend to force our way, we had recourse to a stratagem; we kindled a large fire, which burnt all night; and no sooner was it dark, but we pursued our journey towards the pole or north star, and travelling all night; by six o'clock in the morning we came to a russian village called kertza, and from thence came to a large town named ozonzoys, where we heard that several troops of calmuc tartars had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were past all danger. in five days after we came to veuslima, upon the river witzedga; from thence we came to lawrenskoy, on the third of july, where, providing ourselves with two luggage boats, and a convenient bark, we embarked the seventh, and arrived at archangel the eighteenth, after a year, five months, and three days journey, including the eight months and odd days at tobolski. we came from archangel the 20th of august in the same year, and arrived at hamburg the 30th of september. here my partner and i made a very good sale of our goods, both those of china and siberia; when dividing our effects, my share came to 3475l. 17s. 3d. after all the losses we had sustained, and charges we had been at. here the young lord took his leave of me, in order to go to the court of vienna, not only to seek protection, but to correspond with his father's friends. after we had staid four months in hamburgh, i went from thence overland to the hague, where embarking in the packet, i arrived in london the 10th of january 1705, after ten years and nine months absence from england. _r o b i n s o n c r u s o e's_ vision of the angelic world. * * * * * chap. i. of solitude. however solitude is looked upon as a restraint to the pleasure of the world, in company and conversation, yet it is a happy state of exemption from a sea of trouble, an inundation of vanity and vexation, of confusion and disappointment. while we enjoy ourselves, neither the joy not sorrow of other men affect us: we are then at liberty with the voice of our soul, to speak to god. by this we shun such frequent trivial discourse, as often becomes an obstruction to virtue: and how often do we find that we had reason to with we had not been in company, or said nothing when we were there? for either we offend god by the impiety of our discourse, or lay ourselves open to the violence of designing people by our ungarded expressions; and frequently feel the coldness and treachery of pretended friends, when once involved in trouble and affliction: of such unfaithful intimates (i should say enemies) who rather by false inuendoes would accumulate miseries upon us, than honestly assist us when under the hard hand of adversity. but in a state of solitude, when our tongues cannot be heard, except from the great majesty of heaven, how happy are we, in the blessed enjoyment of conversing with our maker! it is then we make him our friend, which sets us above the envy and contempt of wicked men. when a man converses with himself, he is sure that he does not converse with an enemy. our retreat should be to good company, and good books. i mean not by solitude, that a man should retire into a cell, a desert, or a monastry: which would be altogether an useless and unprofitable restraint: for as men ate formed for society, and have an absolute necessity and dependance upon one another; so there is a retirement of the soul, with which it converses in heaven, even in the midst of men; and indeed no man is more fit to speak freely, than he who can, without any violence himself, refrain his tongue, or keep silence altogether. as to religion, it is by this the foul gets acquainted with the hidden mysteries of the holy writings; here she finds those floods of tears, in which good men wash themselves day and night, and only makes a visit to god, and his holy angels. in this conversation the truest peace and most solid joy are to be found; it is a continual feast of contentment on earth, and the means of attaining everlasting happiness in heaven. chap. ii. of honesty. honesty is a virtue beloved by good men, and pretended to by all other persons. in this there are several degrees: to pay every man his own is the common law of honesty: but to do good to all mankind, is the chancery law of honesty: and this chancery court is in every man's breast, where his conscience is a lord chancellor. hence it is, that a miser, though he pays every body their own, cannot be an honest man, when he does not discharge the good offices that are incumbent on a friendly, kind, and generous person: for, faith the prophet isaiah, chap. xxxii. ver. 7, 8. _the instruments of a churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. but the liberal soul deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand_. it is certainly honest to do every thing the law requires; but should we throw every poor debtor into prison till he has paid the utmost farthing, hang every malefactor without mercy, exact the penalty of every bond, and the forfeiture of every indenture, this would be downright cruelty, and not honesty: and it is contrary to that general rule, _to do to another, that which you would have done unto you_. sometimes necessity makes an honest man a knave: and a rich man a honest man, because he has no occasion to be a knave. the trial of honesty is this: did you ever want bread, and had your neighbour's loaf in keeping, and would starve rather than eat it? were you ever arrested, having in your custody another man's cash, and would rather go to gaol, than break it? if so, this indeed may be reckoned honesty. for king solomon tells us, _that a good name is better than life, and is a precious ointment, and which, when a man has once lost, he has nothing left worth keeping_. chap. iii _of the present state of religion in the world_. i doubt, indeed, there is much more devotion than religion in the world, more adoration than supplication, and more hypocrisy than sincerity; and it is very melancholy to consider, what numbers of people there are furnished with the powers of reason and gifts of nature, and yet abandoned to the grossest ignorance and depravity. but it would be uncharitable for us to imagine (as some papists, abounding with too much ill nature, the only scandal to religion, do) that they will certainly be in a state of damnation after this life; for how can we think it consistent with the mercy and goodness of an infinite being, to damn those creatures, when he has not furnished them with the light of the gospel? or how can such proud, conceited and cruel bigots, prescribe rules to the justice and mercy of god? we are told by some people, that the great image which king nebuchadnezzar set up to be adored by his people held the representation of the sun in it's right hand, as the principal object of adoration. but to wave this discourse of heathens, how many self-contradicting principles are there held among christians? and how do we doom one another to the devil, while all profess to worship the same deity, and to expect the same salvation. when i was at portugal, there was held at that time the court of justice of the inquisition. all the criminals were carried in procession to the great church, where eight of them were habited in gowns and caps of canvass, whereon the torments of hell were displayed, and they were condemned and burnt for crimes against the catholic faith and blessed virgin. i am sorry to make any reflection upon christians; but indeed, in italy the roman religion seems the most cruel and mercenary upon earth; and a very judicious person, who travelled through italy from turkey, tells, _that there is only the face and outward pomp of religion there; that the church protects murderers and assassins; and then delivers the civil magistrate over to satan for doing justice; interdicts whole kingdoms, and shuts up the churches for want of paying a few ecclesiastical dues, and so puts a stop to religion for want of their money; that the court of inquisition burnt two men for speaking dishonourably of the blessed virgin; and the missionaries of china tolerated the worshipping the devil by their new converts: that italy was the theatre, where religion was the grand opera: and that the popish clergy were no other than stage players_. as to religion in poland, they deny christ to be the messiah, or that the messiah has come in the flesh. and as to their protestants, they are the followers of laelius socinus, who denied our saviour's divinity; and have no concern about the divine inspiration of the holy ghost. in muscovy their churches are built of wood, and, indeed, they have but wooden priests, though of the greek church; they pray as much to st. nicholas, as the papists do to the virgin mary, for protection in all their difficulties or afflictions. as to lutherans, they only differ from the romans in believing consubstantiation, instead of transubstantiation; but like them, they are much pleased with the external gallantry and pomp, more than the true and real practice of it. in france i found a world of priests, the streets every where crowded with them, and the churches full of women: but surely never was a nation so full of blind guides, so ignorant of religion, and even as void of morals, as those people who confess their sins to them. does it not seem strange, that, while all men own the divine being, there should be so many different opinions as to the manner of paying him obedience in the christian church? i know not what reason to assign for this, except it be their different capacities and faculties. and, indeed, upon this account, we have perceived, in all christian countries, what mortal feuds have been about religion; what wars and bloodshed have molested europe, till the general pacification of the german troubles at the treaty of westphalia: and since those times, what persecution in the same country among the churches of the lutherans; and should i take a prospect at home, what unhappy divisions are between christians in this kingdom, about episcopacy and presbytery; the church of england and the dissenters opposing one another like st. paul and st. peter, even to the face; that is, they carry on the dispute to the utmost extremity. it might be a question, why there are such differences in religious points, and why these breaches should be more hot and irreconcileable? all the answer i can give to this, is, that we inquire more concerning the truth of religion, than any other nation in the world; and the anxious concern we have about it, makes us jealous of every opinion, and tenacious of our own; and this is not because we are more furious and rash than other people; but the truth is, we are more concerned about them, and being sensible that the scripture is the great rule of faith, the standard for life and doctrine, we have recourse to it ourselves, without submitting to any pretended infallible judge upon earth. there is another question, pertinent to the former, and that is, _what remedy can we apply to this malady_? and to this i must negatively answer, _not to be less religious, that we may differ the less_. this is striking at the very root of all religious differences; for, certainly, were they to be carried on with a peaceable spirit, willing to be informed, our variety of opinions would not have the name of differences; nor should we separate in communion of charity though we did not agree in several articles of religion. nor is there a less useful question to start, namely, _where will our unhappy religious differences end?_ to which, i hope, i may answer, _in heaven_; there we shall unchristian and unbrotherly differences will find a period; there we shall embrace many a sinner, that here we think it a dishonour to converse with; & perceive many a heart we have broken here with censures, reproachings, & revilings, made whole again by the balm of the same redeemer's blood. here we shall perceive there have been other flocks than those of our fold; that those we have excommunicated have been taken into that superior communion; and, in a word, that those contradicting notions and principles which we thought inconsistent with true religion, we shall then find reconcileable to themselves, to one another, and to the fountain of truth. if any man ask me, why our differences cannot be ended on earth? i answer, _were we all thoroughly convinced, that then they would be reconciled, we would put an end to them before; but this is impossible to be done: for as men's certain convictions of truth are not equal to one another, or the weight or significancy of such veracity: so neither can a general effect of this affair be expected on this side of time_. before i conclude this chapter, i shall beg leave to discourse a little of the wonderful excellency of negative religion and negative virtue. the latter sets out, like the pharisee, with, _god, i thank thee;_ it is a piece of religious pageantry, the hypocrite's hope: and, in a word, it is positive vice: for it is either a mask to deceive others, or a mist to deceive ourselves. a man that is clothed with negatives, thus argues: _ i am not such a drunkard as my landlord, such a thief as my tenant, such a rakish fellow, or a highwayman; no! i live a sober, regular, retired life: i am a good man, i go to church; god, i thank thee._ now, through a mans boasts of his virtue in contradiction to the vices mentioned, yet a person had better have them altogether than the man himself; or he is so full of himself, so persuaded that he is good and religious enough already, that he has no thoughts of any thing, except it be to pull of his hat to god almighty now and then, and thank him that he has no occasion for him; and has the vanity to think that his neighbours must imagine well of him too. the negative man, though he is no drunkard is yet intoxicated with the pride of his own worth; a good neighbour and peace-maker in other families, but a tyrant in his own; appears in church for a show, but never falls upon his knees in his closet; does all his alms before men, to be seen of them; eager in the duties of the second table, but regardless of the first; appears religious, to be taken notice of by men, but without intercourse or communication between god and his own soul: pray, what is this man? or what comfort is there of the life he lives? he is insensible of faith, repentance, and a christian mortified life: in a word, he is a perfectly a stranger to the essential part of religion. let us for a while enter into the private and retired part of his conversation: what notions has he of his mispent hours, and of the progress of time to the great centre and gulph of life, eternity? does he know how to put a right value on time, or esteem the life-blood of his soul, as it really is, and act in all the moments of it, as one that must account for them? if then you can form an equality between what he can do and what he shall receive; less can be founded upon his negative virtue, or what he has forborne to do: and if neither his negative nor positive piety can be equal to the reward, and to the eternity that reward is to last for, what then is to become of the pharisee, when he is to be judged by the sincerity of his repentance, and rewarded, according to the infinite grace of god, with a state of blessedness to an endless eternity? when the negative man converses with the invisible world, he is filled with as much horror and dread as felix, when st paul reasoned to him of temperance, righteousness, and of judgment to come; for felix, though a great philosopher, of great power and reverence, was a negative man, and he was made sensible by the apostle, that, as a life of virtue and temperance was its own reward, by giving a healthy body, a clear head, and a composed life, so eternal happiness must proceed from another spring; namely, the infinite unbounded grace of a provoked god, who having erected a righteous tribunal, jesus christ would separate such as by faith and repentance he had brought home and united to himself by the grace of adoption, and on the foot of his having laid down his life as a ransom for them, had appointed them to salvation, when all the philosophy, temperance, and righteousness in the world besides had been ineffectual. and this, i say, it was, that made felix, this negative man tremble. chap. iv. _of listening to the voice of providence_. the magnificent and wise king solomon bids us cry after knowledge, and lift up our voice for understanding; by which is meant, religious knowledge, for it follows: _then shalt thou understand the fear of the lord, and find the knowledge of god_. by which undoubtedly he meant, to enquire after every thing he has permitted us to know, and not to search into those ways that are unsearchable, and are effectually locked up from our knowledge.--now, _as listening to the voice of providence_ is my present subject, i intend, in the first place, to write to those who own, 1. that there is a god, a first great moving cause of all things, and eternal power, prior, and consequently superior to all created power or being.--2. that this eternal power, which is god, is the sovereign creator and governor of heaven and earth. to avoid all needless distinctions, what persons in the god-head exercise the creating, and what the governing power, i offer that glorious text, psal. xxiii. 6. where the whole trinity is entitled to the whole creating work: and, therefore, in the next place, i shall lay down these two propositions. i. _that the eternal god guides, by his providence, the whole universe, which was created by his power._ ii. _that this providence manifests a particular care over, and concern in, the governing and directing man, the most noble creature upon earth_. it is plain, that natural religion proves the first, by intimating the necessity of a providence guiding and governing the world, from the consequence of the wisdom, justice, prescience, and goodness of the almighty creator: for otherwise it would be absurd to think, that god should create a world, without any care or providence over it, in guiding the operations of nature, so as to preserve the order of his creation. revealed religion gives us a light into the care and concern of his providence, by the climate's being made habitable, the creatures subjected and made nourishing, and all vegetative life made medicinal; and all this for the sake of man, who is made viceroy to the king of the earth. the short description i shall give of providence is this: _that it is that operation of the power, of the wisdom, and goodness of god, by which be influences, governs, and directs, not only the means, but the events of all things, which concern us in this sublunary world; the sovereignty of which we ought always to reverence, obey its motions, observe its dictates, and listen to its voice. the prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself; that is, as i take it, there is a secret providence intimates to us, that some danger threatens, if we strive not to shun it_. the same day that sir john hotham kept out hull against the royal martyr king charles i. the same day sir john hotham was put to death by the parliament for that very action: the same day that the king himself signed the warrant for the execution of the earl of stafford, the same day of the month was he barbarously murdered by the blood-thirsty oliverian crew: and the same day that king james ii. came to the crown against the bill of exclusion, the same day he was voted abdicated by the parliament, and the throne filled with king william and queen mary. the voice of signal deliverances from sudden dangers, is not only a just call to repentance, but a caution against falling into the like danger; but such who are utterly careless of themselves after, show a lethargy of the worst nature, which seems to me to be a kind of practical atheism or at least, a living in a contempt of heaven, when he receives good at the hand of his maker, but is unconcerned from whence it comes, or to thank the bountiful hand that gave it; neither, when he receives evil, does it alter his manner of life, or bring him to any state of humiliation. we have a remarkable story of two soldiers being condemned to death in flanders. the general being prevailed upon to spare one of them, ordered them to cast dice upon the drumhead for their lives; the first having thrown two sixes, the second fell a wringing his hands, having so poor a chance to escape; however, having thrown, he was surprised when he also threw other two sixes. the officer appointed to see the execution, ordered them to throw again; they did so, and each of them threw fives; at which the soldiers that stood round, shouted, and said, neither of them was to die. upon this, the officer acquainted the council of war, who ordered them to throw a third time, when they threw two fours: the general being acquainted with it, sent for the men, and pardoned them. _i love,_ said he, _in such extraordinary cases, to listen to the voice of providence._ we read in the holy writings, how god speaks to men by appearance of angels, or by dreams and visions of the night. as god appeared to abraham, lot, and jacob: so angels have appeared to many in other cases, as to manoah and his wife, zechariah, the virgin mary, and to the apostles; other have been warned in a dream as king abimelech, the false prophet balaam, and many others. it is certainly a very great and noble inquiry, _what we shall be after this life?_ for there is scarce a doubt, that there is a place reserved for the reception of our souls after death: for if we are to be, we must have a where, which the scriptures assert by the examples of dives and lazarus. the doctrine of spirits was long believed before our saviour's time; for when the disciples of the blessed jesus perceived our saviour walking on the sea, they were as much surprised as though they had seen a spirit. nay, in those ages of the world, it was believed that spirits intermeddled in the affairs of mankind; and, throughout the old testament, i do not find any thing that in the least contradicts is. all the pains and labour that some learned men have taken, to confute the story of the witch of endor, and the appearance of an old man personating samuel, cannot make such apparitions inconsistent with nature or religion; and it is plain, that it was either a good or bad spirit, that prophetically told the unfortunate king what should happen the next day; for, said the spirit, _the lord will deliver thee into the hands of the philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me._ abundance of strange notions possessed me, when i was in the desolate island; especially on a moonshine night, when every bush seemed a man, and every tree a man on horseback. when i crept into the dismal cave where the old goat lay expiring, whole articulate groans even resembled those of a man, how was i surprised! my blood chilled in my veins, a cold sweaty dew sat on my forehead, my hair stood upright, and my joints, like belshazzar's knees, struck against one another. and, indeed, though i afterwards found what it was, the remains of this surprise did not wear off for a great while; and i had frequently returns of those vapours on different occasions, and sometimes without any occasion at all. one night, after having seen some appearance in the air, as i had just lain down in my bed, one of my feet pained me; after that came a numbness, succeeded with a tingling in my blood; when on a sudden i thought something alive lay upon me, from my knee to above half my leg. upon this i flung myself out of bed where i thought the creature lay; but finding nothing, _lord deliver me from evil spirits_, said i, _what can this be?_ when i lighted a candle, i could perceive no living creature in the place with me, but the poor parrot, who, being frighted, cried out, _hold your tongue_, and _what's the matter with you_, which words i had taught him, by saying so to him, when he made such screaming noises as i did not like. _lord_, said i aloud, _surely the devil has been here._ _hold your tongue_, says poll. i was then mad at the bird, and putting on my clothes, cried, _i am terribly frighted._ _what's the matter with you_? says poll. _you toad_, said i, _i'll knock your brains out._ _hold you tongue_, cried he again, and so fell a chattering, and calling robinson crusoe, as he did before. but after i had composed myself, and went to bed again, i began plainly to see it was a distemper that affected my nerves, and so my terrors vanished at once. how intelligences are given or received, we do not know; nor are we sensible how they are conveyed from spirits embodied to ours that are in life; or, on the contrary, from us to them; the latter is certainly done without help of the organs, and the former is conveyed by the understanding, and the retired faculties of the soul. the spirits, without the help of voices, converse, and the more particular discoveries of converse of the spirits, seem to me as follow: to wit, dreams, voices, noises, impulses, hints, apprehensions, involuntary sadness, &c. dreams of old were the ways by which god himself was pleased to warn men what services to perform, and what to shun. joseph was directed of god in a dream to go to egypt; and so were the wise men warned in a dream to depart into their own country another way, to avoid the fury of herod. i am not like those who think dreams are the mere designs of a delirious head, or the relics of a day's perplexities or pleasures; but, on the contrary, i must beg leave to say, i never met with any capital mischief in my life, but i had some notice of it by a dream; and had i not been a thoughtless unbelieving creature, i might have taken many a warning, and avoided many of the evils i afterwards fell into, merely by total neglect of those dreams. i was once present at a dispute between a layman and a clergyman, upon the subject of dreams. the first thought no regard should be given unto them; that their communication from the invisible to the visible world was a mere chimera, without any solid foundation. for, first, said he, if dreams were from the agency of any prescient being, the motives would be more direct, and the discoveries more plain, and not by allegories and emblematic fancies, expressing things imperfect and obscure. 2. since, with the notice of evil, there was not a power given to avoid it, it is not likely to proceed from a spirit, but merely fortuitious. 3. that the inconstancy of such notices, in cases equally important, proves they did not proceed from any such agent. 4. that as our most distinct dreams had nothing in them of any significancy, it would be irrational and vain to think that they came from heaven. and, 5. that as men were not always thus warned or supplied with notice of good or evil, so all men are not alike supplied with them; and what reason could we give, why one man or one woman should not have the same hints as another. to all this the clergyman gave answer: 1. that as to the signification of dreams, & the objections against them, as being dark and doubtful, they are expressed generally by hierogliphical representations, similies, allusions, and figurative emblematic ways, by which means, for want of interpretation, the thing was not understood, and, consequently, the evil not shunned. 2. that we charge god foolishly, to say, that he has given the notice of evil, without the power to avoid it; for, if any one had not power to avoid the evil, it was no notice to him; and it was want of giving due head to that notice, that men first neglected themselves, and then charged the judge of all the earth with injustice. 3. that we ought not to find fault with the inconstancy of these notices; but rather with our weak understandings, by pretending dreams were not to be regarded, and negligent when the voice really spoke to us for our good. it is a mistake to say, dreams have no import at all: we might, with more reason, have said, none that we could perceive the reason of, owing to our blindness and supine negligence, too secure at one time, and too much alarmed at another; so that the spirit, which we might be said to be conversing with in a dream, was constantly and equally kind and careful; but our powers are not always in the same state of action, not equally attentive too, or retentive of the hints that were given. and, 5. to answer the last question, why people are not equally supplied? this seemed to be no question; for providence itself might have some share in the direction of it, and then that providence might be limited by a superior direction; that as to the converse of spirits, he could not call it a stated converse: such a thing there was, but why there was so much of it, and no more, was none of his business, and that no such discovery had ever yet been made to mankind. nor were we to imagine less of waking dreams, trances, visions, noises, hints, impulses, and all the waking testimonies of an invisible world, and of the communication that there is between us and them, which commonly entertain us with our open eyes. one time my fancy soared on high, to see what discoveries i could make in those clearer regions. i found that such immense bodies as the sun, stars, planets, and moon, in the great circle of the lower heaven, are far from being found in the study of nature on the surface of the earth. here i saw many things that we can entertain little or no notion of, in a state of common life, and the emptiness of our notion, that the planets are habitable worlds; that is, created like ours, for the subsistence and existence of man and beast, and the preservation of the vegitative and sensitive life: no, no, this is, i assure you, a world of spirits; for here i saw a clear demonstration of satan being the _prince of the power of the air_, keeping his court or camp, with innumerable angels to attend him; but his power is not so great as we imagine, he can tempt us to the crime, but cannot force us to commit: _humanium est peccare_. neither has the devil power to force the world into a rebellion against heaven, though his legions are employed among savage nations, to set up their master for a god, who make the heathens either worship him in person, or by his representatives, idols and monsters, with the cruel sacrifices of human blood. now, as to the limitations of the devil's power, you must understand, that as there are numbers of evil spirits employed in mischief, so there are numbers of good angels sent from the higher and blessed abodes to disconcert and oppose their measures; and this every christian, i hope, believes, when he prays to god, the father of spirits, to give his angels charge over him while he slumbereth and sleepeth. for if by these preventing powers the devil was not restrained, the earth would be subjected to dearth, droughts, and famine; the air infected with noxious fumes; and, in a word, mankind would be utterly destroyed, which might oblige our maker (if i may be allowed the expression) to the necessity of a new _fiat_, or else have no more creatures to honour and worship him. as the devil never wanted insinuators, i shall observe, that i learned a way how to make a man dream of what i pleased. for instance, let us suppose one to be found asleep; let another lay his mouth close to his ear, and whisper any thing so softly as not to awake him, the sleeping man shall dream of what has been so whispered in his ear; nay, i can assure you, those insinuating devils can do this even when we are awake, which i call impulses of the mind: for from whence, but from these insinuators, come our causeless passions, involuntary wickedness, or sinful desires? who else form ideas in the mind of man when he is asleep, or present terrible or, beautiful figures to his fancy: mr. milton represents the devil tempting eve in the shape of a toad, lying just at her ear, when in her bower she lay fast asleep; and brings in eve telling adam what an uneasy night's rest she had, and relating her dream to him. and likewise i believe that good spirits have the same intercourse with us, in warning us against those things that are evil, and prompting us to that which is good. were we to have the eyes of our souls opened, through the eyes of our bodies, we should see this very immediate region or air which we breath in, thronged with spirits now invisible, and which otherwise would be the most terrible; we should view the secret transactions of those messengers who are employed when the parting soul takes it's leave of the reluctant body, and perhaps see things nature would shrink back from with the utmost terror and amazement. in a word, the curtain of providence for the disposition of things here, and the curtain of judgment for the determination of the state of souls hereafter, would be alike drawn back; and what heart could support here its future state in life; much less that, of its future state after life, even good or bad. a gentleman of my acquaintance, being about seven miles distant from london, a friend that came to dine with him, solicited him to go to the city. _what_, said the gentleman, _is there any occasion for me? no, sir_, said the other, _nothing at all except the enjoyment of your good company_: and so gave over importuning him. just then a strong impulse of mind urged the gentleman and pursued him like a voice, with, _go to london, go to london. hark ye_, says he to his friend, _is all well at london? am i wanted there? or did you ask me to go with you on any particular account? are all my family well? yes, indeed, sir_, said he, _i perceived them all very hearty; and i did not ask you to go to london upon any particular account whatsoever, except it was for the sake of your good company_. again, he put off his resolution: but still the impulse suggested to him, _go to london_; and at length he did so. when he came there, he found a letter and a messenger had been there to seek him, and to tell him of a particular business, which was at first and last above a thousand pounds to him, and which might inevitably have been lost, had he hot gone to london that night. the obeying of several hints, of secret impulses, argues great wisdom. i knew a man that was under misfortunes, being guilty of misdemeanors against the goverment; when, absconding for fear of his ruin, all his friends advising him not to put himself in the hands of the law, one morning as he awaked, he felt a strong impulse darting into his mind thus, _write a letter to them;_ and this was repeated several times to his mind, and at last he answered to it, as if it had been a voice, _whom shall i write to?_ immediately it replied, _write to the judge:_ and this impulse pursued him for several days, till at length he took pen, ink, and paper, and sat down to write to him: when immediately words flowed from his pen, like streams from a fair fountain, that charmed even himself with hopes of success. in short, the letter was so strenuous in argument, so pathetic in its eloquence, and so persuasively moving, that when the judge had read it, he sent him an answer he might be easy, he would endeavour to make that matter light to him; and, indeed, never left exerting himself, till he had stopt the prosecution, and restored him to his liberty and family. i know a person who had so strong an impression upon her mind, that the house she was in would be burnt that very night, that she could not sleep; the impulse she had upon her mind pressed her not to go to bed, which, however, she got over, and went to bed; but was so terrified with the thought, which run in her mind, that the house would be burnt, that she could not go to sleep; but communicating her apprehensions to another in the family, they were both in such a fright, that they applied themselves to search from the top of the house to the bottom, & to see every fire and candle safe out, so that, as they all said, it was impossible that any thing could happen then, and they sent to the neighbours on both sides to do the like. thus far they did well: but had she obeyed the hint which pressed upon her strangely, not to go to bed, she had done much better; for the fire was actually kindled at that very time, though not broken out. about an hour after the whole family was in bed, the house just over the way, directly opposite, was all in flames, and the wind, which was very high, blowing the flame upon the house this gentlewoman lived in, so filled it with smoke and fire, in a few minutes, the street being narrow, that they had not air to breathe, or time to do any thing, but jump out of their beds, and save their lives. had she obeyed the hint given, and not gone to bed, she might have saved several things; but the few moments she had spared to her, were but just sufficient to leap out of bed, put some cloathes on, and get down stairs, for the house was on fire in half a quarter of an hour. while i am mentioning these things, methinks it is very hard that we should obey the whispers of evil spirits, and not much rather receive the notices which good ones are pleased to give. we never perceive the misfortune of this, but when in real danger; and then we cry, _my mind misgave me when i was going about it_; but if so, why do you fight the caution? why not listen to it as to a voice? and then there had been no reason to make this complaint. i remember about fourteen or fifteen years ago (as to time i cannot be very positive) there was a young clergyman in the city of dublin, in ireland, who dreamed a very uncommon dream, that a gentleman had killed his wife, a relation of his, by stabbing her in several places; the fright of this awaked him, but finding it a dream, he composed himself again to sleep, when he dreamed a second time the same dream. this made him a little uneasy; but thinking it proceeded from the impression made on his mind by the former, he went to sleep again, and dreamed the same dream a third time also. so troubled was he at this, that he arose, and knocked at his mother's chamber, told his concern, and his apprehensions that all was not right at his relation's house. _dear son_, says the good old gentlewoman, _do not mind these foolish dreams; and i very much wonder, that you, being a person in holy orders, should have regard to such illusions_. upon this he went to bed again, fell asleep, and dreamed a fourth time as before. and then indeed he put on his night-gown, and went to smithfield, the place where his relation dwelt. here it was, alas! he perceived his dream too sadly fulfilled, by seeing his relation the young lady, big with child, who was a protestant, stabbed in several places by her barbarous husband, mr. eustace, a violent papist, only for some discourses of religion that happened the day before. after the wretch had stabbed her in three places, he went to make his escape out at a window; but she cried out, _my dear! don't leave me, come back, and i shall be well again_. at which he returned in a hellish rage, and gave her four wounds more; when, even in this condition, rising from her bed, she wrapped herself in her night-gown, and went to the lord bishop of rapho's chamber door (the bishop lodging at that time in the house). _my lord_, said she, _o my lord, make haste unto me_; but as soon as his lordship came, she expired in his arms, resigning her precious soul into the hands of almighty god. the cruel wretch her husband was shot by the pursuers; too good a death for one who deserved the gibbet; and the lady was universally lamented by all tender and religious people. and this tragical relation i have mentioned, upon the account of that impulse, or dream, that the clergyman had at the fatal time of the bloody action. it might be expected i should enter upon the subject of apparitions, and discourse concerning the reality of them; and whether they can revisit the place of their former existence, and resume those faculties of speech and shape as they had when living; but, as these are very doubtful matters, i shall only make a few observations upon them. i once heard of a man that would allow the reality of apparitions, but laid it all upon the devil, thinking that the souls of men departed, or good men, did never appear. to this very man something did appear: he said, he saw the shape of an ancient man pass by him in the dusk, who, holding up his hand in a threatening posture, cried out, _o wicked man, repent, repent_. terrified with this apparition, he consulted several friends, who advised him to take the advice. but after all, it was not an apparition, but a grave and pious gentleman, who met him by mere accident, and had been sensible of his wickedness; and who never undeceived him, lest it should hinder his reformation. some people make a very ill use of the general notion, that there are no apparitions nor spirits at all: which is worse than those who fancy they see them upon every occasion; for those carry their notions farther, even to annihilate the devil, and believe nothing about him, neither of one kind or other: the next step they come to, is to conclude, _there is no god_, and so atheism takes its rise in the same sink, with a carelessness about futurity. but there is no occasion to enter upon an argument to prove the being of the almighty, or to illustrate his power by words, who has so many undeniable testimonies in the breasts of every rational being to prove his existence: and we have sufficient proofs enough to convince us of the great superintendency of divine providence in the minutest affairs of this world; the manifest existence of the invisible world; the reality of spirits, and intelligence between us and them. what i have said, i hope, will not mislead any person, or be a means whereby they may delude themselves; for i have spoken of these things with the utmost seriousness of mind, and with a sincere and ardent desire for the general good and benefit of the world. chap. v. _of suffering afflictions._ afflictions are common to all mankind; and whether they proceed from losses, disappointments, or the malice of men, they often bring their advantages along with them: for this shews man the vanity and deceitfulness of this life, and is an occasion of rectifying our measures, and bringing us to a more modest opinion of ourselves: it tells us, how necessary the assistance of divine grace is unto us, when life itself becomes a burden, and death even desirable: but when the greatest oppression comes upon us, we must have recourse to patience, begging of god to give us that virtue; and the more composed, we are under any trouble, the more commendable is our wisdom, and the larger will be our recompense. let the provocation be what it will, whether from a good-natured and conscientious, or a wicked, perverse, and vexatious man; all this we should take as from the over-ruling hand of god, as a punishment for our sins. many times injured innocence may be abused by false oaths, or the power of wicked, jealous, or malicious men; but we often find it, like the palm, rise the higher the more it is depressed; while the justice of god is eminently remarkable in punishing those, one way or other, who desire to endeavour to procure the downfal of an innocent man: nor does god fail comforting an afflicted person, who with tears and prayers solicits the throne of heaven for deliverance and protection. david says, _that his soul was full of trouble, and his life drew near unto the grave_. but certainly david's afflictions made him eminently remarkable, as particularly when pursued by king saul, and hunted as a partridge over the mountains. but one thing which stands by innocence, is the love of god; for were we to suffer disgrace, nay, an ignominious death itself, what consolation does our innocence procure at our latest conflict, our last moments! chap. vi. _of the immorality of conversation, and the vulgar errors of behaviour_. as conversation is a great part of human happiness, so it is a pleasant sight to behold a sweet tempered man, who is always fit for it; to see an air of humour and pleasantness sit ever upon his brow, and even something angelic in his very countenance: whereas, if we observe a designing man, we shall find a mark of involuntary sadness break in upon his joy, and a certain insurrection in the soul, the natural concomitant of profligate principles. they err very much, who think religion, or a strict morality discomposes the mind, and renders it unfit for conversation; for it rather inspires us to innocent mirth, without such a counterfeit joy as vitious men appear with; and indeed wit is as consistent with religion, as religion is with good manners; nor is there any thing in the limitation of virtue and religion that should abate the pleasures of this world, but on the contrary rather serves to increase them. on the other hand, many men, by their own vice and intemperance, disqualify themselves for conversation. conversation is immoral, where the discourse is undecent, immodest, scandalous, slanderous, and abusive. how great is their folly, and how much do they expose themselves when they affront their best friend, even god himself, who laughs at the fool _when his fear cometh?_ the great scandal atheistical and immoral discourse gives to virtue, ought, methinks, to be punished by all good magistrates: make a man once cease to believe a god, and he has nothing left to limit his soul. how incongruous is it to government, that a man shall be punished for drunkenness, and yet have liberty to affront, and even deny the majesty of heaven? when if, even among men, one gives the lie to a gentleman in company, or perhaps speaks an affronting word, a quarrel will ensue, and a combat, and perhaps murder be the consequence: at the least, he, will prosecute him at law with the utmost virulence and oppression. the next thing to be refrained, is obscene discourse, which is the language only of proficients in debauchery, who never repent, but in a gaol or hospital; and whose carcases relish no better than their discourse, till the body becomes too nasty for the soul to stay any longer in it. nor is false talking to be less avoided; for lying is the sheep's clothing hung upon the wolf's back: it is the pharisee's prayer, the whore's buss, the hypocrite's paint, the murderer's smile, the thief's cloak; it is joab's embrace, and judah's kiss; in a word, it is mankind's darling sin, and the devil's distinguishing character. some add lies to lies, till it not only comes to be improbable, but even impossible too: others lie for gain to deceive, delude, and betray: and a third lies for sport, or for fun. there are other liars, who are personal and malicious; who foment differences, and carry tales from one house to another, in order to gratify their own envious tempers, without any regard to reverence or truth. the remarkable history of alexander selkirk _from the voyage of captain woodes rogers to the south seas and round the world._ * * * * * on february 1st, 1709, we came before that island,[1] having had a good observation the day before, and found our latitude to be 34 degrees 10 minutes south. in the afternoon, we hoisted out our pinnace; and captain dover, with the boat's crew, went in her to go ashore, though we could not be less that four leagues off. as soon as the pinnace was gone, i went on board the duchess, who admired our boat attempting going ashore at that distance from land. it was against my inclination: but, to oblige captain dover, i let her go: as soon as it was dark, we saw a light ashore. our boat was then about a league off the island, and bore away for the ship as soon as she saw the lights: we put our lights aboard for the boat, though some were of opinion, the lights we saw were our boat's lights: but, as night came on, it appeared too large for that: we fired our quarter-deck gun, and several muskets, showing lights in our mizen and fore-shrouds, that our boat might find us whilst we were in the lee of the island: about two in the morning our boat came on board, having been two hours on board the duchess, that took them up astern of us; we were glad they got well off, because it began to blow. we were all convinces the light was on the shore, and designed to make our ships ready to engage, believing them to be french ships at anchor, and we must either fight them, or want water. all this stir and apprehension arose, as we afterwards found, from one poor naked man, who passed in our imagination, at present, for a spanish garrison, a body of frenchmen, or a crew of pirates. while we were under these apprehensions, we stood on the backside of the island, in order to fall in with the southerly wind, till we were past the island; and then we came back to it again, and ran close aboard the land that begins to make the north-east side. [footnote 1: _juan fernandez._] we still continued to reason upon this matter; and it is in a manner incredible, what strange notions many of our people entertained from the sight of the fire upon the island. it served, however, to show people's tempers and spirits; and we were able to give a tolerable guess how our men would behave, in case there really were any enemies upon the island. the flaws came heavy off the shore, and we were forced to reef our topsails when we opened the middle bay, where we expected to have found our enemy; but saw all clear, & no ships, nor in the other bay next the north-east end. these two bays are all that ships ride in, which recruit on this island; but the middle bay is by much the best. we guessed there had been ships there, but that they were gone on sight of us. we sent our yawl ashore about noon, with captain dover, mr. fry, and six men, all armed: mean while we and the duchess kept turning to get in, and such heavy flaws came off the land, that we were forced to let go our top sail sheet, keeping all hands to stand by our sails, for fear of the winds carrying them away: but when the flaws were gone, we had little or no wind. these flaws proceeded from the land; which is very high in the middle of the island. our boat did not return; we sent our pinnace with the men armed, to see what was the occasion of the yawl's stay; for we were afraid, that the spaniards had a garrison there, and might have seized them. we put out a signal for our boat, and the duchess showed a french ensign. immediately our pinnace returned from the shore, and brought abundance of cry-fish, with a man clothed in goats skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of them. he had been on the island four years and four months, being left there by captain stradling in the cinque-ports, his name was alexander selkirk, a scotchman, who had been master of the cinque-ports, a ship that came here last with captain dampier, who told me, that this was the best man in her. i immediately agreed with him to be a mate on board our ship: it was he that made the fire last night when he saw our ships, which he judged to be english. during his stay here he saw several ships pass by, but only two came in to anchors: as he went to view them; he found them to be spaniards, and retired from them, upon which they shot at him: had they been french, he would have submitted; but choose to risque his dying alone on the island, rather than fall into the hands of spaniards in these parts; because he apprehended they would murder him, or make a slave of him in the mines; for he feared they would spare no stranger that might be capable of discovering the south seas. the spaniards had landed, before he knew what they were; and they came so near him, that he had much ado to escape; for they not only shot at him, but pursued him to the woods, where he climbed to the top of a tree, at the foot of which they made water, and killed several goats just by, but went off again without discovering him. he told us that he was born at largo, in the county of fife, in scotland, and was bred a sailor from his youth. the reason of his being left here was difference between him and his captain; which together with the ship's being leaky, made him willing rather to stay here, than go along with him at first; but when he was at last willing to go, the captain would not receive him. he had been at the island before, to wood and water, when two of the ship's company were left upon it for six mouths, till the ship returned, being chased thence by two french south-sea ships. he had with him his cloaths and bedding, with a firelock, some powder, bullets and tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, a bible, some practical pieces, and his mathematical instruments and books. he diverted and provided for himself as well as he could; but for the first eight months, had much ado to bear up against melancholy, and the terror of being left alone in such a desolate place. he built two huts with pimento trees, covered them with long grass, & lined them with the skins of goats, which be killed with his gun as he wanted, so long as his powder lasted, which was but a pound; and that being almost spent, he got fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento-wood together upon his knee. in the lesser hut, at some distance from the other, he dressed his victuals; and in the larger he slept; and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and praying; so that he said. he was a better christian, while in this solitude, than ever he was before, or than, he was afraid, he would ever be again. at first he never ate anything till hunger constrained him, partly for grief, and partly for want of bread and salt: nor did he go to bed, till he could watch no longer; the pimento-wood, which burnt very clear, served him both for fire and candle, and refreshed him with its fragrant smell. he might have had fish enough, but would not eat them for want of salt, because they occasioned a looseness, except crayfish which are as large as our lobsters, and very good: these he sometimes boiled, and at other times broiled, as he did his goat's flesh, of, which he made very good broth, for they are not so rank as ours: he kept an account of 500 that he killed while there, and caught as many more, which he marked on the ear, and let go. when, his powder failed, he took them by speed of feet; for his way of living, continual exercise of walking and running cleared him of all gross humours; so that he ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods, and up the rocks and hills, as we perceived when we employed him to catch goats for us; we had a bull dog, which we lent with several of our nimblest runners, to help him in catching goats; but he distanced and tired both the dog and the men, caught the goats, and brought them to us on his back. he told us, that his agility in pursuing a goat had once like to have cost him his life; he pursued it with so much eagerness, that he catched hold of it on the brink of a precipiece, of which he was not aware, the bushes hiding it from him; so, that he fell with the goat down the precipiece; a great height, and was to stunned and bruised with the fall, that he narrowly escaped with his life; and, when he came to his senses, found the goat dead under him: he lay there about twenty-four hours, and was scarce able to crawl to his hut, which was about a mile distant, or to stir abroad again in ten days. he came at last to relish his meat well enough without salt or bread; and, in the season had plenty of good turreps, which had been sewed there by captain dampier's men, and have now overspread some acres of ground. he had enough of good cabbage from the cabbage-trees, and seasoned his meat with the fruit of the pimento trees, which is the same as jamaica pepper, and smells deliciously: he found also a black pepper, called ma'azeta, which was very good to expel wind, and against gripping in the guts. he soon wore out all his shoes and clothes by running in the woods; and at last, being forced to shift without them, his feet became so hard, that he ran everywhere without difficulty; and it was some time before he could wear shoes after we found him; for not being used to any so long, his feet swelled when he came first to wear them again. after he had conquered his melancholy, he diverted himself sometimes with cutting his name in the trees, and the time of his being left, and continuance there. he was at first much pestered with cats and rats, that bred in great numbers, from some of each species which had got ashore from ships that put in there to wood and water: the rats gnawed his feet and cloathes whilst asleep, which obliged him to cherish the cats with his goats flesh, by which many of them became so tame, that they would lie about him in hundreds, and soon delivered him from the rats: he likewise tamed some kids; and, to divert himself would, now and then, sing and dance with them, and his cats: so that by the favour of providence, and vigour of his youth, being now but thirty years old, he came, at last, to conquer all the inconveniencies of his solitude, and to be very easy. when his cloathes were worn out, he made himself a coat and a cap of goat-skins, which he stiched together with little thongs of the same, that he cut with his knife, he had no other needle but a nail; and, when his knife was worn to the back, he made others, as well as he could, of some iron hoops that were left ashore, which he beat thin, and ground upon stones. having some linnen cloth by him, he sewed him some shirts with a nail, and stiched them with the worsted of his old stockings, which he pulled out on purpose. he had his last shirt on, when we found him in the island. at his first coming on board us, he had so much forgot his language, for want of use, that we could scarce understand him: for he seemed to speak his words by halve. we offered him a dram: but he would not touch it; having drank nothing but water since his being there; and it was sometime before he could relish our victuals. he could give us an account of no other product of the island, than what we have mentioned, except some black plums, which are very good, but hard to come at, the trees, which bear them, growing on high mountains and rocks. pimento-trees are plenty here, and we saw some of sixty feet high and about two yards thick; and cotton-trees higher, and near four fathoms round in the stock. the climate is so good that the trees and grass are verdant all the year round. the winter lasts no longer than june and july, and is not then severe, there being only a small frost, and a little hail: but sometimes great rains. the heat of the summer is equally moderate; and there is not much thunder, or tempestuous weather of any sort. he saw no venomous or savage creature on the island, nor any sort of beasts but goats, the first of which had been put ashore here, on purpose for a breed, by juan fernandez, a spaniard, who settled there with some families, till the continent of chili began to submit to the spaniards; which, being more profitable; tempted them to quit this island, capable however, of maintaining a good number of people, and being made so strong, that they could hot be easily dislodged from thence. february 3d we got our smith's forge on shore, set our coopers to work, and made a little tent for me to have the benefit of the air. the duchess had also a tent for their sick men; so that we had a small town of our own here, and every body employed. a few men supplied us all with fish of several sorts, all very good, in such abundance, that, in a few hours, we could take as many as would serve 200. there were sea-fowls in the bay, as large as geese: but eat fishy. the governor never failed of procuring us two or three goats a day for our sick men; by which, with the help of the greens, and the wholesome air, they recovered very soon of the scurvy; so that captain dover and i thought it a very agreeable seat, the weather being neither too hot nor too cold. we spent our time, till the 10th, in refitting our ships, taking wood on board; and laying in water, that which we brought from england and st. vincent being spoiled by the badness of the casks. we likewise boiled up about eighty gallons of sea-lions oil, as we might have done several tons, had we been provided with vessels. we refined it for our lamps, to save candles. the sailors sometimes use it to fry their meat, for want of butter, and find it agreeable enough. the men who worked on our rigging, eat young seals, which they preferred to our ships victuals, & said it was as good as english lamb, though i should have been glad of such an exchange. we made what haste we could to get all the necessaries on board, being willing to lose no time; for we were informed at the canaries, that five stout french ships were coming together to those seas. editorial note: daniel defoe's tale of robinson crusoe was first published in 1719. numerous--almost countless- versions were published subsequently. several are available in project gutenberg's library, including our e-books #521, 561, 5902, 6328, 6936, 11239, and 11866 (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/521 etc.). various tales have been included in the different versions, usually under the names of "the adventures of robinson crusoe," "the further adventures of robinson crusoe," and "robinson crusoe's vision of the angelic world." even an account of the adventures of alexander selkirk, who was marooned for four years on an island in the pacific ocean, has been incorporated into some versions of the robinson crusoe stories. this e-book, taken from an 1808 edition, includes "the adventures of robinson crusoe" and "the further adventures of robinson crusoe." the life and adventures of robinson crusoe by daniel de foe london. 1808 [illustration: i had one labour to make me a canoe, which at last i finished.] the life of de foe daniel de foe was descended from a respectable family in the county of northampton, and born in london, about the year 1663. his father, james foe, was a butcher, in the parish of st. giles's, cripplegate, and a protestant dissenter. why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _de_ to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any period of his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. the political scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy this lack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the _amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not be taken for an englishman; though this idea could have had no other foundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of his zeal for king william, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his "true-born englishman." after receiving a good education at an academy at newington, young de foe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his career as an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentiment in favour of the turks who were at that time laying siege to vienna. this production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, was very little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success with his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boasting of the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to liberty, and protestantism," by joining the ill-advised insurrection under the duke of monmouth, in the west. on the failure of that unfortunate enterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is not improbable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of london, and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where the rebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means of preventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction. with the professions of a writer and a soldier, mr. de foe, in the year 1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, in cornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near tilbury fort, in essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in the hilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in the calculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes proved unsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors, not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severity of the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. it is much to his credit however, that after having been freed from his debts by composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from king william's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both the principal and interest of their claims. this is such an example of honesty as it would be unjust to de foe and to the world to conceal. the amount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as he afterwards feelingly mentions to lord haversham, who had reproached him with covetousness; "with a numerous family, and no helps but my own industry, i have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced my debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thousand pounds." at the beginning of the year 1700, mr. de foe published a satire in verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "true-born englishman." its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were continually abusing king william and some of his friends as _foreigners_, by shewing that the present race of englishmen was a mixed and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native purity of blood. the satire was in many parts very severe; and though it gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public attention. the reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this production, wherein he endeavours to account for- "what makes this discontented land appear less happy now in times of peace, than war; why civil feuds disturb the nation more, than all our bloody wars had done before: fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place, and men are always honest in disgrace: the court preferments make men knaves in course, but they, who would be in them, would be worse. 'tis not at foreigners that we repine, would foreigners their perquisites resign: the grand contention's plainly to be seen, to get some men put out, and some put in." it will be immediately perceived that de foe could have no pretentious to the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in general excellent. the true-born englishman concludes thus: could but our ancestors retrieve their fate, and see their offspring thus degenerate; how we contend for birth and names unknown, and build on their past actions, not our own; they'd cancel records, and their tombs deface, and openly disown the vile, degenerate race. for fame of families is all a cheat; 'tis personal virtue only makes us great. for this defence of foreigners de foe was amply rewarded by king william, who not only ordered him a pension, but as his opponents denominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; an office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors though convinced they were injurious to his country. de foe now retired to newington with his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of sorrow which probably embittered his future life. he had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which ensued on the accession of queen anne, gave him an opportunity of gratifying his favourite passion. he therefore published a tract entitled "the shortest way with the dissenters, or proposals for the establishment of the church," which contained an ironical recommendation of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons, particularly dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. the high church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation published in the gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1]. when de foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and bookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, as he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather than that others should be ruined for his mistakes." in july, 1703, he was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. he underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with unreasonable severity. so far was he from being ashamed of his fate himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding to his accusers: tell them, the men that plac'd him here are scandals to the times; are at a loss to find his guilt, and can't commit his crimes. pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his dunciad (probably from no other reason than party difference) characterises him in the following line: earless on high stood unabash'd de foe. [footnote 1: st. james's, january 10, 1702-3. "whereas daniel de foe, alias de fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled 'the shortest way with the dissenters:' he is a middle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in london, and for many years was a hose-factor, in freeman's yard, in cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works near tilbury fort, in essex; whoever shall discover the said daniel de foe, to one of her majesty's principal secretaries of state, or any of her majesty's justices of peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of 50_l_. which her majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery." _london gaz_. no. 3679.] this is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so frequently occur in the dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the author than on the parties traduced. de foe lay friendless and distressed in newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of deliverance, till sir robert harley, who approved of his principles, and foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the queen, and at length procured his release. the treasurer, lord godolphin, also sent a considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his fine and the expense of his discharge. gratitude and fidelity are inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that prompted de foe to support harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered, by violence. the talents and perseverance of de foe began now to be properly estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent by lord godolphin to scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. his knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and above all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility, in promoting the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history, in 1709, with two dedications, one to the queen, and another to the duke of queensbury. soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal writings, rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once more retired to newington in hopes of spending the remainder of his days in peace. his pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he began to compose works of a different kind.--the year 1715 may therefore be regarded as the period of de foe's political life. faction henceforth found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminate their suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods. in 1715 de foe published the "family instructor;" a work inculcating the domestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and displaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society. "religious courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "family instructor," is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and strongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety and private devotion for which the dissenters have generally been distinguished. the most celebrated of all his works, "the life and adventures of robinson crusoe," appeared in 1719. this work has passed through numerous editions, and been translated into almost all modern languages. the great invention which is displayed in it, the variety of incidents and circumstances which it contains, related in the most easy and natural manner, together with the excellency of the moral and religious reflections, render it a performance of very superior and uncommon merit, and one of the most interesting works that ever appeared. it is strongly recommended by rosseau as a book admirably calculated to promote the purposes of natural education; and dr. blair says, "no fiction, in any language, was ever better supported than the adventures of robinson crusoe. while it is carried on with that appearance of truth and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all readers, it suggests, at the same time, very useful instruction; by shewing how much the native powers of man may be exerted for surmounting the difficulties of any external situation." it has been pretended, that de foe surreptitiously appropriated the papers of alexander selkirk, a scotch mariner, who lived four years alone on the island of juan fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had before appeared in the voyage of captain woodes rogers. but this charge, though repeatedly and confidently brought, appears to be totally destitute of any foundation. de foe probably took some general hints for his work from the story of selkirk, but there exists no proof whatever, nor is it reasonable to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or memoirs, which had been published seven years before the appearance of robinson crusoe. as a farther proof of de foe's innocence, captain rogers's account of selkirk may be produced, in which it is said that the latter had neither preserved pen, ink, or paper, and had, in a great measure, lost his language; consequently de foe could not have received any written assistance, and we have only the assertion of his enemies to prove that he had any verbal. the great success of robinson crusoe induced its author to write a number of other lives and adventures, some of which were popular in their times, though at present nearly forgotten. one of his latest publications was "a tour through the island of great britain," a performance of very inferior merit; but de foe was now the garrulous old man, and his spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer) "like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and sunk, blazed and sunk, till it disappeared at length in total darkness." his laborious and unfortunate life was finished on the 26th of april, 1731, in the parish of st. giles's, cripplegate. daniel de foe possessed very extraordinary talents; as a commercial writer, he is fairly entitled to stand in the foremost rank among his contemporaries, whatever may be their performances or their fame. his distinguishing characteristics are originality, spirit, and a profound knowledge of his subject, and in these particulars he has seldom been surpassed. as the author of robinson crusoe he has a claim, not only to the admiration, but to the gratitude of his countrymen; and so long as we have a regard for supereminent merit, and take an interest in the welfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will not cease to exist. but the opinion of the learned and ingenious dr. beattie will be the best eulogium that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance: "robinson crusoe," says the doctor, "must be allowed by the most rigid moralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, not only with pleasure, but also with profit. it breathes throughout a spirit of piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importance of the mechanic arts, which they, who know not what it is to be without them, are so apt to undervalue; it fixes in the mind a lively idea of the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of social life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid; and it shews, how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may secure independence, and open for one's self many sources of health and amusement. i agree, therefore, with rosseau, that it is one of the best books that can be put into the hands of children." g.d. the life and adventures of robinson crusoe, &c. &c. * * * * * i was born in the year 1632, in the city of york, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of bremen, who settled first at hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at york, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom i was called robinson kreutznaer; but by the usual corruption of words in england, we are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write our name crusoe, and so my companions always called me. i had two elder brothers, one of which was lieutenant-colonel to an english regiment of foot in flanders, formerly commanded by the famous colonel lockhart, and was killed at the battle near dunkirk against the spaniards. what became of my second brother i never knew, any more than my father or mother did know what was become of me. being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house education and a country free-school generally go, and designed me for the law; but i would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propension of nature tending directly to the life of misery which was to befal me. my father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. he called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons more than a mere wandering inclination i had for leaving my father's house and my native country, where i might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. he told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of _low life_, which he had found by long experience was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind, he told me, i might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wish they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. he bid me observe it, and i should always find, that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were, who by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly. after this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not to precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the station of life i was born in seemed to have provided against; that i was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had been just recommending to me; and that if i was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt: in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if i would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes, as to give me any encouragement to go away: and to close all, he told me i had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the low country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if i did take this foolish step, god would not bless me, and i would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery. i observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though i suppose my father did not know it to be so himself; i say, i observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, and especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed; and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart was so full he could say no more to me. i was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed who could be otherwise? and i resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my father's desire. but, alas! a few days wore it all off; and in short, to prevent any of my father's farther importunities, in a few weeks after i resolved to run quite away from him. however, i did not act so hastily neither as my first heat of resolution prompted, but i took my mother, at a time when i thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that i should never settle to any thing with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that i was now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney; that i was sure, if i did, i should never serve out my time, and i should certainly run away from my master before my time was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if i came home again, and did not like it, i would go no more, and i would promise by a double diligence to recover that time i had lost. this put my mother into a great passion: she told me, she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to any such thing so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how i could think of any such thing after such a discourse as i had had with my father, and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if i would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but i might depend i should never have their consent to it: that for her part she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and i should never have it to say, that my mother was willing when my father was not. though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, as i have heard afterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after shewing a great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, "that boy might be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that was ever born; i can give no consent to it." it was not till almost a year after this that i broke loose, though, in the meantime, i continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulating with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to. but being one day at hull, where i went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement that time; but i say, being there, and one of my companions being going by sea to london, in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the common allurement of seafaring men, viz. that it should cost me nothing for my passage, i consulted neither father or mother any more, not so much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without asking god's blessing, or my father's, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, god knows, on the first of september, 1651, i went on board a ship bound for london. never any young adventurer's misfortunes, i believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine. the ship was no sooner gotten out of the humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as i had never been at sea before, i was most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in mind. i began now seriously to reflect upon what i had done, and how justly i was overtaken by the judgment of heaven for my wicked leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty; all the good counsel of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to god and my father. all this while the storm increased, and the sea, which i had never been upon before, went very high, though nothing like what i have seen many times since; no, nor like what i saw a few days after: but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter. i expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as i thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; and in this agony of mind i made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please god here to spare my life this one voyage, if ever i got once my foot upon dry land again i would go directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship again while i lived; that i would take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more. now i saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and i resolved that i would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father. these wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm continued, and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and i began to be a little inured to it: however, i was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as i thought, the most delightful that ever i saw. i had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little time after. and now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me away, comes to me: "well, bob," says he, (clapping me upon the shoulder) "how do you do after it? i warrant you were frighted, wa'n't you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?"--"a capful do you call it?" said i; "it was a terrible storm."--"a storm you fool you," replied he, "do you call that a storm? why it was nothing at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor, bob. come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; do you see what charming weather it is now?" to make short this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sailors; the punch was made, and i was made drunk with it; and in that one night's wickedness i drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions for my future. in a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, i entirely forgot the vows and promises that i made in my distress. i found, indeed, some intervals of reflection, and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but i shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits, for so i called them; and i had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire: but i was to have another trial for it still; and providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse: for if i would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy. the sixth day of our being at sea we came into yarmouth roads; the wind having been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made but little way since the storm. here we were obliged to come to anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. at south-west, for seven or eight days, during which time a great many ships from newcastle came into the same roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river. we had not, however, rid here so long, but should have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. however, the roads being reckoned as good as a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth day in the morning the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our topmasts, and make every thing snug and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible. by noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rid _forecastle in_, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor; so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the better end. by this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now i began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. the master, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, i could hear him softly to himself say several times, "lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost, we shall be all undone!" and the like. during these first hurries i was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper: i could ill reassume the first penitence which i had so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against: i thought the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing like the first: but when the master himself came by me, as i said just now, and said we should be all lost, i was dreadfully frighted: i got up out of my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight i never saw; the sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes: when i could look about, i could see nothing but distress round us: two ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep loaden; and our men cried out, that a ship which rid about a mile ahead of us was foundered. two more ships being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. the light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their sprit-sail out before the wind. towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do: but the boatswain protesting to him, that if he did not, the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear deck. any one may judge what a condition i must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little. but if i can express at this distance the thoughts i had about me at that time, i was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and the having returned from them to the resolutions i had wickedly taken at first, than i was at death itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me in such a condition, that i can by no words describe it. but the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never known a worse. we had a good ship, but she was deep loaden, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then cried out, she would founder. it was my advantage in one respect, that i did not know what they meant by founder till i inquired. however, the storm was so violent, that i saw what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. in the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had been down on purpose to see, cried out, we had sprang a leak; another said, there was four foot water in the hold. then all hands were called to the pump. at that very word my heart, as i thought, died within me, and i fell backwards upon the side of my bed where i sat, into the cabin. however, the men roused me, and told me, that i that was able to do nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which i stirred up, and went to the pump and worked very heartily. while this was doing, the master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. i, who knew nothing what that meant, was so surprised, that i thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing happened. in a word, i was so surprised, that i fell down in a swoon. as this was a time when every body had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but another man stept up to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking i had been dead; and it was a great while before i came to myself. we worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little; yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. it was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible for as to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they after great labour and hazard took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat. it was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore he would make it good to their master: so partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as winterton-ness. we were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then i understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. i must acknowledge i had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that moment they rather put me into the boat, than that i might be said to go in; my heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me. while we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see, when our boat mounting the waves we were able to see the shore, a great many people running along the shore to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slow way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach the shore, till being past the light-house at winterton, the shore falls off to the westward towards cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind. here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to london or back to hull, as we thought fit. had i now had the sense to have gone back to hull, and have gone home, i had been happy, and my father, an emblem of our blessed saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship i went away in was cast away in yarmouth roads, it was a great while before he had any assurance that i was not drowned. but my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and though i had several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet i had no power to do it. i know not what to call this, nor will i urge that it is a secret over-ruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we push upon it with our eyes open. certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as i had met with in my first attempt. my comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the master's son, was now less forward than i. the first time he spoke to me after we were at yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several quarters; i say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very melancholy, and shaking his head, asked me how i did, and telling his father who i was, and how i had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go farther abroad; his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone, "young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man."--"why, sir," said i, "will you go to sea no more?" "that is another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist: perhaps this is all befallen us on your account, like jonah in the ship of tarshish. pray," continues he, "what are you? and on what account did you go to sea?" upon that i told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a strange kind of passion; "what had i done," says he, "that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? i would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." this indeed was, as i said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go. however, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorted me to go back to my father, and not tempt providence to my ruin; told me i might see a visible hand of heaven against me. "and young man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon you." we parted soon after; for i made him little answer, and i saw him no more: which way he went, i know not. as for me, having some money in my pocket, i travelled to london by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself, what course of life i should take, and whether i should go home, or go to sea. as to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how i should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even every body else; from whence i have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; nor ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men. in this state of life however i remained some time, uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. an irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and as i stayed a while, the remembrance of the distress i had been in wore off; and as that abated, the little motion i had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till at last i quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. that evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune; and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the command of my father: i say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and i went on board a vessel bound to the coast of africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to guinea. it was my great misfortune that in all these adventures i did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though i might indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time i had learnt the duty and office of a foremastman; and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. but as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so i did here; for having money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, i would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so i neither had any business in the ship, or learnt to do any. it was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in london, which does not always happen to such loose and unguided young fellows as i then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for them very early: but it was not so with me. i first fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was resolved to go again; and who taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say i had a mind to see the world, told me if i would go the voyage with him i should be at no expense; i should be his messmate and his companion; and if i could carry any thing with me, i should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and perhaps i might meet with some encouragement. i embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, i went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, i increased very considerably; for i carried about 40_l_. in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. this 40_l_. i had mustered together by the assistance of some of my relations whom i corresponded with, and who, i believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first adventure. this was the only voyage which i may say was successful in all my adventures, and which i owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain, under whom also i got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learnt how to keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor: for, as he took delight to instruct me, i took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant: for i brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in london at my return almost 300_l_. and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which have so completed my ruin. yet even in this voyage i had my misfortunes too; particularly, that i was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself. i was now set up for a guinea trader; and my friend, to my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, i resolved to go the same voyage again, and i embarked in the same vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. this was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though i did not carry quite 100_l_. of my new-gained wealth, so that i had 200_l_. left, and which i lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet i fell into terrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was this, viz. our ship making her course towards the canary islands, or rather between those islands and the african shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a turkish rover of sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. we crowded also as much canvass as our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. about three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to by mistake just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in also his small-shot from near 200 men which he had on board. however, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. he prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves; but laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the decks and rigging. we plied them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-cheats, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. however, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were carried all prisoners into sallee, a port belonging to the moors. the usage i had there was not so dreadful as at first i apprehended; nor was i carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. at this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable slave, i was perfectly overwhelmed; and now i looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me, that i should be miserable, and have none to relieve me, which i thought was now so effectually brought to pass, that i could not be worse; that now the hand of heaven had overtaken me, and i was undone without redemption: but, alas! this was but a taste of the misery i was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this story. as my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so i was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again, believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a spanish or portugal man of war, and that then i should be set at liberty. but this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to be in the cabin to look after the ship. here i meditated nothing but my escape, and what method i might take to effect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it: nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for i had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow slave, no englishman, irishman, or scotsman there but myself; so that for two years, though i often pleased myself with the imagination, yet i never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice. after about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head: my patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as i heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always took me and a young maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very merry, and i proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth the maresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him. it happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all the next night, and when the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were at least two leagues from the shore: however, we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but particularly we were all very hungry. but our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat of our english ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of his ship, who also was an english slave, to build a little state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and hale home the main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work the sails: she sailed with that we call a shoulder of mutton sail; and the boom gibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink; particularly his bread, rice, and coffee. we went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as i was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. it happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on board the boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot, which were on board his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing. i got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and every thing to accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business that fell out, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at his house; and commanded that as soon as i got some fish i should bring it home to his house; all which i prepared to do. this moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for now i found i was like to have a little ship at my command; and my master being gone, i prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage; though i knew not, neither did i so much as consider, whither i should steer; for any where to get out of that place was my way. my first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for i told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's bread; he said, that was true: so he brought a large basket of rusk or bisket of their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the boat. i knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some english prize, and i conveyed them into the boat while the moor was on shore, as if they had been there before for our master: i conveyed also a great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax to make candles. another trick i tried upon him, which he innocently came into also; his name was ismael, whom they call muly or moley; so i called to him: "moley," said i, "our patron's guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? it may be we may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for i know he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship."--"yes," says he, "i'll bring some;" and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held about a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat; at the same time i had found some powder of my master's in the great cabin, with which i filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus furnished with every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. the castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of us: and we were not above a mile out of the port before we haled in our sail, and set us down to fish. the wind blew from the n.n.e. which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown southerly, i had been sure to have made the coast of spain, and at last reached to the bay of cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it would, i would be gone from that horrid place where i was, and leave the rest to fate. after we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when i had fish on my hook i would not pull them up, that he might not see them, i said to the moor, "this will not do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand farther off." he, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the head of the boat set the sails; and as i had the helm i ran the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to as if i would fish; when giving the boy the helm, i stepped forward to where the moor was, and making as if i stooped for something behind him, i took him by surprise with my arm under his twist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea; he rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. he swam so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon which i stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, i presented it at him, and told him, i had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet i would do him none: "but," said i, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and i will do you no harm; but if you come near the boat i'll shoot you through the head, for i am resolved to have my liberty:" so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and i make no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer. i could have been content to have taken this moor with me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. when he was gone i turned to the boy, whom they called xury, and said to him, "xury, if you will be faithful to me i'll make you a great man; but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me," that is, swear by mahomet and his father's beard, "i must throw you into the sea too." the boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently, that i could not mistrust him; and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me. while i was in view of the moor that was swimming, i stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might think me gone towards the straits' mouth; (as indeed any one that had been in their wits must have been supposed to do) for who would have supposed we were sailed on to the southward to the truly barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with the canoes, and destroy us; where we could never once go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind? but as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, i changed my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little toward the east, that i might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, i made such sail that i believe by the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when i first made the land, i could not be less than 150 miles south of sallee; quite beyond the emperor of morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, for we saw no people. yet such was the fright i had taken at the moors, and the dreadful apprehensions i had of falling into their hands, that i would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till i had sailed in that manner five days, and then the wind shifting to the southward, i concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also would now give over; so i ventured to make to the coast, and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, i knew not what, or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river: i neither saw, or desired to see any people; the principal thing i wanted was fresh water. we came into this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard, such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day. "well, xury," said i, "then i won't; but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions."--"then we give them the shoot gun," says xury, laughing, "make them run wey." such english xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. however, i was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and i gave him a dram (out of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. after all, xury's advice was good, and i took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all night; i say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, that i never indeed heard the like. xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was i too; but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast; xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught i know; but poor xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away: "no," says i, "xury; we can slip our cable with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us far." i had no sooner said so, but i perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, i immediately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about, and swam towards the shore again. but it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing i have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before: this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night upon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of lions and tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or where to get it, was the point: xury said, if i would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. i asked him why he would go? why i should not go, and he stay in the boat? the boy answered with so much affection, that made me love him ever after. says he, "if wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey."--"well, xury," said i, "we will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us." so i gave xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which i mentioned before; and we haled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was proper, and waded on shore; carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for water. i did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by i saw him come running towards me. i thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and i run forward towards him to help him; but when i came nearer to him, i saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor xury came with, was to tell me that he had found good water, and seen no wild mans. but we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country. as i had been one voyage to this coast before, i knew very well that the islands of the canaries, and the cape de verd islands also, lay not far off from the coast. but as i had no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least remembering what latitude they were in, and knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise i might now easily have found some of these islands. but my hope was, that if i stood along this coast till i came to that part where the english traded, i should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in. by the best of my calculation, that place where i now was, must be that country, which, lying between the emperor of morocco's dominions and the negroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having abandoned it, and gone farther south for fear of the moors; and the moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness; and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there; so that the moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near an hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by night. once or twice in the daytime. i thought i saw the pico of teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain teneriffe in the canaries; and had a great mind to venture out in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, i was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my little vessel; so i resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore. several times i was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left this place; and once in particular, being early in the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; "for," says he, "look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock fast asleep." i looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. "xury," says i, "you shall go on shore and kill him." xury looked frighted, and said, "me kill! he eat me at one mouth;" one mouthful he meant: however, i said no more to the boy, but had him lie still, and i took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down; then i loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third, for we had three pieces, i loaded with five smaller bullets. i took the best aim i could with the first piece, to have shot him into the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. he started up growling at first, but finding his leg broke fell down again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever i heard. i was a little surprised that i had not hit him on the head; however, i look up the second piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but little noise, but he struggling for life. then xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore: "well, go," said i; so the boy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, which dispatched him quite. this was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and i was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. however, xury said he would have some of him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "for what, xury?" said i, "me cut off his head," said he. however, xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous great one. i bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one way or other be of some value to us; and i resolved to take off his skin if i could. so xury and i went to work with him; but xury was much the better workman at it, for i knew very ill how to do it. indeed it took us up both the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two days time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon. after this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river gambia or senegal, that is to say, any where about the cape de verd, where i was in hopes to meet with some european ship; and if i did not, i knew not what course i had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the negroes. i knew that all the ships from europe, which sailed either to the coast of guinea or brasil, or to the east indies, made this cape, or those islands; and in a word, i put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that i must meet with some ship, or must perish. when i had passed this resolution about ten days longer, as i have said, i began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive that they were quite black, and stark naked. i was once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, "no go, no go." however, i hauled in nearer the shore that i might talk to them, and i found they run along the shore by me a good way: i observed they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which xury said was a lance, and that they would throw, them a great way with good aim; so i kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as i could; and particularly made signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. upon this i lowered the top of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one nor the other was: however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for i was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again. we made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but i believe it was the latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night; and in the second place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the women. the man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about as if they had come for their diversion. at last one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first i expected; but i lay ready for him, for i had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and had xury load both the others: as soon as he came fairly within my reach i fired, and shot him directly into the head; immediately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down as if he was struggling for life; and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore. it is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at the noise and the fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror. but when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that i made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and began to search for the creature. i found him by his blood staining the water, and by the help of a rope, which i slung round him, and gave the negroes to hale, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and the negroes held up their hands with admiration to think what it was i had killed him with. the other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from whence they came, nor could i at that distance know what it was. i found quickly the negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, so i was willing to have them take it as a favour from me, which, when i made signs to them that they might take him, they were very thankful for. immediately they fell to work with him, and though they had no knife, yet with a sharpened piece of wood they took off his skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. they offered me some of the flesh, which i declined, making as if i would give it them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a great deal more of their provision, which, though i did not understand, yet i accepted; then i made signs to them for some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to shew that it was empty, and that i wanted to have it filled. they called immediately to some of their friends, and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as i suppose, in the sun; this they set down for me, as before, and i sent xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. the women were as stark naked as the men. i was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and, leaving my friendly negroes, i made forward for about eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till i saw the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues before me; and, the sea being very calm, i kept a large offing to make this point: at length, doubling the point at about two leagues from the land, i saw plainly land on the other side to seaward; then i concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the cape de verd, and those the _islands_, called from thence cape de verd islands. however, they were at a great distance, and i could not well tell what i had best to do, for if i should be taken with a fresh of wind i might neither reach one nor the other. in this dilemma, as i was very pensive, i stepped into the cabin and sat me down, xury having the helm, when on a sudden the boy cried out, "master, master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when i knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. i jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw not only the ship, but what she was, viz. that it was a portuguese ship, and, as i thought, was bound to the coast of guinea for negroes. but when i observed the course she steered, i was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore; upon which i stretched out to sea as much as i could, resolving to speak with them if possible. with all the sail i could muster, i found i should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before i could make any signal to them; but after i had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of their perspective-glasses, and that it was some european boat, which, as they supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. i was encouraged with this; and as i had my patron's ancient on board, i made a waft of it to them for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun: upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me, and in about three hours time i came up with them. they asked me what i was in portuguese, and in spanish, and in french; but i understood none of them; but at last a scots sailor, who was on board, called to me, and i answered him, and told him i was an englishman, that i had made my escape out of slavery from the moors at sallee. then they had me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods. it was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one would believe that i was thus delivered, as i esteemed it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as i was in, and immediately offered all i had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that all i had should be delivered safe to me when i came to the brasils; "for," says he, "i have saved your life on no other terms than i would be glad to be saved myself; and it may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same condition: besides," said he, "when i carry you to the brasils, so great a way from your own country, if i should take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then i only take away that life i have given. no, no, seignor inglese," says he, "mr. englishman, i will carry you thither in charity, and those things will help you to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home again." as he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none should offer to touch any thing i had: then he took every thing into his own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that i might have them; even so much as my three earthen jars. as to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the ship's use, and asked me what i would have for it? i told him, he had been so generous to me in everything, that i could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him; upon which he told me he would give me a note of his hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at brasil; and when it came there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up: he offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy xury, which i was loath to lake; not that i was not willing to let the captain have him, but i was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. however, when i let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he turned christian. upon this, and xury saying he was willing to go to him, i let the captain have him. we had a very good voyage to the brasils, and arrived in the bay de todos los santos, or all saints' bay, in about twenty-two days after. and now i was once more delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do next with myself i was now to consider. the generous treatment the captain gave me, i can never enough remember; he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin which i had in my boat, and caused every thing i had in the ship to be punctually delivered me; and what i was willing to sell he bought, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of bees-wax, for i had made candles of the rest; in a word, i made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock i went on shore in the brasils. i had not been long here, but being recommended to the house of a good honest man like himself, who had an _ingeino_ as they call it; that is, a plantation and a sugarhouse; i lived with him some time, and acquainted myself by that means with the manner of their planting and making of sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they grew rich suddenly, i resolved, if i could get license to settle there, i would turn planter among them, resolving, in the mean time, to find out some way to get my money, which i had left in london, remitted to me. to this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, i purchased as much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement, and such a one as might be suitable to the stock which i proposed to myself to receive from england. i had a neighbour, a portuguese of lisbon, but born of english parents, whose name was wells, and in much such circumstances as i was. i call him neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociable together. my stock was but low, as well as his: and we rather planted for food, than any thing else, for about two years. however, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so that the third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come; but we both wanted help; and now i found, more than before, i had done wrong in parting with my boy xury. but, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right, was no great wonder: i had no remedy but to go on; i was gotten into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life i delighted in, and for which i forsook my father's house, and broke through all his good advice; nay, i was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which if i resolved to go on with, i might as well have staid at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world as i had done; and i used often to say to myself, i could have done this as well in england among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it, among strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at such distance, as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me. in this manner i used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret. i had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and i used to say, i lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself. but how just has it been, and how should all men reflect, that, when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse, heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity, by their experience; i say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life i reflected on in, an island of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which i then led, in which had i continued, i had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich. i was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation, before my kind friend the captain of the ship, that took me up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there, in providing his loading, and preparing for his voyage, near three months; when, telling him what little stock i had left behind me in london, he gave me this friendly and sincere advice; "seignor inglese," says he, for so he always called me, "if you will give me letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with orders to the person who has your money in london, to send your effects to lisbon, to such persons as i shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this country, i will bring you the produce of them, god willing, at my return; but since human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, i would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which you say is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so that if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way; and if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your supply." this was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that i could not but be convinced it was the best course i could take; so i accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom i had left my money, and a procuration to the portuguese captain, as he desired. i wrote the english captain's widow a full account of all my adventures, my slavery, escape, and how i had met with the portugal captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition i was now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when this honest captain came to lisbon, he found means, by some of the english merchants there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of my story, to a merchant at london, who represented it effectually to her; whereupon, she not only delivered the money, but out of her own pocket sent the portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity and charity to me. the merchant in london vesting this hundred pounds in english goods, such as the captain had writ for, sent them directly to him at lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the brasils; among which, without my direction (for i was too young in my business to think of them) he had taken care to have all sort of tools, iron work, and utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me. when this cargo arrived, i thought my fortune made, for i was surprised with joy of it; and my good steward the captain had laid out the five pounds which my friend had sent him for a present for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a servant under bond for six years service, and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which i would have him accept, being of my own produce. neither was this all; but my goods being all english manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirable in the country, i found means to sell them to a very great advantage; so that i may say, i had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, i mean in the advancement of my plantation; for the first thing i did, i bought me a negro slave, and an european servant also; i mean another besides that which the captain brought me from lisbon. but as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity, so was it with me. i went on the next year with great success in my plantation: i raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than i had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, were well cured and laid by against the return of the fleet from lisbon. and now, increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are indeed often the ruin of the best heads in business. had i continued in the station i was now in, i had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet retired life, and of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full; but other things attended me, and i was still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and particularly to increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows i should have leisure to make; all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of life, which nature and providence concurred to present me with, and to make my duty. as i had done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so i could not be content now, but i must go and leave the happy view i had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus i cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a state of health in the world. to come then by just degrees to the particulars of this part of my story; you may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in the brasils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, i had not only learnt the language, but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at st. salvadore, which was our port; and that in my discourse among them, i had frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of guinea, the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles, such as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like, not only gold-dust, guinea grains, elephants teeth, &c. but negroes for the service of the brasils in great numbers. they listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying negroes, which was a trade at that time not only not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the assientos for permission of the kings of spain and portugal, and engrossed in the public, so that few negroes were brought, and those excessive dear. it happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and told me they had been musing very much upon what i had discoursed with them of, the last night, and they came to make a secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a ship to to guinea; that they had all plantations as well as i, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and in a word, the question was, whether i would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of guinea? and they offered me that i should have my equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of the stock. this was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to any one that had not had a settlement and plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock upon it. but for me, that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but go on as i had begun, for three or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from england, and who in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too; for me to think of such a voyage, was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of. but i, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the offer, than i could restrain my first rambling designs, when my father's good counsel was lost upon me. in a word, i told them i would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look alter my plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as i should direct if i miscarried. this they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or covenants to do so; and i made a formal will, disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that had saved my life as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects as i had directed in my will, one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to england. in short, i took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and keep up my plantation: had i used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what i ought to have done, and not to have done, i had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards; to say nothing of the reasons i had to expect particular misfortunes to myself. but i was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason: and accordingly the ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage, i went on board in an evil hour, the 1st of september, 1650, being the same day eight years that i went from my father and mother at hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own interest. our ship was about one hundred and twenty ton burden, carrying six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself; we had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like. the same day i went on board we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the african coast; when they came about 10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude, which it seems was the manner of their course in those days. we had very good weather, only excessive hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we made the height of cape st. augustino, from whence keeping farther off at sea we lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle fernand de noronha, holding our course n.e. by n. and leaving those isles on the east. in this course we passed the line in about twelve days time, and were by our last observation in 7 degrees 22 min. northern latitude, when a violent tornado or hurricane took us quite out of our knowledge; it began from the south-east, came about to the north-west, and then settled into the north-east, from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive; and scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and the fury of the winds directed; and during these twelve days, i need not say that i expected every day to be swallowed up, nor indeed did any in the ship expect to save their lives. in this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed overboard; about the twelfth day the weather abating a little, the master made an observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude difference west from cape st. augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of guinea, or the north part of brasil, beyond the river amazones, toward that of the river oronoque, commonly called the great river, and began to consult with me what course he should take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled, and he was going directly back to the coast of brasil. i was positively against that, and looking over the charts of the sea coasts of america with him we concluded there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came within the circle of the caribbee islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for barbadoes, which by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the bay or gulf of mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of africa without some assistance, both to our ship and to ourselves. with this design we changed our course, and steered away n.w. by w. in order to reach some of our english islands, where i hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise determined; for being in the latitude of 12 deg. 18 min. a second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that had all our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country. in this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men early in the morning cried out, _land!_ and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea. it is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances; we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds by a kind of miracle should turn immediately about. in a word, we sat looking one upon another, and expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as preparing for another world, for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this; that which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate. now though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. we had a boat at our stern, just before the storm; but she was first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next place she broke away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from her. we had another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she was actually broken already. in this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men they got her slung over the ship's side, and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to god's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful high upon the shore, and might well be called _den wild zee_, as the dutch call the sea in a storm. and now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly, that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned. as to making sail, we had none, nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew, that when the boat came nearer the shore, she would be dashed into a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. however, we committed our souls to god in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land. what the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where, by great chance, we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. but there was nothing of this appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. after we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly had us expect the _coup-de-grace_. in a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boat, as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say o god! for we were all swallowed up in a moment. nothing can describe the confusion of thought which i felt when i sunk into the water; for though i swam very well, yet i could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water i took in. i had so much presence of mind as well as breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the main land than i expected, i got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as i could, before another wave should return, and take me up again. but i soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for i saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy which i had no means or strength to contend with; my business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if i could; and so by swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible; my greatest concern now being, that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea. the wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty foot deep in its own body; and i could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but i held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. i was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as i felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, i found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that i could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new courage. i was covered again with water a good while, but not so long but i held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began to return, i struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. i stood still a few moments to recover breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to my heels, and ran with what strength i had farther towards the shore. but neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and twice more i was lifted up by the waves and carried forwards as before, the shore being very flat. the last time of these two had well near been fatal to me; for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, as it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my body; and had it returned again immediately, i must have been strangled in the water; but i recovered a little before the return of the waves, and seeing i should be covered again with the water, i resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went back. now as the waves were not so high as at first, being near land, i held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near the shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run i took i got to the main land, where, to my great comfort, i clambered up the clifts of the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach of the water. i was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank god that my life was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope. i believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as i may say, out of the very grave; and i do not wonder now at that custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him: i say, i do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart, and overwhelm him: for sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first. i walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands and my whole being, as i may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures and motions which i cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, i never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. i cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the breach and troth of the sea being so big, i could hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered, lord! how was it possible i could get on shore! after i had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, i began to look round me, to see what kind of place i was in, and what was next to be done; and i soon found my comforts abate, and that in a word i had a dreadful deliverance; for i was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did i see any prospect before me, but that of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to me, was, that i had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs; in a word, i had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco pipe, and a little tobacco in a box; this was all my provision, and this threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that for a while i ran about like a madman. night coming upon me, i began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they always come abroad for their prey. all the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time, was, to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me, and where i resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what death i should die, for as yet i saw no prospect of life. i walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if i could find any fresh water to drink, which i did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, i went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so, as that if i should sleep i might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, i took up my lodging, and having been excessively fatigued, i fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, i believe, few could have done in my condition, and found myself the most refreshed with it that i think i ever was on such an occasion. when i waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock which i first mentioned, where i had been so bruised by the dashing me against it; this being within about a mile from the shore where i was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still, i wished myself on board, that, at least, i might save some necessary things for my use. when i came down from my apartment in the tree, i looked about me again, and the first thing i found was the boat, which lay as the wind and the sea had tossed her up upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. i walked as far as i could upon the shore to have got to her, but found a neck or inlet of water between me and the boat, which was about half a mile broad; so i came back for the present, being more intent upon getting at the ship, where i hoped to find something for my present subsistence. a little after noon i found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed so far out, that i could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship; and here i found a fresh renewing of my grief: for i saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we had been all safe, that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and i had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as i now was. this forced tears from my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, i resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so i pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the water; but when i came to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board; for as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. i swam round her twice, and the second time i spied a small piece of a rope, which i wondered i did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains so low as that with great difficulty i got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got up into the forecastle of the ship. here i found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather earth, and her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low almost to the water: by this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free; and first i found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water; and being very well disposed to eat, i went to the bread-room and filled my pockets with bisket, and ate it as i went about other things, for i had no time to lose. i also found some rum in the great cabin, of which i took a large drain, and which i had indeed need enough of to spirit me for what was before me. now i wanted nothing but a boat to furnish myself with many things which i foresaw would be very necessary to me. it was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had; and this extremity roused my application. we had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in the ship; i resolved to fall to work with these, and flung as many of them overboard as i could manage of their weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might not drive away. when this was done i went down the ship's side, and pulling them to me, i tied four of them fast together at both ends as well as i could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them crossways, i found i could walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light; so i went to work, and with the carpenter's saw i cut a spare topmast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of labour and pains; but hope of furnishing myself with necessaries encouraged me to go beyond what i should have been able to have done upon another occasion. my raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight; my next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what i laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but i was not long considering this: i first laid all the planks or boards upon it that i could get, and having considered well what i most wanted, i first got three of the seamen's chests, which i had broken open and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft. the first of these i filled with provisions, viz. bread, rice, three dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh, which we lived much upon, and a little remainder of european corn which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls were killed. there had been some barley and wheat together, but, to my great disappointment, i found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. as for liquors, i found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were some cordial waters, and in all above five or six gallons of rack: these i stowed by themselves, there being no need to put them into the chest, nor no room for them. while i was doing this, i found the tide began to flow, though very calm, and i had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which i had left on shore upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were only linen, and open-kneed, i swam on board in them and my stockings: however, this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which i found enough, but took no more than i wanted for present use, for i had other things which my eye was more upon; as, first, tools to work with on shore; and it was after long searching that i found out the carpenter's chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a ship-loading of gold would have been at that time: i got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for i knew in general what it contained. my next care was for some ammunition and arms. there were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols: these i secured first, with some powder horns, and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. i knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search i found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water; those two i got to my raft, with the arms. and now i thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how i should get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, or rudder, and the least capful of wind would have overset all my navigation. i had three encouragements: 1. a smooth, calm sea; 2. the tide rising and setting in to the shore; 3. what little wind there was blew me towards the land: and thus, having found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools which were in the chest, i found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; and with this cargo i put to sea: for a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that i found it drive a little distant from the place where i had landed before, by which i perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently i hoped to find some creek or river there, which i might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo. as i imagined, so it was: there appeared before me a little opening of the land, and i found a strong current of the tide set into it, so i guided my raft as well as i could to keep in the middle of the stream; but here i had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if i had, i think verily would have broke my heart; for knowing nothing of the coast, my raft run aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. i did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength; neither durst i stir from the posture i was in, but holding up the chests with all my might, stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level; and a little after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, and i thrust her off with the oar i had into the channel; and then driving up higher, i at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong current or tide running up. i looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore; for i was not willing to be driven too high up the river, hoping in time to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as i could. at length i spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, i guided my raft, and at last got so near, as that, reaching ground with my oar, i could thrust her directly in; but here i had like to have dipped all my cargo in the sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep, that is to say sloping, there was no place to land, but where one end of the float, if it run on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower as before, that it would endanger my cargo again: all that i could do, was to wait till the tide was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor to hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which i expected the water would flow over; and so it did. as soon as i found water enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, i thrust her on upon that flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her by sticking my two broken oars into the ground; one on one side near one end, and one on the other side near the other end; and thus i lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore. my next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure them from whatever might happen. where i was i yet knew not; whether on the continent or on an island, whether inhabited or not inhabited, whether in danger of wild beasts or not. there was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills which, lay as in a ridge from it northward: i took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and an horn of powder, and thus armed i travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after i had with great labour and difficulty got to the top, i saw my fates to my great affliction, viz. that i was in an island environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west. i found also that the island i was in was barren, and, as i saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom, however, i saw none; yet i saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither when i killed them could i tell what was fit for food, and what not. at my coming back i shot at a great bird, which i saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood--i believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. i had no sooner fired, but from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts, making a confused screaming, and crying every one according to his usual note; but not one of them of any kind that i knew. as for the creature i killed, i took it to be a kind of a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but had no talons or claws more than common; its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. contented with this discovery, i came back to my raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day; and what to do with myself at night i knew not, nor indeed where to rest; for i was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me; though, as i afterwards found, there was really no need for those fears. however, as well as i could, i barricadoed myself round with the chests and boards that i had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging. as for food, i yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that i had seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood where i shot the fowl. i now began to consider, that i might yet get a great many things out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and particularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other things as might come to land, and i resolved to make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible; and as i knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, i resolved to set all other things apart, till i got every thing out of the ship that i could get. then i called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts, whether i should take back the raft; but this appeared impracticable; so i resolved to go as before, when the tide was down, and i did so, only that i stripped before i went from my hut, having nothing on but a checked shirt and a pair of linen trowsers, and a pair of pumps on my feet. i got on board the ship, as before, and prepared a second raft; and having had experience of the first, i neither made this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet i brought away several things very useful to me; as first, in the carpenter's stores i found two or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone; all these i secured, together with several things belonging to the gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket-bullets, seven muskets, and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder more; a large bag full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet lead; but this last was so heavy i could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side. besides these things, i took all the men's clothes that i could find, and a spare fore-topsail, hammock, and some bedding; and with this i loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort. i was under some apprehensions during my absence from the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on shore; but when i came back, i found no sign of any visitor, only there sat a creature like a wild cat upon one of the chests, which, when i came towards it, ran away a little distance, and then stood still; she sat very composed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted with me; i presented my gun at her, but as she did not understand it, she was perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon which i tossed her a bit of biscuit, though by the way i was not very free of it, for my store was not great: however, i spared her a bit, i say, and she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked, as pleased, for more; but i thanked her, and could spare no more; so she marched off. having got my second cargo on shore, though i was fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large casks, i went to work to make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which i cut for that purpose; and into this tent i brought every thing that i knew would spoil, either with rain or sun; and i piled all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either from man or beast. when i had done this, i blocked up the door of the tent with some boards within; and an empty chest set up an end without, and spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my gun at length by me, i went to bed for the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for i was very weary and heavy, as the night before i had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day, as well to fetch all those things from the ship as to get them on shore. i had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever were laid up, i believe, for one man; but i was not satisfied still; for while the ship sat upright in that posture, i thought i ought to get every thing out of her that i could; so every day at low water i went on board, and brought away something or other; but particularly the third time i went, i brought away as much of the rigging as i could, as also all the small ropes and rope-twine i could get, with a piece of spare canvass, which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder; in a word, i brought away all the sails first and last, only that i was fain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as i could; for they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere canvass only. but that which comforted me more still, was, that at last of all, after i had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought i had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with; i say, after all this, i found a great hogshead of bread, and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flower; this was surprising to me, because i had given over expecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled by the water: i soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which i cut out; and in a word, i got all this safe on shore also. the next day i made another voyage; and now, having plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, i began with the cables; and cutting the great cable into pieces, such as i could move, i got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the iron-work i could get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing i could to make a large raft, i loaded it with all those heavy goods, and came away: but my good luck began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy and so overladen, that after i had entered the little cove where i had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it so handily as i did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the water. as for myself, it was no great harm, for i was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was great part of it lost, especially the iron, which i expected would have been of great use to me: however, when the tide was out, i got most of the pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with infinite labour; for i was fain to dip for it into the water, a work which fatigued me very much. after this, i went every day on board, and brought away what i could get. i had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven times on board the ship; in which time i had brought away all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to bring, though i believe, verily, had the calm weather held, i should have brought away the whole ship, piece by piece; but preparing the twelfth time to go on board, i found the wind began to rise; however, at low water i went on board, and though i thought i had rummaged the cabin so effectually, as that nothing more could be found, yet i discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which i found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissars, with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks; in another i found about thirty-six pounds value in money, some european coin, some brasil, some pieces of eight, some gold, some silver. i smiled to myself at the sight of this money. "o drug!" said i, aloud, "what art thou good for? thou art not worth to me, no not the taking off of the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap; i have no manner of use for thee; even remain where thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving." however, upon second thoughts, i took it away, and wrapping all this in a piece of canvass, i began to think of making another raft; but while i was preparing this, i found the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. it presently occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore, and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began, otherwise i might not be able to reach the shore at all; accordingly i let myself down into the water, and swam cross the channel which lay between the ship and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight of things i had about me, and partly the roughness of the water, for the wind rose very hastily, and before it was quite high water it blew a storm. but i was gotten home to my little tent, where i lay with all my wealth about me very secure. it blew very hard all that night, and in the morning when i looked out, behold no more ship was to be seen. i was a little surprised, but recovered myself with this satisfactory reflection, viz. that i had lost no time, nor abated no diligence to get every thing out of her that could be useful to me, and that indeed there was little left in her that i was able to bring away, if i had had more time. i now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any thing out of her, except what might drive on shore from her wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were of small use to me. my thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and i had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to make; whether i should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: and, in short, i resolved upon both, the manner and description of which it may not be improper to give an account of. i soon found the place i was in was not for my settlement, particularly because it was upon a low moorish ground near the sea, and i believed would not be wholesome, and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it; so i resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground. i consulted several things in my situation which i found would be proper for me: 1st, health, and fresh water, i just now mentioned, 2dly, shelter from the heat of the sun. 3dly, security from ravenous creatures, whether man or beast. 4thly, a view to the sea, that, if god sent any ship in sight, i might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which i was not willing to banish all my expectation yet. in search of a place proper for this, i found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top: on the side of this rock there was a hollow place worn a little way in like the entrance or door of a cave, but there was not really any cave or way into the rock at all. on the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, i resolved to pitch my tent: this plain was not above an hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at the end of it descended irregularly every way down into the low grounds by the sea-side. it was on the n.n.w. side of the hill, so that i was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a w. and by s. sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near the setting. before i set up my tent, i drew a half-circle before the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and ending. in this half circle i pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood very firm, like piles, the biggest end being out of the ground about five foot and a half, and sharpened on the top; the two rows did not stand above six inches from one another. then i took the pieces of cable which i had cut in the ship, and laid them in rows one upon another, within the circle between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about two foot and a half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that neither man or beast could get into it or over it: this cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth. the entrance into this place i made to be not by a door, but by a short ladder, to go over the top: which ladder, when i was in, i lifted over after me: and so i was completely fenced in, and fortified, as i thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise i could not have done, though, as it appeared afterward, there was no need of all this caution from the enemies that i apprehended danger from. into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, i carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the account above; and i made me a large tent, which, to preserve me from the rains, that in one part of the year are very violent there, i made double, viz. one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin which i had saved among the sails. and now i lay no more for awhile in the bed which i had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship. into this tent i brought all my provisions, and every thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, i made up the entrance, which till now i had left open, and so passed and repassed, as i said, by a short ladder. when i had done this, i began to work my way into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that i dug down, out through my tent, i laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, that so it raised the ground within about a foot and a half; and thus i made me a cave just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house. it cost me much labour, and many days, before all these things were brought to perfection, and therefore i must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts. at the same time it happened, after i had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. i was not so much surprised with the lightning, as i was with a thought which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself; o my powder! my very heart sunk within me, when i thought, that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence only, but the providing me food, as i thought, entirely depended; i was nothing near so anxious about my own danger; though, had the powder took fire, i had never known who had hurt me. such impression did this make upon me, that, after the storm was over, i laid aside all my works, my building, and fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes to separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope, that, whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once, and to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one part fire another. i finished this work in about a fortnight; and i think my powder, which in all was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. as to the barrel that had been wet, i did not apprehend any danger from that, so i placed it in my new cave, which in my fancy i called my kitchen; and the rest i hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where i laid it. in the interval of time while this was doing, i went out once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if i could kill any thing fit for food, and as near as i could to acquaint myself with what the island produced. the first time i went out i presently discovered that there were goats in the island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them. but i was not discouraged at this, not doubting but i might now and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after i had found their haunts a little, i laid wait in this manner for them: i observed, if they saw me in the vallies, though they were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in the vallies, and i was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence i concluded, that by the position of their optics, their sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily see objects that were above them; so afterward i took this method; i always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark. the first shot i made among these creatures killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her till i came and took her up; and not only so; but when i carried the old one with me upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon which i laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so i was forced to kill it, and eat it myself. these two supplied me with flesh a great while, for i ate sparingly, and saved my provisions (my bread especially) as much as possibly i could. having now fixed my habitation, i found it absolutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what i did for that, as also how i enlarged my cave, and what conveniencies i made, i shall give a full account of in its place; but i must first give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which it may well be supposed were not a few. i had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as i was not cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a great way, viz. some hundreds of leagues out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, i had great reason to consider it as a determination of heaven, that in this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, i should end my life. the tears would run plentifully down my face when i made these reflections; and sometimes i would expostulate with myself, why providence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life. but something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, and to reprove me; and particularly one day, walking with my gun in my hand by the sea-side, i was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition, when reason, as it were, expostulating with the t'other way, thus: "well, you are in a desolate condition, 'tis true, but pray remember, where are the rest of you? did not you come eleven of you into the boat? where are the ten? why were they not saved and you lost? why were you singled out? is it better to be here or there?" and then i pointed to the sea. all evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attended them. then it occurred to me again, how well i was furnished for my subsistence, and what would have been my ease if it had not happened, which was an hundred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so near the shore that i had time to get all these things out of her. what would have been my case, if i had been to have lived in the condition in which i at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them? "particularly," said i, loud (though to myself), "what should i have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools to make any thing, or to work with; without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of covering?" and that now i had all these to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner, as to live without my gun when my ammunition was spent; so that i had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as i lived; for i considered from the beginning how i should provide for the accidents that might happen, and for the time that was to come, even not only after my ammunition should be spent, but even after my health or strength should decay. i confess i had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being destroyed at one blast, i mean my powder being blown up by lightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it lightned and thundered, as i observed just now. and now, being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life, such perhaps as was never heard of in the world before, i shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. it was, by my account, the 30th of september, when, in the manner as above said, i first set foot upon this horrid island, when the sun being, to us, in its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head, for i reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes north of the line. after i had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my thoughts, that i should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the working days; but to prevent this, i cut it with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters, and making it into a great cross, i set it up on the shore where i first landed, viz. "i came on shore here on the 30th of september 1659." upon the sides of this square post, i cut every day a notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one; and thus i kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time. in the next place we are to observe, that among the many things which i brought out of the ship in the several voyages, which, as above mentioned, i made to it, i got several things of less value, but not all less useful to me, which i omitted setting down before; as in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping, three or four compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of navigation; all which i huddled together, whether i might want them or no. also i found three very good bibles, which came to me in my cargo from england, and which i had packed up among my things; some portuguese books also, and among them two or three popish prayer-books, and several other books; all which i carefully secured. and i must not forget, that we had in the ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history i may have occasion to say something in it's place; for i carried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to me the day after i went on shore with my first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; i wanted nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; i only wanted to have him talk to me, but that he could not do. as i observed before, i found pen, ink, and paper, and i husbanded them to the utmost; and i shall shew, that while my ink lasted, i kept things very exact; but after that was gone i could not, for i could not make any ink by any means that i could devise. and this put me in mind that i wanted many things, notwithstanding all that i had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one, as also spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread. as for linen, i soon learnt to want that without much difficulty. this want of tools made every work i did go on heavily, and it was near a whole year before i had entirely finished my little pale or surrounded habitation: the piles or stakes, which were as heavy as i could well lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more by far in bringing home; so that i spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it into the ground; for which purpose i got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows, which however, though i found it, yet it made driving those posts or piles very laborious and tedious work. but what need i have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing i had to do, seeing i had time enough to do it in? nor had i any other employment if that had been over, at least that i could foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for food, which i did more or less every day. i now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance i was reduced to, and i drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for i was like to have but few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting my mind; and as my reason began now to master my despondency, i began to comfort myself as well as i could, and to set the good against the evil, that i might have something to distinguish my case from worse; and i stated it very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts i enjoyed against the miseries i suffered, thus: _evil_. _good_. i am cast upon a horrible but i am alive, and desolate island, void not drowned, as all my of all hope of recovery. ship's company was. i am singled out and but i am singled out separated, as it were, too from all the ship's from all the world to be crew to be spared from miserable. death; and he that miraculously saved me from death, can deliver me from this condition. i am divided from but i am not starved mankind, a solitaire, one and perishing on a barren banished from human society. place, affording no sustenance. i have not clothes to but i am in a hot climate, cover me. where if i had clothes i could hardly wear them. i am without any defence but i am cast on an or means to resist island, where i see no any violence of man or wild beasts to hurt me, beast. as i saw on the coast of africa: and what if i had been shipwrecked there? i have no soul to speak but god wonderfully to, or relieve me. sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that i have gotten out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants, or enable me to supply myself even as long as i live. upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something _negative_ or something _positive_ to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account. having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if i could spy a ship; i say, giving over these things, i began to apply myself to accommodate my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as i could. i have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but i might now rather call it a wall, for i raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two foot thick on the outside; and after some time, i think it was a year and half, i raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as i could get to keep out the rain, which i found at some times of the year very violent. i have already observed how i brought all my goods into this pale, and into the cave which i had made behind me: but i must observe too that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place: i had no room to turn myself; so i set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour i bestowed on it: and so when i found i was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, i worked sideways to the right hand into the rock; and then, turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out, on the outside of my pale or fortification. this gave me not only egress and regress, as it were a back-way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods. and now i began to apply myself to make such necessary things as i found i most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these i was not able to enjoy the few comforts i had in the world; i could not write or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure without a table. so i went to work; and here i must needs observe, that as reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring every thing by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be in time master of every mechanic art. i had never handled a tool in my life, and yet in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, i found at last that i wanted nothing but i could have made it, especially if i had had tools; however, i made abundance of things, even without tools, and some with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with infinite labour: for example, if i wanted a board, i had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till i had brought it to be as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. it is true, by this method i could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this i had no remedy for but patience, any more than i had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another. however, i made me a table and a chair, as i observed above, in the first place; and this i did out of the short pieces of boards that i brought on my raft from the ship: but when i had wrought out some boards, as above, i made large shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half one over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work, and in a word, to separate every thing at large in their places, that i might come easily at them. i knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang up. so that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general magazine of all necessary things; and i had every thing so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great. and now it was that i began to keep a journal of every day's employment; for indeed at first i was in too much a hurry; and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much discomposure of mind, and my journal would have been full of many dull things. for example, i must have said thus: sept. the 30th, after i got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to god for my deliverance, having first vomited with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, i ran about the shore, wringing my hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, i was undone, undone; till tired and faint i was forced to lie down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured. some days after this, and after i had been on board the ship, and got all that i could out of her, yet i could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy at a vast distance i spied a sail; please myself with the hopes of it; and then after looking steadily till i was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly. but having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settled my household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as i could, i began to keep my journal, of which i shall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all those particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for having no more ink, i was forced to leave it off. * * * * * the journal. _september 30, 1659_. i poor miserable robinson crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island, which i called the island of despair; all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead. all the rest of that day i spent in afflicting myself at the dismal circumstances i was brought to, viz. i had neither food, house, clothes, weapon, or place to fly to, and in despair of any relief, saw nothing but death before me, either that i should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. at the approach of night i slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures, but slept soundly, though it rained all night. october 1. in the morning i saw, to my great surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearer the island; which as it was some comfort on one hand, for seeing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, i hoped, if the wind abated, i might get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for my relief; so on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who i imagined, if we had all staid on board, might have saved the ship, or at least that they would not have been all drowned, as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us to some other part of the world. i spent great part of this day in perplexing myself on these things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, i went upon the sand as near as i could, and then swam on board. this day also it continued raining, though with no wind at all. from the 1st of october to the 24th. all these days entirely spent in many several voyages to get all i could out of the ship, which i brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. much rain also in these days, though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it seems, this was the rainy season. oct. 20. i overset my raft, and all the goods i had got up upon it; but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, i recovered many of them when the tide was out. oct. 25. it rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind; during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blowing a little harder than before, and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at low water. i spent this day in covering and securing the goods which i had saved, that rain might not spoil them. oct. 26. i walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men. towards night i fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and marked out a semicircle for my encampment, which i resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification made of double piles, lined within with cable, and without with turf. from the 26th to the 30th i worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it rained exceeding hard. the 31st in the morning i went out into the island with my gun, to see for some food, and discover the country; when i killed a she goat, and her kid followed me home, which i afterwards killed also, because it would not feed. november 1. i set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the first night, making it as large as i could with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon. nov. 2. i set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence round me, a little within the place i had marked out for my fortification. nov. 3. i went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks, which were very good food. in the afternoon went to work to make me a table. nov. 4. this morning i began to order my times of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion; viz. every morning i walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain, then employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock, then ate what i had to live on, and from twelve to two i lay down to sleep, the weather being excessive hot, and then in the evening to work again: the working part of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making my table, for i was yet but a very sorry workman, though time and necessity make me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as i believe it would do any one else. nov. 5. this day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and killed a wild cat, her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing: every creature i killed i took off the skins and preserved them. coming back by the sea-shore i saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which i did not understand; but was surprised and almost frighted with two or three seals, which, while i was gazing at, not well knowing what they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that time. nov. 6. after my morning walk i went to work with my table again, and finished it, though not to my liking, nor was it long before i learnt to mend it. nov. 7. now it began to be settled fair weather. the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was sunday), i took wholly up to make me a chair, and with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please me; and even in the making i pulled it in pieces several times. _note_, i soon neglected my keeping sundays, for omitting my mark for them on my post, i forgot which was which. nov. 13. this day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, and cooled the earth, but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning, which frighted me dreadfully for fear of my powder: as soon as it was over i resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger. nov. 14, 15, 16. these three days i spent in making little square chests or boxes, which might hold a pound, or two pound, at most, of powder; and so putting the powder in, i stowed it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible. on one of these three days i killed a large bird that was good to eat, but i knew not what to call it. nov. 17. this day i began to dig behind my tent into the rock, to make room for my farther conveniency. _note_, three things i wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. a pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow or basket; so i desisted from my work, and began to consider how to supply that want, and make me some tools: as for a pickaxe, i made use of the iron crows, which were proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing was a shovel or spade; this was so absolutely necessary, that indeed i could do nothing effectually without it; but what kind of one to make i knew not. nov. 18. the next day in searching the woods i found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the brasils they call the iron tree, for its exceeding hardness: of this, with great labour and almost spoiling my axe, i cut a piece, and brought it home too with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. the excessive hardness of the wood, and having no other way, made me a long while upon this machine; for i worked it effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or spade, the handle exactly shaped like ours in england, only that the broad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long; however, it served well enough for the uses which i had occasion to put it to; but never was a shovel, i believe, made after that fashion, or so long a making. i was still deficient, for i wanted a basket or a wheel-barrow; a basket i could not make by any means, having no such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker-ware, at least none yet found out; and as to a wheel-barrow, i fancied i could make; all but the wheel, but that i had no notion of, neither did i know how to go about it; besides, i had no possible way to make the iron gudgeons for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in, so i gave it over; and so for carrying away the earth which i dug out of the cave, i made me a thing like a hod which the labourers carry mortar in, when they serve the bricklayers. this was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel; and yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt which i made in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took me up no less than four days, i mean always excepting my morning walk with my gun, which i seldom failed; and very seldom failed also bringing home something to eat. nov. 23. my other work having now stood still, because of my making these tools, when they were finished i went on, and working every day, as my strength and time allowed, i spent eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods commodiously. _note_, during all this time, i worked to make this room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar: as for my lodging, i kept to the tent, except that sometimes in the wet season of the year, it rained so hard that i could not keep myself dry, which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags and large leaves of trees like a thatch. dec. 10. i began now to think my cave or vault finished, when on a sudden (it seems i had made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down from the top and one side, so much that in short it frighted me, and not without reason too; for if i had been under it i had never wanted a gravedigger. upon this disaster i had a great deal of work to do over again; for i had the loose earth to carry out, and, which was of more importance, i had the ceiling to prop up, so that i might be sure no more would come down. dec. 11. this day i went to work with it accordingly, and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces of boards across over each post; this i finished the next day; and setting more posts up with boards, in about a week more i had the roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to part off my house. dec. 17. from this day to the twentieth i placed shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts to hang every thing up that could be hung up: and now i began to be in some order within doors. dec. 20. now i carried every thing into the cave, and began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with me: also i made me another table. dec. 24. much rain all night and all day; no stirring out. dec. 25. rain all day. dec. 26. no rain, and the earth much cooler than before and pleasanter. dec. 27. killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that i caught it, and led it home in a string; when i had it home, i bound and splintered up its leg which was broke. n.b. i took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew well and as strong as ever; but by nursing it so long it grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away. this was the first time that i entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures, that i might have food when my powder and shot was all spent. dec. 28, 29, 30. great heats and no breeze; so that there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening for food. this time i spent in putting all my things in order within doors. january 1. very hot still, but i went abroad early and late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. this evening, going farther into the vallies which lay towards the centre of the island, i found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy and hard to come at; however, i resolved to try if i could not bring my dog to hunt them down. jan. 2. accordingly, the next day i went out with my dog, and set him upon the goats; but i was mistaken, for they all faced about upon the dog; and he knew his danger too well, for he would, not come near them. jan. 3. i began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, i resolved to make very thick and strong. n.b. this wall being described before, i purposely omit what was said, in the journal; it is sufficient to observe, that i was no less time than from the 3d of january to the 14th of april, working, finishing, and perfecting this wall, though it was no more than about twenty-four yards in length, being a half-circle from one place in the rock to another place about eight yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre behind it. all this time i worked very hard, the rains hindering me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but i thought i should never be perfectly secure until this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour every thing was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods, and driving them into the ground, for i made them much bigger than i need to have done. when this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced with a turf wall raised up close to it, i persuaded myself that if any people were to come on shore there, they would not perceive any thing like a habitation; and it was very well i did so, as may be observed hereafter upon a very remarkable occasion. during this time i made my rounds in the woods for game every day, when the rain admitted me, and made frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my advantage; particularly i found a kind of wild pigeons, who built not as wood pigeons in a tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and taking some young ones, i endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew older they flew away, which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for i had nothing to give them; however, i frequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which were very good meat. and now, in the managing my household affairs, i found myself wanting in many things, which i thought at first it was impossible for me to make, as indeed as to some of them it was; for instance, i could never make a cask to be hooped; i had a small runlet or two, as i observed before, but i could never arrive to the capacity of making one by them, though i spent many weeks about it; i could neither put in the heads, or joint the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water: so i gave that also over. in the next place, i was at a great loss for candle; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o'clock, i was obliged to go to bed: i remembered the lump of bees-wax with which i made candles in my african adventure, but i had none of that now; the only remedy i had, was, that when i had killed a goat i saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of clay, which i baked in the sun, to which i added a wick of some oakum, i made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear steady light like a candle. in the middle of all my labours it happened, that, rummaging my things, i found a little bag, which, as i hinted before, had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry; not for this voyage, but before, as i suppose, when the ship came from lisbon; what little remainder of corn had been in the bag, was all devoured with the rats, and i saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag for some other use, i think it was to put powder in, when i divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use, i shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification under the rock. it was a little before the great rains, just now mentioned, that i threw this stuff away, taking no notice of any thing, and not so much as remembering that i had thrown any thing there; when about a month after, or thereabout, i saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground, which i fancied might be some plant i had not seen; but i was surprised and perfectly astonished, when after a little longer time i saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley of the same kind as our european, nay, as our english barley. it is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts on this occasion; i had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all; indeed i had very few notions of religion in my head, or had entertained any sense of any thing that had befallen me, otherwise than as a chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases god; without so much as inquiring into the end of providence in these things, or his order in governing events in the world: but after i saw barley grow there, in a climate which i knew was not proper for corn, and especially that i knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and i began to suggest, that god had miraculously caused this grain to grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place. this touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and i began to bless myself, that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account; and this was the more strange to me, because i saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which i knew, because i had seen it grow in africa, when i was ashore there. i not only thought these the pure productions of providence for my support, but not doubting but that there was more in the place, i went all over that part of the island, where i had been before, peeping in every corner and under every rock to see for more of it, but i could not find any; at last it occurred to my thought, that i had shook a bag of chicken's meat out in that place, and then the wonder began to cease; and i must confess, my religious thankfulness to god's providence began to abate too upon discovering that all this was nothing but what was common; though i ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of providence as to me, that should order or appoint ten or twelve grains of corn to remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven: as also, that i should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas if i had thrown it any were else at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed. i carefully saved the ears of corn, you may be sure, in their season, which was about the end of june, and laying up every corn, i resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread; but it was not till the fourth year that i could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as i shall say afterwards in its order; for i lost all that i sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; for i sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it would have done: of which in its place. besides this barley there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of rice, which i preserved with the same care, and whose use was of the same kind or to the same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or rather food; for i found ways to cook it up without baking, though i did that also after some time. but to return to my journal. i worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done; and the 14th of april i closed it up, contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall by a ladder, that there might be no sign in the outside of my habitation. april 16. i finished the ladder; so i went up with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down on the inside: this was a complete enclosure to me; for within i had room enough, and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall. the very next day after this wall was finished, i had almost had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus: as i was busy in the inside of it behind my tent, just in the entrance into my cave, i was terribly frighted with a most dreadful surprising thing indeed; for on a sudden i found the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill, over my head, and two of the posts i had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner: i was heartily scared, but thought nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in, as some of it had done before; and for fear i should be buried in it, i ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, i got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which i expected might roll down upon me. i was no sooner stept down upon the firm ground, but i plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake, for the ground i stood on shook three times at about eight minutes distance, with three such shocks, as would have overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me next the sea, fell down with such a terrible noise as i never heard in all my life: i perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and i believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island. i was so amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the like, or discoursed with any one that had, that i was like one dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupified condition i was in, filled me with horror, and i thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my very soul within me a second time. after the third shock was over, and i felt no more for some time, i began to take courage, and yet i had not heart enough to get over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. all this while i had not the least serious religious thought, nothing but the common "lord have mercy upon me!" and when it was over, that went away too. while i sat thus, i found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as if it would rain; soon after that the wind rose by little and little, so that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth, the shore was covered with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was; and this held about three hours, and then began to abate, and in two hours more it was stark calm, and began to rain very hard. all this while i sat upon the ground, very much terrified and dejected, when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rain being the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and i might venture into my cave again: with this thought my spirits began to revive, and the rain also helping to persuade me, i went in and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and i was forced to go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on my head. this violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification like a sink, to let water go out, which would else have drowned my cave. after i had been in my cave some time, and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow, i began to be more composed; and now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, i went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum, which however i did then and always very sparingly, knowing i could have no more when that was gone. it continued raining all that night, and great part of the next day, so that i could not stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, i began to think of what i had best do, concluding, that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but i must consider of building me some little hut in an open place, which i might surround with a wall as i had done here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men: but concluded, if i staid where i was, i should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive. with these thoughts i resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent. and i spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of april, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation. the fear of being swallowed up alive, made me that i never slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it; but still, when i looked about and saw how every thing was put in order, how pleasantly concealed i was, and how safe from danger, it made me very loth to remove. in the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that i must be contented to run the venture where i was, till i had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it. so with this resolution i composed myself for a time, and resolved that i would go to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before; and set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that i would venture to stay where i was till it was finished and fit to remove to. this was the 21st. april 22. the next morning i began to consider of means to put this resolve in execution, but i was at a great loss about my tools. i had three large axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the indians); but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches and dull; and though i had a grindstone, i could not turn it and grind my tools too: this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. at length i contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that i might have both my hands at liberty. _note_, i had never seen any such thing in england, or at least not to take notice how it was done, though since i have observed it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone was very large and heavy. this machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection. april 28, 29. these two whole days i took up in grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well. april 30. having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now i took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made my heart very heavy. may 1. in the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide being low, i saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary; and it looked like a cask; when i came to it, i found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, i thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. i examined the barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder, but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone; however, i rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon the sands as near as i could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more. when i came down to the ship, i found it strangely removed; the forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six foot; and the stern, which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest by the force of the sea, soon after i had left rummaging her, was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side, and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great place of water before, so that i could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming, i could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out. i was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake: and as by this violence the ship was more broken open than formerly, so many things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land. this wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation; and i busied myself mightily, that day especially, in searching whether i could make any way into the ship; but i found nothing was to be expected of that kind, for that all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand: however, as i had learnt not to despair of any thing, i resolved to pull every thing to pieces that i could of the ship, concluding, that every thing i could get from her would be of some use or other to me. may 3. i began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which i thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and when i had cut it through, i cleared away the sand as well as i could from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, i was obliged to give over for that time. way 4. i went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that i durst eat of, till i was weary of my sport; when just going to leave off, i caught a young dolphin. i had made me a long line of some rope yarn, but i had no hooks, yet i frequently caught fish enough, as much as i cared to eat; all which i dried in the sun, and ate them dry. may 5. worked on the wreck, cut another beam asunder, and brought three great fir planks off from the decks, which i tied together, and made swim on shore when the tide of flood came on. may 6. worked on the wreck, got several iron bolts out of her, and other pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it over. may 7. went to the wreck again, but with an intent not to work, but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams being cut, that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the hold lay so open, that i could see into it, but almost full of water and sand. may 8. went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand; i wrenched open two planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide: i left the iron crow in the wreck for next day. may 9. went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could not break them up: i felt also the roll of english lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy to remove. may 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. went every day to the wreck, and got a great many pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weight of iron. may 15. i carried two hatchets, to try if i could not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, i could not make any blow to drive the hatchet. may 16. it had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water; but i staid so long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented me going to the wreck that day. may 17. i saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away. may 24. every day to this day i worked on the wreck, and with hard labour i loosened some things so much with the crow, that the first flowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests; but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some brasil pork in it, but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it. i continued this work every day to the 15th of june, except the time necessary to get food, which i always appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the tide was up, that i might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this time i had gotten timber, and plank, and iron-work enough to have built a good boat, if i had known how; and also i got at several times, and in several pieces, near one hundred weight of the sheet-lead. june 16. going down to the sea-side, i found a large tortoise or turtle: this was the first i had seen, which it seems was only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had i happened to be on the other side of the island, i might have had hundreds of them every day, as i found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for them. june 17. i spent in cooking the turtle; i found in her threescore eggs; and her flesh was to me at that time the most savory and pleasant that ever i tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since i landed in this horrid place. june 18. rained all day, and i stayed within. i thought at this time the rain felt cold, and i was something chilly, which i knew was not usual in that latitude. june 19. very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold. june 20. no rest all night, violent pains in my head, and feverish. june 21. very ill, frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help. prayed to god for the first time since the storm off hull, but scarce knew what i said, or why; my thoughts being all confused. june 22. a little better, but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness. june 23. very bad again, cold and shivering, and then a violent headach. june 24. much better. june 25. an ague very violent; the fit held me seven hours, cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it. june 26. better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but found myself very weak; however, i killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate; i would fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot. june 27. the ague again so violent, that i lay abed all day, and neither ate or drank. i was ready to perish for thirst, but so weak i had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink. prayed to god again, but was light-headed; and when i was not i was so ignorant, that i knew not what to say; only i lay and cried, "lord look upon me! lord pity me! lord have mercy upon me!" i suppose i did nothing else for two or three hours, till the fit wearing off, i fell asleep, and did not wake till far in the night; when i waked, i found myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty: however, as i had no water in my whole habitation, i was forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. in this second sleep i had this terrible dream. i thought that i was sitting on the ground on the outside of my wall, where i sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that i saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground. he was all over as bright as a flame, so that i could but just bear to look towards him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground with his feet i thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earthquake, and all the air looked to my apprehension as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. he was no sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward towards me, with a long spear or weapon in his hand to kill me; and when he came to a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me, or i heard a voice so terrible, that it is impossible to express the terror of it; all that i can say i understood was this, "seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou shall die:" at which words i thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me. no one, that shall ever read this account, will expect that i should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision; i mean, that even while it was a dream, i even dreamed of those horrors; nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my mind, when i awaked, and found it was but a dream. i had, alas! no divine knowledge; what i had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversation with nothing but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last degree. i do not remember that i had in all that time one thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards toward god, or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways. but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me, and i was all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our common sailors can be supposed to be, not having the least sense, either of the fear of god in danger, or of thankfulness to god in deliverances. in the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the more easily believed, when i shall add, that through all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, i never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of god, or that it was a just punishment for my sin, my rebellious behaviour against my father, or my present sins, which were great; or so much as a punishment for the general course of my wicked life. when i was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of africa, i never had so much as one thought of what would become of me; or one wish to god to direct me whither i should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages: but i was merely thoughtless of a god, or a providence, acted like a mere brute from the principles of nature, and by the dictates of common sense only, and indeed hardly that. when i was delivered, and taken up at sea by the portugal captain, well used, and dealt justly and honourably with, as well as charitably, i had not the least thankfulness on my thoughts. when again i was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drowning on this island, i was as far from remorse, or looking on it as a judgment; i only said to myself often, that i was _an unfortunate dog_, and born to be always miserable. it is true, when i got on shore first here, and found all my ship's crew drowned, and myself spared, i was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace of god assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; but it ended where it begun, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as i may say, _being glad i was alive_, without the least reflection upon the distinguishing goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had singled me out to be preserved, when all the rest were destroyed; or an inquiry why providence had been thus merciful to me; even just the same common sort of joy which seamen generally have, after they have got safe on shore from a shipwreck, which they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over; and all the rest of my life was like it. even when i was afterwards, on due consideration, made sensible of my condition, how i was cast on this dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect of redemption, as soon as i saw but a prospect of living, and that i should not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense of my affliction wore off, and i began to be very easy, applied myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply, and was far enough from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from heaven, or as the hand of god against me: these were thoughts which very seldom entered into my head. the growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, had at first some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness, as long as i thought it had something miraculous in it; but as soon as ever that part of thought was removed, all the impression which was raised from it wore off also, as i have noted already. even the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in its nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible power which alone directs such things; yet no sooner was the first fright over, but the impression it had made went off also. i had no more sense of god, or his judgments, much less of the present affliction of my circumstances being from his hand, than if i had been in the most prosperous condition of life. but now, when i began to be sick, and a leisurely view of the miseries of death came to place itself before me; when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever; conscience, that had slept so long, began to awake, and i began to reproach myself with my past life, in which i had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of god to lay me under uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. these reflections oppressed me from the second or third day of my distemper, and in the violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, extorted some words from me, like praying to god, though i cannot say they were either a prayer attended with desires, or with hopes; it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress; my thoughts were confused, the convictions great upon my mind, and the horror of dying in such a miserable condition, raised vapours into my head with the mere apprehensions; and, in these hurries of my soul, i knew not what my tongue might express: but it was rather exclamation, such as, "lord! what a miserable creature am i! if i should be sick, i shall certainly die for want of help, and what will become of me!" then the tears burst out of my eyes, and i could say no more for a good while. in this interval, the good advice of my father came to my mind; and presently his prediction, which i mentioned in the beginning of this story, viz. that if i did take this foolish step, god would not bless me, and i would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. "now," said i aloud, "my dear father's words are come to pass: god's justice has overtaken me, and i have none to help or hear me: i rejected the voice of providence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein i might have been happy and easy; but i would neither see it myself, nor learn to know the blessing of it from my parents; i left them to mourn over my folly, and now i am left to mourn under the consequences of it: i refused their help and assistance, who would have lifted me into the world, and would have made every thing easy to me; and now i have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature itself to support, and no assistance, no help, no comfort, no advice." then i cried out, "lord be my help, for i am in great distress!" this was the first prayer, if i might call it so, that i had made for many years. but i return to my journal. june 28. having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep i had had, and the fit being entirely off, i got up: and though the fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet i considered, that the fit of the ague would return again the next day, and now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself when i should be ill; and the first thing i did, i filled a large square case-bottle with water, and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, i put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed them together; then i got me a piece of the goat's flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. i walked about, but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable condition, dreading the return of my distemper the next day. at night i made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs, which i roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell; and this was the first bit of meat i had ever asked god's blessing to, even, as i could remember, in my whole life. after i had eaten i tried to walk; but found myself so weak, that i could hardly carry the gun (for i never went out without that): so i went but a little way, and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and very calm and smooth. as i sat here, some such thoughts as these occurred to me: what is the earth and sea, of which i have seen so much? whence is it produced? and what am i, and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human and brutal? whence are we? sure we are all made by some secret power, who formed the earth and sea, the air and sky; and who is that? then it followed, most naturally: it is god that has made it all: well, but then it came on strangely; if god has made all these things, he guides and governs them all, and all things that concern them; for the being that could make all things, must certainly have power to guide and direct them. if so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works, either without his knowledge or appointment. and if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that i am here, and am in a dreadful condition; and if nothing happens without his appointment, he has appointed all this to befal me. nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of these conclusions; and therefore it rested upon me with the greater force, that it must needs be, that god had appointed all this to befal me; that i was brought to this miserable circumstance by his direction, he having the sole power, not of me only, but of every thing that happened in the world. immediately it followed, why has god done this to me? what have i done to be thus used? my conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if i had blasphemed; and methought it spoke to me, like a voice; "wretch! dost thou ask what thou hast done? look back upon a dreadful mispent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not done? ask, why is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed? why wert thou not drowned in yarmouth roads? killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the sallee man of war? devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of africa? or, drowned here, when all the crew perished but thyself? dost thou ask, what have i done?" i was struck with these reflections as one astonished, and had not a word to say, no, not to answer to myself: but rose up pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went up over my wall, as if i had been going to bed; but my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and i had no inclination to sleep; so i sat down in my chair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. now, as the apprehensions of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, it occurred to my thought, that the brasilians take no physic but their tobacco, for almost all distempers; and i had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured, and some also that was green, and not quite cured. i went, directed by heaven, no doubt; for in this chest i found a cure both for soul and body. i opened the chest, and found what i looked for, viz. the tobacco; and as the few books i had saved lay there too, i took out one of the bibles which i mentioned before, and which, to this time, i had not found leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into; i say i took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table. what use to make of the tobacco i knew not, as to my distemper, or whether it was good for it or no; but i tried several experiments with it, as if i was resolved it should hit one way or other: i first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in my mouth, which indeed at first almost stupified my brain, the tobacco being green and strong, and that i had not been much used to it; then i took some, and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved to take a dose of it when i lay down; and lastly, i burnt some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the smoke of it, as long as i could bear it, as well for the heat as the virtue of it, and i held almost to suffocation. in the interval of this operation i took up the bible, and began to read; but my head was too much disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading, at least at that time; only having opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these: "call on me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me." the words were very apt to my case, and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though not so much as they did afterwards; for as for being delivered, the word had no sound, as i may say, to me; the thing was so remote, so impossible in my apprehension of things, that i began to say as the children of israel did, when they were promised flesh to eat, "can god spread a table in the wilderness?" so i began to say, can god himself deliver me from this place? and as it was not for many years that any hope appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts: but, however, the words made a very great impression upon me, and i mused upon them very often. it grew now late, and the tobacco had, as i said, dozed my head so much, that i inclined to sleep; so that i left my lamp burning in the cave, lest i should want any thing in the night, and went to bed; but before i lay down, i did what i never had done in all my life: i kneeled down, and prayed to god to fulfil the promise to me, that if i called upon him in the day of trouble, he would deliver me. after my broken and imperfect prayer was over, i drank the rum in which i had steeped the tobacco, which was so strong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed i could scarce get it down. immediately upon this i went to bed, and i found presently it flew up into my head violently; but i fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more, till by the sun it must necessarily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next day; nay, to this hour i am partly of the opinion, that i slept all the next day and night, and till almost three the day after; for otherwise i knew not how i should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it appeared some years after i had done; for if i had lost it by crossing and recrossing the line, i should have lost more than a day; but in my account it was lost, and i never knew which way. be that however one way or other; when i awaked, i found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful; when i got up, i was stronger than i was the day before, and my stomach better; for i was hungry; and, in short, i had no fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better: this was the 29th. the 30th was my well day of course, and i went abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too far: i killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a brand goose, and brought them home, but was not very forward to eat them: so i ate some more of the turtle's eggs, which were very good. this evening i renewed the medicine which i had supposed did me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped in rum; only i did not take so much as before, nor did i chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke; however, i was not so well the next day, which was the 1st of july, as i hoped i should have been; for i had a little spice of the cold fit, but it was not much. july 2. i renewed the medicine all the three ways, and dozed myself with it at first, and doubled the quantity which i drank. july 3. i missed the fit for good and all, though i did not recover my full strength for some weeks after. while i was thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, "i will deliver thee;" and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it: but as i was discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred to my mind, that i pored so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction, that i disregarded the deliverance i had received; and i was, as it were, made to ask myself such questions as these; viz. have i not been delivered, and wonderfully too, from sickness? from the most distressed condition that could be, and that was so frightful to me? and what notice had i taken of it? had i done my part? _god had delivered me;_ but _i had not glorified him_: that is to say, i had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance; and how could i expect greater deliverance? this touched my heart very much, and immediately i kneeled down, and gave god thanks aloud, for my recovery from my sickness. july 4. in the morning i took the bible; and, beginning at the new testament, i began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myself to read a while every morning and every night, not tying myself to the number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts should engage me. it was not long after i set seriously to this work, but i found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life; the impression of my dream revived, and the words, "all these things have not brought thee to repentance," ran seriously in my thoughts: i was earnestly begging of god to give me repentance, when it happened providentially the very day, that, reading the scripture, i came to these words, "he is exalted a prince, and a saviour, to give repentance, and to give remission." i threw down the book, and with my heart as well as my hand lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, i cried out aloud, "jesus, thou son of david, jesus, thou exalted prince and saviour, give me repentance!" this was the first time that i could say, in the true sense of the words, that i prayed in all my life; for now i prayed with a sense of my condition, and with a true scripture view of hope, founded on the encouragement of the word of god; and from this time, i may say, i began to have hope that god would hear me. now i began to construe the words mentioned above, "call on me, and i will deliver thee," in a different sense from what i had ever done before; for then i had no notion of any thing being called deliverance, but my being delivered from the captivity i was in; for though i was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world; but now i learnt to take it in another sense. now i looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of god, but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. as for my solitary life, it was nothing; i did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no consideration in comparison of this; and i added this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction. but, leaving this part, i return to my journal. my condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind; and my thoughts being directed, by a constant reading the scripture, and praying to god, to things of a higher nature, i had a great deal of comfort within, which till now i knew nothing of; also as my health and strength returned, i bestirred myself to furnish myself with every thing that i wanted, and make my way of living as regular as i could. from the 4th of july to the 14th, i was chiefly employed in walking about with my gun in my hand a little and a little at a time, as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness; for it is hardly to be imagined how low i was, and to what weakness i was reduced. the application which i made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps what had never cured an ague before; neither can i recommend it to any one to practise by this experiment; and though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather contributed to weaken me; for i had frequent convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time. i learnt from it also this in particular, that being abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health that could be, especially in those rains which came attended with storms and hurricanes of wind; for as the rain which came in a dry season was always most accompanied with such storms, so i found this rain was much more dangerous than the rain which fell in september and october. i had been now in this unhappy island above ten months; all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and i firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place. having now secured my habitation, as i thought, fully to my mind, i had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and to see what other productions i might find, which yet i knew nothing of. it was the 15th of july that i began to take a more particular survey of the island itself. i went up the creek first, where, as i hinted, i brought my rafts on shore. i found, after i came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher, and that it was no more than a little brook of running water, and very fresh and good: but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it, at least not enough to run into any stream, so as it could be perceived. on the bank of this brook i found many pleasant savannas or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass; and on the rising parts of them next to the higher grounds, where the water, as it might be supposed, never overflowed, i found a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a great and very strong stalk: there were divers other plants which i had no notion of, or understanding about; and might perhaps have virtues of their own, which i could not find out. i searched for the cassave root, which the indians in all that climate make their bread of, but i could find none. i saw large plants of aloes, but did not then understand them: i saw several sugar-canes, but wild, and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. i contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came back, musing with myself what course i might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which i should discover, but could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, i had made so little observation while i was in the brasils, that i knew little of the plants of the field, at least very little that might serve me to any purpose now in my distress. the next day, the 16th, i went up the same way again; and, after going something farther than i had done the day before, i found the brook and the savannas began to cease, and the country became more woody than before. in this part i found different fruits, and particularly i found melons upon the ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees; the vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe and rich. this was a surprising discovery, and i was exceeding glad of them; but i was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them, remembering, that when i was ashore in barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our englishmen who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers: but i found an excellent use for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept, which i thought would be, as indeed they were, as wholesome, and as agreeable to eat, when no grapes might be had. i spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation, which by the way was the first night, as i might say, i had lain from home. in the night i took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where i slept well, and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery, travelling near four miles, as i might judge by the length of the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north side of me. at the end of this march i came to an opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden. i descended a little on the side of that delicious valley, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts) to think that this was all my own, that i was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and if i could convey it, i might have it in inheritance, as completely as any lord of a manor in england. i saw here abundance of cocoa-trees, orange and lemon, and citron-trees, but all wild, and few bearing any fruit; at least, not then: however, the green limes that i gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and i mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. i found now i had business enough to gather and carry home; and resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which i knew was approaching. in order to do this i gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each with me, i travelled homeward, and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what i could make, to carry the rest home. accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, i came home (so i must now call my tent, and my cave;) but before i got thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruit, and the weight of the juice, having broken them, and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: as to the limes, they were good, but i could bring but a few. the next day, being the 19th, i went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest. but i was surprised, when coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when i gathered them, i found them all spread abroad, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. by this i concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were i knew not. however, as i found there was no laying them up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight, i took another course; for i gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, i carried as many back as i could well stand under. when i came home from this journey, i contemplated with great pleasure on the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on that side of the water, and the wood; and concluded that i had pitched upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst part of the country. upon the whole, i began to consider of removing my habitation, and to look out for a place equally safe as where i now was situated, if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island. this thought ran long in my head, and i was exceeding fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me; but when i came to a nearer view of it, and to consider that i was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and that the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that therefore i ought not by any means to remove. however, i was so enamoured with this place, that i spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month of july; and though, upon second thoughts, i resolved as above, not to remove, yet i built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as i could reach, well staked and filled between with brushwood; and here i lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always going over it with a ladder, as before; so that i fancied now i had my country house, and my sea-coast house: and this work took me up the beginning of august. i had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, but the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation; for though i had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of a sail, and spread it very well, yet i had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary. about the beginning of august, as i said, i had finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself. the 3d of august i found the grapes i had hung up were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good raisins of the sun; so i began to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy that i did so; for the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and i had lost the best part of my winter food; for i had above two hundred large bunches of them. no sooner had i taken them all down, and carried most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain; and from thence, which was the 14th of august, it rained more or less every day, till the middle of october; and sometimes so violently, that i could not stir out of my cave for several days. in this season i was much surprised with the increase of my family: i had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or, as i thought, had been dead; and i heard no more tale or tidings of her, till to my astonishment she came home about the end of august, with three kittens. this was the more strange to me, because though i had killed a wild cat, as i called it, with my gun, yet i thought it was a quite different kind from our european cats; yet the young cats were the same kind of house breed like the old one; and both my cats being females, i thought it very strange: but from these three cats i afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that i was forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible. from the 14th of august to the 26th, incessant rain, so that i could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. in this confinement i began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, i one day killed a goat: and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: i ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my dinner, broiled (for, to my great misfortune, i had no vessel to boil or stew any thing;) and two or three of the turtle's eggs for supper. during this confinement in my cover by the rain, i worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave; and, by degrees, worked it on towards one side, till i came to the outside of the hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall; and so i came in and out this way: but i was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for as i had managed myself before, i was in a perfect enclosure, whereas now i thought i lay exposed; and yet i could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that i had seen upon the island being a goat. september the 30th. i was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing: i cast up the notches on my post, and found i had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days. i kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to a religious exercise, prostrating myself to the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing myself to god, acknowledging his righteous judgment upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on me, through jesus christ; and having not tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, i then ate a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as i began it. i had all this time observed no sabbath-day; for as at first i had no sense of religion upon my mind, i had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for the sabbath-day, and so did not really know what any of the days were; but now, having cast up the days as before, i found i had been there a year; so i divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a sabbath; though i found at the end of my account i had lost a day or two of my reckoning. a little after this my ink began to fail me, and so i contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the most remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other things. the rainy season, and the dry season, began now to appear regular to me, and i learnt to divide them so as to provide for them accordingly. but i bought all my experience before i had it; and this i am going to relate, was one of the most discouraging experiments that i made at all. i have mentioned, that i had saved the few ears of barley and rice which i had so surprisingly found spring up, as i thought, of themselves, and believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley: and now i thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains, the sun being in its southern position going from me. accordingly i dug up a piece of ground, as well as i could, with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, i sowed my grain; but as i was sowing, it casually occurred to my thought, that i would not sow it all at first, because i did not know when was the proper time for it; so i sowed about two thirds of the seeds, leaving about a handful of each. it was a great comfort to me afterwards that i did so; for not one grain of that i sowed this time came to any thing; for the dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all, till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had been newly sown. finding my first seed did not grow, which i easily imagined was by the drought, i sought for a moister piece of ground to make another trial in; and i dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in february, a little before the vernal equinox; and this, having the rainy months of march and april to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not daring to sow all that i had yet, i had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. but by this experience i was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow; and that i might expect two seed-times, and two harvests, every year. while this corn was growing, i made a little discovery, which was of use to me afterwards. as soon as the rains were over, and the weather began to settle, which was about the month of november, i made a visit up the country to my bower, where though i had not been some months, yet i found all things just as i left them. the circle or double hedge that i had made, was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which i had cut off of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out, and grown with long branches, as much as a willow tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head. i could not tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut from. i was surprised, and yet very well pleased, to see the young trees grow; and i pruned them, and led them up to grow as much alike as i could; and it is scarce credible, how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years; so that though the hedge made a circle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such i might now call them, soon covered it; and it was a, complete shade, sufficient to lodge under all the dry season. this made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make me an hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall, i mean that of my first dwelling, which i did; and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at above eight yards distance from my first fence, they grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also, as i shall observe in its order. i found now, that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus: half february,} rainy, the sun being then on, or near, march, } the equinox. half april, } half april,} may,} dry, the sun being then to the north june,} of the line. july,} half august,} september,} rain, the sun being then come back. half october,} half october,} november,} dry, the sun being then to the south december,} of the line. january,} half february,} the rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as the winds happened to blow; but this was the general observation i made. after i had found, by experience, the ill consequence of being abroad in the rain, i took care to furnish myself with provision beforehand, that i might not be obliged to go out; and i sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months. in this time i found much employment, (and very suitable also to the time) for i found great occasion of many things which i had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant application; particularly, i tried many ways to make myself a basket; but all the twigs i could get for the purpose proved so brittle, that they would do nothing. it proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when i was a boy i used to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker's in the town where my father lived, to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner how they worked those things, and sometimes lent an hand, i had by this means so full knowledge of the methods of it, that i wanted nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind, that the twigs of that tree from whence i cut my stakes that grew, might possibly be as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers, in england; and i resolved to try. accordingly the next day i went to my country-house, as i called it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, i found them to my purpose as much as i could desire; whereupon i came the next time prepared with an hatchet to cut down a quantity, which i soon found, for there was a great plenty of them: these i set up to dry within my circle or hedges; and when they were fit for use, i carried them to my cave; and here during the next season i employed myself in making (as well as i could) a great many baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing, as i had occasion; and though i did not finish them very handsomely, yet i made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; and thus afterwards i took care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed i made more; especially i made strong deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when i should come to have any quantity of it. having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it, i bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two wants. i had no vessels to hold any thing that was liquid, except two rundlets, which were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the common size, and others which were case-bottles square, for the holding of waters, spirits, &c. i had not so much as a pot to boil any thing in, except a great kettle which i saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such uses as i desired it for, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. the second thing i would fain have had, was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible for me to make one; however, i found a contrivance for that too at last. i employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes of piles, and in this wicker-work, all the summer, or dry season; when another business took me up more time than it could be imagined i could spare. i mentioned before, that i had a great mind to see the whole island, and that i had travelled up the brook, and so on to where i built my bower, and where i had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the island. i now resolved to travel quite across to the sea shore on that side. so taking my gun and hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch, for my store, i began my journey. when i had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, i came within view of the sea, to the west; and it being a very clear day, i fairly descried land, whether an island or continent i could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the west to the w.s.w. at a very great distance; by my guess it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off. i could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than that i knew it must be part of america; and, as i concluded by all my observations, must be near the spanish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where if i should have landed, i had been in a worse condition than i was now; and therefore i acquiesced in the dispositions of providence, which i began now to own, and to believe, ordered every thing for the best; i say, i quieted my mind with this, and left afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there. besides, after some pause upon this affair, i considered, that if this land was the spanish coast, i should certainly, one time or other, see some vessels pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was the savage coast between the spanish country and brasil, which were indeed the worst of savages; for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands. with these considerations i walked very leisurely forward. i found that side of the island where i now was, much pleasanter than mine, the open or savanna fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods. i saw abundance of parrots, and fain would i have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak to me. i did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot; for i knocked it down with a stick, and having recovered it, i brought it home, but it was some years before i could make him speak. however, at last i taught him to call me by my name very familiarly: but the accident that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place. i was exceedingly diverted with this journey: i found in the low grounds, hares, as i thought them to be, and foxes, but they differed greatly from all the other kinds i had met with; nor could i satisfy myself to eat them, though i killed several: but i had no need to be venturous; for i had no want of food, and of that which was very good too; especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle or tortoise; which added to my grapes. leadenhall-market could not have furnished a better table than i, in proportion to the company: and though my case was deplorable enough, yet i had great cause for thankfulness, that i was not driven to any extremities for food; but rather plenty, even to dainties. i never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, or thereabouts; but i look so many turns and returns, to see what discoveries i could make, that i came weary enough to the place where i resolved to sit down for all night; and then either reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature could come at me without waking me. as soon as i came to the sea-shore, i was surprised to see that i had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island; for here indeed the shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side i had found but three in a year and an half. here was also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some of which i had not seen before, and many of them very good meat; but such as i knew not the names of except those called penguins. i could have shot as many as i pleased, but was very sparing of my powder and shot: and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat, if i could, which i could better feed on: and though there were many goats here more than on the other side of the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that i could come near them; the country being flat and even, and they saw me much sooner than when i was on the hills. i confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine, but yet i had not the least inclination to remove; for as i was fixed in my habitation, it became natural to me, and i seemed all the while i was here to be, as it were, upon a journey, and from home: however, i travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, i suppose, about twelve miles; and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, i concluded i would go home again; and the next journey i took should be on the other side of the island, east from my dwelling, and so round, till i came to my post again: of which in its place. i took another way to come back than that i went, thinking i could easily keep all the island so much in my view, that i could not miss finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but i found myself mistaken; for being come about two or three miles, i found myself descended into a very large valley; but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with woods, that i could not see which was my way by any direction but that of the sun; nor even then, unless i knew very well the position of the sun at that time of the day. it happened, to my farther misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four days, while i was in this valley; and not being able to see the sun, i wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the same way i went; and then by easy journies i turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot; and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things, very heavy. in this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and i running in to take hold of it, caught it, and saved it alive from the dog. i had a great mind to bring it home, if i could; for i had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and shot should be spent. i made a collar for this little creature, and with a string which i made of some rope-yarn, which i always carried about me, i led him along, though with some difficulty, till i came to my bower, and there i enclosed him, and left him; for i was very impatient to be at home, from whence i had been absent above a month. i cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed: this little wandering journey, without a settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me that my own house, as i called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every thing about me so comfortable, that i resolved i would never go a great way from it again, while it should be my lot to stay on the island. i reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey; during which, most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my pol, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me. then i began to think of the poor kid, which i had pent in within my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, and give it some food; accordingly i went, and found it where i left it; for indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want of food; i went and cut boughs of trees and branches of such shrubs as i could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, i tied it as i did before to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that i had no need to have tied it; for it followed me like a dog; and as i continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards. the rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and i kept the 30th of september in the same solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there two years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day i came there. i spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. i gave humble and hearty thanks, that god had been pleased to discover to me even that it was possible i might be more happy in this solitary condition than i should have been in a liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world: that he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human society, by his presence, and the communication of his grace to my soul, supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, and hope for his eternal presence hereafter. it was now that i began sensibly to feel how much more happy the life i now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life i led all the past part of my days; and now, having changed both my sorrows and my joys, my very desires altered, my affections changed their gust, and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at first coming, or indeed for the two years past. before, as i walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the woods, the mountains, the deserts i was in; and how i was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. in the midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and made me wring my hands, and weep like a child. sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work, and i would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two together, and this was still worse to me; for if i could burst out into tears, or vent myself by words, it would go off; and the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate. but now i began to exercise myself with new thoughts; i daily read the word of god, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. one morning being very sad, i opened the bible upon these words, "i will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee!" immediately it occurred, that these words were to me, why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when i was mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of god and man? "well then," said i, "if god does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake me; seeing, on the other hand, if i had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of god, there would be no comparison in the loss?" from this moment i began to conclude in my mind, that it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition, than it was probable i should have ever been in any other particular state in the world; and with this thought i was going to give thanks to god for bringing me to this place. i know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at that thought, and i durst not speak the words, "how canst thou be such an hypocrite," said i, even audibly, "to pretend to be thankful for a condition, which, however thou mayst endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?" so i stopped there; but though i could not say i thanked god for being there, yet i sincerely gave thanks to god for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition, of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. i never opened the bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed god for directing my friend in england, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods; and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship. thus, and in this disposition of mind, i began my third year; and though i have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my works this year as at the first, yet in general it may be observed, that i was very seldom idle; having regularly divided my time, according to the several daily employments that were before me; such as, first, my duty to god, and reading the scriptures, which i constantly set apart some time for, thrice, every day: secondly, the going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up three hours every morning when it did not rain: thirdly, the ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what i had killed or catched for my supply; these took up great part of the day: also it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time i could be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes i changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon. to this short time allowed for labour, i desire may be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours, which for want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing that i did, took up out of my time: for example, i was full two-and-forty days making me a board for a long shelf, which i wanted in my cave; whereas two sawyers, with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half a day. my case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down, because my board was to be a broad one. the tree i was three days a cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log, or piece of timber. with inexpressible hacking and hewing i reduced both the sides of it into chips, till it began to be light enough to move; then i turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat, as a board, from end to end: then turning that side downward, cut the other side till i brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both sides. any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work; but labour and patience carried me through that and many other things; i only observe this in particular, to shew the reason why so much of my time went away with so little work, viz. that what might be a little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. but notwithstanding this, with patience and labour, i went through many things, and indeed ever thing that my circumstances made necessary for me to do, as will appear by what follows. i was now in the months of november and december, expecting my crop of barley and rice. the ground i had manured or dug up for them was not great; for, as i observed, my seed of each, was not above the quantity of half a peck; for i had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season; but now my crop promised very well, when on a sudden i found i was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it was scarce possible to keep from it; as first, the goats, and wild creatures which i called hares, which, tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and ate it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalks. this i saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure about it with a hedge, which i did with a great deal of toil; and the more, because it required a great deal of speed; the creatures daily spoiling my corn. however, as my arable land was but small, suited to my crop, i got it totally well fenced in about three weeks time, and shooting some of the creatures in the day-time, i set my dog to guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace. but as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear; for going along by the place to see how it throve, i saw my little crop surrounded with fowls of i know not how many sorts, which stood as it were watching till i should be gone. i immediately let fly among them (for i always had my gun with me.) i had no sooner shot, but there arose up a little cloud of fowls, which i had not seen at all, from among the corn itself. this touched me sensibly; for i foresaw, that in a few days they would devour all my hopes; that i should be starved, and never be able to raise a crop at all; and what to do i could not tell: however, i resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though i should watch it night and day. in the first place, i went among it to see what damage was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that, as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great, but the remainder was like to be a good crop, if it could be saved. i stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, i could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waited till i was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as i walked off as if i was gone, i was no sooner out of their sight, but they dropped down one by one into the corn again. i was so provoked, that i could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, i fired again, and killed three of them. this was what i wished for; so i took them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in england, viz. hanged them in chains for a terror to others. it is impossible to imagine almost, that this should have such an effect as it had; for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, but in short they forsook all that part of the island, and i could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung there. this i was very glad of, you may be sure; and about the latter end of december, which was our second harvest of the year, i reaped my corn. i was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it down, and all i could do was to make one as well as i could out of one of the broad-swords, or cutlasses, which i saved among the arms out of the ship. however, as my crop was but small, i had no great difficulty to cut it down: in short, i reaped it my way, for i cut nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which i had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands: and at the end of all my harvesting i found, that out of my half-peck of seed i had near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and a half of barley, that is to say, by my guess, for i had no measure at that time. however, this was a great encouragement to me; and i foresaw, that in time it would please god to supply me with bread: and yet here i was perplexed again; for i neither knew how to grind or make meal of my corn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet. i knew not how to bake it. these things being added to my desire of having a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, i resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next season, and in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread. it might be truly said, that i now worked for my bread. it is a little wonderful, and what i believe few people have thought much upon; viz. the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one article of bread. i, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to be my daily discouragement, and was made more and more sensible of it every hour, even after i got the first handful of seed corn, which, as i have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise. first, i had no plough to turn the earth, no spade or shovel to dig it. well, this i conquered by making a wooden spade, as i observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made my work the harder, and made it be performed much worse. however, this i bore with too, and was content to work it out with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. when the corn was sowed, i had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch the earth, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it. when it was growing or grown, i have observed already how many things i wanted, to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure or carry it home, thresh, part it from the chaff, and save it. then i wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it in; and all these things i did without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me too; but all this, as i said, made every thing laborious and tedious to me, but that there was no help for; neither was my time so much loss to me, because i had divided it; a certain part of it was every day appointed to these works; and as i resolved to use none of the corn for bread till i had a greater quantity by me, i had the next six months to apply myself wholly by labour and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all the operations necessary for the making the corn, when i had it, fit for my use. but first i was to prepare more land, for i had now seed enough to sow above an acre of ground. before i did this, i had a week's work at least to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was a very sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to work with it; however, i went through that, and sowed my seeds in two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as i could find them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which i had set before, which i knew would grow; so that in one year's time i knew i should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but little repair. this work was not so little as to take me up less than three months; because great part of that time was in the wet season, when i could not go abroad. within-door, that is, when it rained, and i could not go out, i found employment on the following occasion, always observing, that all the while i was at work, i diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and i quickly learnt him to know his own name; at last, to speak it out pretty loud, pol; which was the first word i ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. this therefore was not my work, but an assistant to my work; for now, as i said, i had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: viz. i had long studied, by some means or other, to make myself some earthen vessels, which indeed i wanted sorely, but knew not where to come at them: however, considering the heat of the climate, i did not doubt but, if i could find out any such clay, i might botch up some such pot as might, being dried by the sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold any thing that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in preparing corn, meal, &c. which was the thing i was upon, i resolved to make some as large as i could, and fit only to stand like jars to hold what should be put into them. it would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell how many awkward ways i look to raise this paste, what odd misshapen ugly things i made, how many of them fell in, and how many fell out, the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how many cracked by the over-violent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how many fell to pieces with only removing, as well before as after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home, and work it, i could not make above two large earthen ugly things, i cannot call them jars, in about two months labour. however, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, i lifted them very gently up and set them down again in two great wicker-baskets, which i had made on purpose for them that they might not break; and, as between the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, i stuffed it full of the rice and barley-straw; and these two pots being to stand always dry, i thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the meal when the corn was bruised. though i miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet i made several smaller things with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun baked them strangely hard. but all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which none of these could do. it happened after some time, making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when i went to put it out, after i had done with it, i found a broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as a tile. i was agreeably surprised to see it, and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken. this set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn me some pots. i had no notion of a kiln such as the potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though i had some lead to do it with; but i placed three large pipkins, and two or three pots, in a pile one upon another, and placed my fire-wood all round it with a great heap of embers under them: i piled the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the top, till i saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all: when i saw them clear red, i let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till i found one of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have run into glass, if i had gone on; so i slacked my fire gradually, till the pots began to abate of the red colour; and watching them all night that i might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning i had three very good, i will not say handsome pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand. after this experiment i need not say that i wanted no sort of earthenware for my use; but i must needs say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, when i had no way of making them, but as the children make dirt-pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learnt to raise paste. no joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when i found i had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and i had hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before i set one upon the fire again with some water in it, to boil me some meat, which i did admirably well; and with a piece of a kid i made some very good broth, though i wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to make it so good as i would have had it. my next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of arriving to that perfection of art with one pair of hands. to supply this want, i was at a great loss; for of all trades in the world i was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any whatever; neither had i any tools to go about it with. i spent many a day to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and could find none at all except what was in the solid rock, and which i had no way to dig or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would neither bear the weight of an heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it with sand; so, after a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone, i gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of hard wood, which i found indeed much easier; and getting one as big as i had strength to stir, i rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet; and then with the help of fire and infinite labour, made an hollow place in it, as the indians in brasil make their canoes. after this, i made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron-wood, and this i prepared and laid by against i had my next crop of corn, when i proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound, my corn or meal to make my bread. my next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my meal, and part it from the bran and the husk, without which i did not see it possible i could have any bread. this was a most difficult thing, so much as but to think on; for to be sure i had nothing like the necessary things to make it with; i mean fine thin canvass, or stuff, to searce the meal through. and here i was at a full stop for many months; nor did i really know what to do: linen i had none left but what was mere rags; i had goat's hair, but neither knew i how to weave or spin it; and had i known how, here were no tools to work it with. all the remedy that i found for this, was, that at last i did remember i had among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of calico or muslin; and with some pieces of these i made three small sieves, but proper enough for the work; and thus i made shift for some years; how i did afterwards, i shall shew in its place. the baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how i should make bread when i came to have corn; for, first, i had no yeast: as to that part, there was no supplying the want, so i did not concern myself much about it. but for an oven, i was indeed in great pain. at length i found out an experiment for that also, which was this; i made some earthen vessels very broad, but not deep; that is to say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep; these i burnt in the fire, as i had done the other, and laid them by; and when i wanted to bake, i made a great fire upon the hearth, which i had paved with some square tiles of my own making and burning also; but i should not call them square. when the fire-wood was burnt pretty much into embers, or live coals, i drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over; and there i let them lie, till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping away all the embers, i set down my loaf, or loaves; and whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in, and add to the heat; and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, i baked my barley-loaves, and became in a little time a mere pastry-cook into the bargain; for i made myself several cakes of the rice, and puddings; indeed i made no pies, neither had i any thing to put into them, supposing i had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats. it need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed, that in the intervals of these things i had my new harvest and husbandry to manage: for i reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as i could, and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till i had time to rub it out; for i had no floor to thresh it on, or instrument to thresh it with. and now indeed my stock of corn increasing, i really wanted to build my barns bigger: i wanted a place to lay it up in; for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that i had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice as much, or more; insomuch that i now resolved to begin to use it freely, for my bread had been quite gone a great while; also i resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once a year. upon the whole, i found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were much more than i could consume in a year: so i resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that i sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me with bread, &c. all the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which i had seen from the other side of the island; and i was not without secret wishes, that i was on shore there, fancying that seeing the main land, and an inhabited country, i might find some way or other to convey myself farther, and perhaps at last find some means of escape. but all this while i made no allowance for the dangers of such a condition, and how i might fall into the hands of savages, and perhaps such as i might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers of africa: that if i once came into their power, i should run an hazard more than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten; for i had heard that the people of the caribean coasts were cannibals, or men-eaters; and i knew by the latitude that i could not be far off from that shore: that, suppose they were not cannibals, yet they might kill me, as many europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even when they had been ten or twenty together; much more i that was but one, and could make little or no defence. all these things, i say, which i ought to have considered well of, and i did cast up in my thoughts afterwards, yet took none of my apprehensions at first; and my head ran mightily upon the thoughts of getting over to that shore. now i wished for my boy xury, and the long-boat, with the shoulder of mutton sail, with which i sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of africa; but this was in vain. then i thought i would go and look on our ship's boat, which, as i have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm, when we were first cast away. she lay almost where she did at first, but not quite; and was turned by the force of the waves and the winds almost bottom upwards, against the high ridge of a beachy rough sand, but no water about her as before. if i had had hands to have refitted her, and have launched her into the water, the boat would have done well enough, and i might have gone back into the brasils with her easy enough; but i might have easily foreseen, that i could no more turn her, and set her upright upon her bottom, than i could remove the island. however, i went to the wood, and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, resolving to try what i could do; suggesting to myself, that if i could but turn her down, i might easily repair the damage she had received, and she would be a very good boat, and i might go to sea in her very easily. i spared no pains indeed in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, i think, three or four weeks about it; at last finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength, i fell to digging away the sand to undermine it; and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall. but when i had done this, i was unable to stir it up again, or to get under it, much less to move it forwards towards the water; so i was forced to give it over: and yet, though i gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as the means for it seemed impossible. this at length set me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe or periagua, such as the natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as i might say, without hands, viz. of the trunk of a great tree. this i not only thought possible, but easy: and pleased myself extremely with my thoughts of making it, and with my having much more convenience for it than any of the negroes or indians; but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which i lay under more than the indians did, viz. want of hands to move it into the water, when it was made; a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them: for what was it to me, that when i had chosen a vast tree in the woods, i might with great trouble cut it down, if after i might be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into a proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so to make a boat of it, if, after all this, i must leave it just there where i found it, and was not able to launch it into the water? one would have thought i could not have had the least reflection upon my mind of this circumstance, while i was making this boat, but i should have immediately thought how i should get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that i never once considered how i should get it off the land; and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it over forty-five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. i went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did, who had any of his senses awake. i pleased myself with the design, without determining whether i was ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but i put a stop to my own inquiries into it by this foolish answer, which i gave myself; let me first make it, i'll warrant i'll find some way or other to get it along, when it is done. this was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed, and to work i went, and felled a cedar-tree: i question much whether solomon ever had such an one for the building the temple at jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches. it was not without infinite labour that i felled this tree: i was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom; i was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and the vast spreading head of it, cut off, which i hacked and hewed through with my axe and hatchet, with inexpressible labour: after this it cost me a month to shape it, and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought to do. it cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it: this i did indeed without fire, by mere mallet and chissel, and by the dint of hard labour; till i had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough to have carried six-and-twenty men, and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo. when i had gone through this work, i was extremely delighted with it: the boat was really much bigger than i ever saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life; many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure, for there remained nothing but to get it into the water; and had i gotten it into the water, i make no question but i should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken. but all my devices to get it into the water failed me, though they cost infinite labour too; it lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek. well, to take away this discouragement, i resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity; this i began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains: but who grudge pains, that have their deliverance in view? but when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much at one; for i could no more stir the canoe, than i could the other boat. then i measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock, or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing i could not bring the canoe down to the water: well, i began this work, and when i began to enter into it, and calculated how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to be thrown out, i found, that by the number of hands i had, being none but my own, it must have been ten or twelve years before i should have gone through with it; for the shore lay high, so that at the upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep: so at length, though with great reluctancy, i gave this attempt over also. this grieved me heartily; and now i saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge lightly of our own strength to go through with it. in the middle of this work i finished my fourth year in this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much comfort, as ever before; for by a constant study, and serious application of the word of god, and by the assistance of his grace, i gained a different knowledge from what i had before; i entertained different notions of things; i looked now upon the world as a thing remote; which i had nothing to do with, no expectation from, and indeed no desires about: in a word, i had nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever like to have; so i thought it looked as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter; viz. as a place i had lived in, but was come out of it; and well i might say, as father abraham to dives, "between me and thee there is a great gulf fixed." in the first place, i was removed from all the wickedness of the world here: i had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life: i had nothing to covet, for i had all i was now capable of enjoying; i was lord of the whole manor, or, if i pleased, i might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which i had possession of: there were no rivals: i had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me; i might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but i had no use for it; so i let as little grow as i thought enough for my occasion: i had tortoises or turtles enough; but now and then one was as much as i could put to any use: i had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships; i had grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when they had been built. but all i could make use of, was all that was valuable: i had enough to eat, and to supply my wants, and what was all the rest to me? if i killed more flesh than i could eat, the dog must eat it, or the vermin; if i sowed more corn than i could eat, it must be spoiled. the trees that i cut down were lying to rot on the ground, i could make no more use of them, than for fuel; and that i had no occasion for, but to dress my food. in a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world are no farther good to us, than as they are for our use: and that whatever we may heap up indeed to give to others, we enjoy as much as we can use, and no more. the most covetous griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness, if he had been in my case; for i possessed infinitely more than i knew what to do with. i had no room for desire, except it was of things which i had not, and they were but trifles, though indeed of great use to me. i had, as i hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling; alas! there the nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay; i had no manner of business for it; and i often thought with myself, that i would have given an handful of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes, or for an hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, i would have given it all for six-penny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of england, or for an handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink: as it was, i had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave, in the wet season; and if i had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same case; and they had been of no manner of value to me, because of no use. i had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body. i frequently sat down to my meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of god's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness: i learnt to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side; and to consider what i enjoyed, rather than what i wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that i cannot express them; and which i take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what god hath given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them: all our discontents about what we want, appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have. another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition with what i at first expected it should be; nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the good providence of god had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up near to the shore, where i not only could come at her, but could bring what i got out of her to the shore for my relief and comfort; without which i had wanted tools to work, weapons for defence, or gunpowder and shot for getting my food. i spent whole hours, i may say whole days, in representing to myself in the most lively colours, how i must have acted, if i had got nothing out of the ship; how i could not have so much as got any food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it was long before i found any of them, i must have perished first: that i should have lived, if i had not perished, like a mere savage: that if i had killed a goat or a fowl by any contrivance, i had no way to flay or open them, or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast. these reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes: and this part also i cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery to say, is any affliction like mine? let them consider, how much worse the cases of some people are, and what their case might have been, if providence had thought fit. i had another reflection which assisted me also to comfort my mind with hopes; and this was, comparing my present condition with what i had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of providence. i had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of god: i had been well instructed by father and mother; neither had they been wanting to me in their early endeavours to infuse a religious awe of god into my mind, a sense of my duty, and of what the nature and end of my being required of me. but, alas! falling early into the seafaring life, which of all the lives is the most destitute of the fear of god, though his terrors are always before them; i say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that little sense of religion which i had entertained, was laughed out of me by my messmates; by an hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death, which grew habitual to me; by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with any thing but what was like myself, or to hear any thing of what was good, or tended towards it. so void was i of every thing that was good, or of the least sense of what i was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverance i enjoyed, such as my escape from sallee, my being taken up by the portuguese master of the ship, my being planted so well in brasil, my receiving the cargo from england, and the like, i never once had the words, thank god, so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distress had i so much thought as to pray to him; nor so much as to say, lord, have mercy upon me! no, not to mention the name of god, unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it. i had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as i have already observed, on the account of my wicked and hardened life past; and when i looked about me, and considered what particular providences had attended me, since my coming into this place, and how god had dealt bountifully with me; had not only punished me less than my iniquity deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me; this gave me great hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that god had yet mercies in store for me. with these reflections i worked my mind up, not only to resignation to the will of god in the present disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness of my condition; and that i, who was yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing i had not the due punishment of my sins; that i enjoyed so many mercies, which i had no reason to have expected in that place, that i ought never more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks, for that daily bread, which nothing but a cloud of wonders could have brought: that i ought to consider i had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding elijah by ravens; nay, by a long series of miracles; and that i could hardly have named a place in the uninhabited part of the world, where i could have been cast more to my advantage: a place, where as i had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so i found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous creatures, or poisonous, which i might have fed on to my hurt; no savages to murder and devour me. in a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and i wanted nothing to make it a life of comfort, but to be able to make my sense of god's goodness to me, and care over me in this condition, be my daily consolation; and after i made a just improvement of these things, i went away, and was no more sad. i had now been here so long, that many things which i brought on shore for my help, were either quite gone, or very much wasted, and near spent. my ink, as i observed, had been gone for some time, all but a very little, which i eked out with water a little and a little, till it was so pale it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper: as long as it lasted, i made use of it to minute down the days of the month on which any remarkable thing happened to me; and first, by casting up times past, i remember that there was a strange concurrence of days, in the various providences which befel me, and which, if i had been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, i might have had reason to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity. first, i had observed, that the same day that i broke away from my father and my friends, and ran away to hull in order to go to sea, the same day afterwards i was taken by the sallee man of war, and made a slave. the same day of the year that i escaped out of the wreck of the ship in yarmouth roads, that same day of the year afterwards i made my escape from sallee in the boat. the same day of the year i was born on, viz. the 20th of september, the same day i had my life so miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when i was cast on shore in this island; so that my wicked life, and solitary life, both began on a day. the next thing to my ink's being wasted, was that of my bread, i mean the biscuit which i brought out of the ship. this i had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a day, for above a year: and yet i was quite without bread for a year before i got any corn of my own: and great reason i had to be thankful that i had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next to miraculous. my clothes too began to decay mightily: as to linen, i had none a good while, except some chequered shirts which i found in the chests of the other seamen, and which i carefully preserved, because many times i could bear no other clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to me, that i had among all the men's clothes of the ship almost three dozen of shirts. there were also several thick watch-coats of the seamen, which were left behind, but they were too hot to wear; and though it is true, that the weather was so violent hot, that there was no need of clothes, yet i could not go quite naked; no, though i had been inclined to it, which i was not; nor could i abide the thought of it, though i was all alone. one reason why i could not go quite naked, was, i could not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin; whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and whistling under the shirt, was twofold cooler than without it: no more could i ever bring myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun beating with such violence as it does in that place, would give me the headach presently, by darting so directly on my head, without a cap or hat on, so that i could not bear it; whereas, if i put on my hat, it would presently go away. upon these views i began to consider about putting the few rags i had, which i called clothes, into some order; i had worn out all the waistcoats i had, and my business was now to try if i could not make jackets out of the great watch-coats which i had by me, and with such other materials as i had; so i set to work a-tailoring, or rather indeed a-botching; for i made most piteous work of it. however, i made shift to make two or three waistcoats, which i hoped would serve me a great while; as for breeches or drawers, i made but very sorry shift indeed, till afterwards. i have mentioned that i saved the skins of all the creatures that i killed, i mean four-footed ones; and i had hung them up stretched out with sticks in the sun; by which means some of them were so dry and hard, that they were fit for little; but others, it seems, were very useful. the first thing i made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the outside to shoot off the rain; and this i performed so well, that after this i made a suit of clothes wholly of those skins; that is to say, a waistcoat and breeches open at the knees, and both loose; for they were rather wanted to keep me cool, than to keep me warm. i must not omit to acknowledge, that they were wretchedly made; for if i was a bad carpenter, i was a worse tailor; however, they were such as i made a very good shift with; and when i was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and cap being outmost, i was kept very dry. after this i spent a deal of time and pains to make me an umbrella: i was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one: i had seen them made in the brasils, where they are very useful in the great heats which are there; and i felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as i was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as the heats. i took a world of pains at it, and was a great while before i could make any thing likely to hold; nay, after i thought i had hit the way, i spoiled two or three before i made one to my mind; but at last i made one that answered indifferently well. the main difficulty i found was to make it to let down: i could make it to spread; but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it would not be portable for me any way, but just over my head, which would not do. however, at last, as i said, i made one to answer; i covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a penthouse, and kept off the sun so effectually, that i could walk out in the hottest of the weather, with greater advantage than i could before in the coolest; and when i had no need of it, i could close it, and carry it under my arm. thus i lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed by resigning to the will of god, and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of his providence: this made my life better than sociable; for when i began to regret the want of conversation, i would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as i hope i may say, with even my maker, by ejaculations and petitions, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world? i cannot say, that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing happened to me; but i lived on in the same course, in the same posture and place, just as before. the chief thing i was employed in, besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both which i always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of the year's provisions beforehand; i say, besides this yearly labour, and my daily labour of going out with my gun, i had one labour to make me a canoe, which at last i finished: so that by digging a canal to it, six feet wide, and four feet deep, i brought it into the creek, almost half a mile. as for the first, that was so vastly big, as i made it without considering beforehand, as i ought to do, how i should be able to launch it; so never being able to bring it to the water, or bring the water to it, i was obliged to let it lie where it was, as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser next time. indeed the next time, though i could not get a tree proper for it, and was in a place where i could not get the water to it, at any less distance than, as i have said, of near half a mile; yet as i saw it was practicable at last, i never gave it over; and though i was near two years about it, yet i never grudged my labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last. however, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it was not at all answerable to the design which i had in view, when i made the first; i mean of venturing over to the terra firma, where it was above forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put an end to that design, and now i thought no more of it. but as i had a boat, my next design was to make a tour round the island: for as i had been on the other side, in one place, crossing, as i have already described it, over the land, so the discoveries i made in that journey made me very eager to see the other parts of the coast; and now i had a boat, i thought of nothing but sailing round the island. for this purpose, and that i might do every thing with discretion and consideration, i fitted up a little mast to my boat, and made a sail to it out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails, which lay in store, and of which i had a great store by me. having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, i found she would sail very well. then i made little lockers and boxes at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, and ammunition, &c. into, to be kept dry, either from rain, or the spray of the sea; and a little long hollow place i cut in the inside of the boat, where i could lay my gun, making a flap to hang down over it to keep it dry. i fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning; and thus i every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but never went far out, nor far from the little creek; but at last, being eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, i resolved upon my tour, and accordingly i victualled my ship for the voyage; putting in two dozen of my loaves (cakes i should rather call them) of barley-bread; an earthen pot full of parched rice, a food i ate a great deal of, a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder with shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, as i mentioned before, i had saved out of the seamen's chests; these i took, one to lie upon, and the other to cover me in the night. it was the 6th of november, in the sixth year of my reign, or my captivity, which you please, that i set out on this voyage, and i found it much longer than i expected; for though the island itself was not very large, yet when i came to the east side of it, i found a great ledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, some under it; and beyond this a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league more; so that i was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double that point. when i first discovered them, i was going to give over my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea, and above all, doubting how i should get back again; so i came to an anchor, for i had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of broken grappling which i got out of the ship. having secured my boat, i took my gun, and went on shore, climbing up an hill, which seemed to over-look that point, where i saw the full extent of it, and resolved to venture. in my viewing the sea from that hill where i stood, i perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, even came close to the point; and i took the more notice of it, because i saw there might be some danger, that when i came into it, i might be carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island again. and indeed, had i not gotten first upon this hill, i believe it would have been so; for there was the same current on the other side of the island, only that it set off at a farther distance; and i saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so i had nothing to do but to get out of the first current, and i should presently be in an eddy. i lay here, however, two days; because the wind blowing pretty fresh (at e.s.e. and that being just contrary to the said current) made a great breach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because of the stream. the third day in the morning, the wind having abated over-night, the sea was calm, and i ventured; but i am a warning-piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was i come to the point, when i was not my boat's length from the shore, but i found myself in a great depth of water, and a current like a sluice of a mill. it carried my boat along with it with such violence, that all i could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of it: but i found it hurried me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on the left hand. there was no wind stirring to help me, and all that i could do with my paddles signified nothing; and now i began to give myself over for lost; for, as the current was on both sides the island, i knew in a few leagues distance they must join again, and then i was irrecoverably gone; nor did i see any possibility of avoiding it; so that i had no prospect before me but of perishing; not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving for hunger. i had indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as i could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and i had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no main land or island, for a thousand leagues at least? and now i saw how easy it was for the providence of god to make the most miserable condition that mankind could be in, worse. now i looked back upon my desolate solitary island, as the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for, was to be there again: i stretched out my hands to it with eager wishes; "o happy desert!" said i, "i shall never see thee more! o miserable creature!" said i, "whither am i going!" then i reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how i had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would i give to be on shore there again? thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is illustrated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it. it is scarce possible to imagine the consternation i was now in, being driven from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again: however, i worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted; and kept my boat as much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the current which the eddy lay on, as possibly i could; when about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, i thought i felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from the s.s.e. this cheered my heart a little, and especially when in about half an hour more it blew a pretty small gentle gale. by this time i was gotten at a frightful distance from the island; and, had the least cloud or hazy weather intervened, i had been undone another way too; for i had no compass on board, and should never have known how to have steered towards the island, if i had but once lost sight of it; but the weather continuing clear, i applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out of the current. just as i had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch away, i saw even by the clearness of the water, some alteration of the current was near; where the current was so strong, the water was foul; but perceiving the water clear, i found the current abate, and presently i found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some rocks: these rocks i found caused the current to part again; and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rock, and made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west with a very sharp stream. they who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going to murder them, or who have been in such like extremities, may guess what my present surprise of joy was, and how gladly i put my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also freshening, how gladly i spread my sail to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot. this eddy carried me about a league in my way back again directly towards the island, but about two leagues more towards the northward than the current lay, which carried me away at first; so that when i came near the island, i found myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the island, opposite to that which i went out from. when i had made something more than a league of way by the help of this current or eddy, i found it was spent, and served me no farther. however i found, that being between the two great currents, viz. that on the south side which had hurried me away, and that on the north which lay about two leagues on the other side; i say, between these two, in the west of the island, i found the water at least still, and running no way; and having still a breeze of wind fair for me, i kept on steering directly for the island, though not making such fresh way as i did before. about four o'clock in the evening, being then within about a league of the island, i found the point of the rocks which occasioned this distance stretching out as is described before, to the southward, and casting off the current more southwardly, had of course made another eddy to the north; and this i found very strong, but directly setting the way my course lay, which was due west, but almost full north. however, having a fresh gale, i stretched across this eddy slanting north-west, and in about an hour came within about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth water, i soon got to land. when i was on shore, i fell on my knees, and gave god thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing myself with such things as i had, i brought my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that i had espied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and fatigue of the voyage. i was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat; i had run so much hazard, and knew too much the case to think of attempting it by the way i went out; and what might be at the other side (i mean the west side) i knew not, nor had i any mind to run any more ventures; so i only resolved in the morning to make my way westward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where i might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again if i wanted her. in about three miles, or thereabouts, coasting the shore, i came to a very good inlet, or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet, or brook, where i found a convenient harbour for my boat, and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her: here i put in, and having stowed my boat very safe, i went on shore to look about me, and see where i was. i soon found i had but a little passed by the place where i had been before when i travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and my umbrella, for it was exceeding hot, i began my march: the way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as i had been upon, and i reached my old bower in the evening, where i found every thing standing as i left it; for i always kept it in good order, being, as i said before, my country-house. i got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest my limbs, for i was very weary, and fell asleep: but judge you if you can, that read my story, what a surprise i must be in when i was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by my name several times, "robin, robin, robin crusoe, poor robin crusoe! where are you, robin crusoe? where are you? where have you been?" i was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and walking the latter part, that i did not awake thoroughly; and dozing between sleeping and waking, thought i dreamed that somebody spoke to me: but as the voice continued to repeat robin crusoe, robin crusoe; at last i began to awake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frighted, and started up in the utmost consternation: but no sooner were my eyes open, but i saw my pol sitting on the top of the hedge, and immediately knew that this was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language i had used to talk to him, and teach him; and he had learnt it so perfectly, that he would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, "poor robin crusoe, where are you? where have you been? how came you here?" and such things as i had taught him. however, even though i knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before i could compose myself. first, i was amazed how the creature got thither, and then how he should just keep about the place, and no where else: but as i was well satisfied it could be nobody but honest poll, i got it over; and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name poll, the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do, and continued talking to me, poor robin crusoe, and how did i come here? and where had i been? just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so i carried him home along with me. i had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had enough to do for many days to sit still, and reflect upon the danger i had been in: i would have been very glad to have had my boat again on my side of the island; but i knew not how it was practicable to get it about as to the east side of the island, which i had gone round; i knew well enough there was no venturing that way; my very heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill but to think of it: and as to the other side of the island, i did not know how it might be there; but supposing the current ran with the same force against the shore at the east as it passed by it on the other, i might run the same risk of being driven down the stream, and carried by the island, as i had been before, of being carried away from it; so with these thoughts i contented my self to be without any boat, though it had been the product of so many months labour to make it, and of so many more to get it unto the sea. in this government of my temper, i remained near a year, lived a very sedate retired life, as you may well suppose; and my thoughts being very much composed as to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning my self to the dispositions of providence, i thought i lived really very happily in all things, except that of society. i improved my self in this time in all the mechanic exercises which my necessities put me upon applying my self to, and i believe could, upon occasion, make a very good carpenter, especially considering how few tools i had. besides this, i arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthen ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel, which i found infinitely easier and better; because i made things round and shapeable, which before were filthy things indeed to look on. but i think i was never more vain of my own performance, or more joyful for any thing i found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe. and tho it was a very ugly clumsy thing, when it was done, and only burnt red like other earthen ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke, i was exceedingly comforted with it, for i had been always used to smoke, and there were pipes in the ship, but i forgot them at first, not knowing that there was tobacco in the island; and afterwards, when i searched the ship again, i could not come at any pipes at all. in my wicker ware also i improved much, and made abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention shewed me, tho not very handsome, yet they were such as were very handy and convenient for my laying things up in, or fetching things home in. for example, if i killed a goat abroad, i could hang it up in a tree, flea it, and dress it, and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket, and the like by a turtle, i could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a piece or two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. also large deep baskets were my receivers for my corn, which i always rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, and kept it in great baskets. i began now to perceive my powder abated considerably, and this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply, and i began seriously to consider what i must do when i should have no more powder; that is to say, how i should do to kill any goat. i had, as is observed in the third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and i was in hope of getting a he-goat, but i could not by any means bring it to pass, 'till my kid grew an old goat; and i could never find in my heart to kill her, till she dyed at last of mere age. but being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as i have said, my ammunition growing low, i set myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether i could not catch some of them alive; and particularly i wanted a she-goat great with young. to this purpose i made snares to hamper them; and believe they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for i had no wire, and always found them broken, and my bait devoured. at length i resolved to try a pitfall; so i dug several large pits in the earth, in places where i had observed the goats used to feed, and over these pits i placed hurdles of my own making too, with a great weight upon them; and several times i put ears of barley, and dry rice, without setting the trap; and i could easily perceive, that the goats had gone in, and eaten up the corn, that i could see the mark of their feet: at length, i set three traps in one night, and going the next morning, i found them all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone. this was very discouraging; however, i altered my trap; and, not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps, i found in one of them a large old he-goat; and, in one of the other, three kids, a male and two females. as to the old one, i knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce i durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to go about to bring him away alive, which was what i wanted; i could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it answer my end; so i e'en let him out, and he ran away as if he had been frightened out of his wits; but i did not then know what i afterwards learnt, that hunger would tame a lion: if i had let him stay there three or four days without food, and then have carried him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids; for they are mighty sagacious tractable creatures, where they are well used. however, for the present i let him go, knowing no better at that time; then i went to the three kids; and, taking them one by one, i tied them with strings together; and with some difficulty brought them all home. it was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame: and now i found, that if i expected to supply myself with goat's flesh, when i had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way, when perhaps i might have them about my house like a flock of sheep. but then it presently occurred to me, that i must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up; and the only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep them up so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those without break in. this was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as i saw there was an absolute necessity of doing it, my first piece of work was to find out a proper piece of ground; viz. where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. those who understand such enclosures, will think i had very little contrivance, when i pitched upon a place very proper for all these, being a plain open piece of meadow-land or savanna (as our people call it in the western colonies) which had two or three little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody; i say they will smile at my forecast, when i shall tell them i began my enclosing of this piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale must have been at least two miles about; nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass; for if it was ten miles about, i was like to have time enough to do it in; but i did not consider; that my goats would be as wild in so much compass, as if they had had the whole island; and i should have so much room to chase them in, that i should never catch them. my hedge was begun and carried on, i believe, about fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me; so i presently stopped short, and for the first beginning i resolved to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and one hundred yards in breadth, which as it would maintain as many as i should have in any reasonable time, so, as my flock increased, i could add more ground to my enclosure. this was acting with some prudence, and i went to work with courage. i was about three months hedging in the first piece; and, till i had done it, i tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often i would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was finished, and i let them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn. this answered my end, and in about a year and a half i had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more i had three-and-forty, besides several that i took and killed for my food; and after that i enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, to take them as i wanted them; and gates out of one piece of ground into another. but this was not all; for now i not only had goat's flesh to feed on when i pleased, but milk too, a thing which indeed in my beginning i did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise; for now i set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. and as nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to make use of it; so i, that never milked a cow, much less a goat, or saw butter or cheese made, very readily and handily, though after a great many essays and miscarriages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and never wanted it afterwards. how mercifully can our great creator treat his creatures, even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! how can he sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons! what a table was here spread for me in a wilderness, where i saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger! it would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my little family sit down to dinner: there was my majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island; i had the lives of all my subjects at absolute command; i could hang, draw, give life and liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all my subjects. then to see how like a king i dined too, all alone, attended by my servants! pol, as if he had been my favourite, as the only person permitted to talk to me; my dog, which was now grown very old and crazy, and found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side the table, and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of special favour. but these were not the two cats which i brought on shore at first; for they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation by my own hands; but one of them having multiplied by i know not what kind of creature, these were two which i preserved tame, whereas the rest ran wild into the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last; for they would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last i was obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many: at length they left me. with this attendance, and in this plentiful manner, i lived; neither could i be said to want any thing but society, and of that, in some time after this, i was like to have too much. i was something impatient, as i had observed, to have the use of my boat, though very loath to run any more hazard; and therefore sometimes i sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times i sat myself down contented enough without her. but i had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island, where, as i have said in my last ramble, i went up the hill to see how the shore lay, and how the current set, that i might see what i had to do. this inclination increased upon me every day, and at length i resolved to travel thither by land, and following the edge of the shore, i did so; but had any one in england been to meet such a man as i was, it must either have frighted them, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as i frequently stood still to look at myself, i could not but smile at the notion of my travelling through yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a dress. be pleased to take a sketch of my figure as follows: i had a great high shapeless cap, made of goat's skin, with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me, as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in these climates, as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes. i had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made of a skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs. stockings and shoes i had none; but i had made me a pair of something, i scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes; but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes. i had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which i drew together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet; one on one side, one on the other: i had another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of goat's skin too; in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot: at my back i carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella; but which, after all, was the most necessary thing i had about me, next to my gun. as for my face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the equinox. my beard i had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as i had both scissars and razors sufficient, i had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip, which i had trimmed into a large pair of mahometan whiskers, such as i had seen worn by some turks whom i saw at sallee; for the moors did not wear such, though the turks did: of these mustachios, or whiskers, i will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them; but they were of length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in england would have passed for frightful. but all this is by the by; for as to my figure, i had so few to observe me, that it was of no manner of consequence; so i say no more to that part. in this kind of figure i went my new journey, and was out five or six days. i travelled first along the sea shore, directly to the place where i first brought my boat to an anchor, to get up upon the rocks; and, having no boat now to take care of, i went over the land a nearer way, to the same height that i was upon before; when looking forward to the point of the rock which lay out, and which i was to double with my boat, as i said above, i was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in other places. i was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the observing of it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it: but i was presently convinced how it was; viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current, and that according as the wind blew more forcible from the west, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from the shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, i went up to the rock again, and then the tide of the ebb being made, i plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore; whereas, in my case, it set close upon the shore, and hurried me in my canoe along with it, which at another time it would not have done. this observation convinced me, that i had nothing to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and i might very easily bring my boat about the island again: but when i began to think of putting it in practice, i had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger i had been in, that i could not think of it again with any patience; but on the contrary, i took up another resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious; and this was, that i would build, or rather make me another periagua, or canoe; and so have one for one side of the island, and one for the other. you are to understand, that now i had, as i may call it, two plantations in the island; one my little fortification or tent, with the wall about it under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time i had enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. one of these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all filled up with large earthen pots, of which i have given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels each, where i laid up my stores of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off short from the straw, and the other rubbed out with my hands. as for my wall, made as before, with long stakes or piles, those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view, of any habitation behind them. near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn-ground; which i kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season: and whenever i had occasion for more corn, i had more land adjoining as fit as that. besides this i had my country-seat, and i had now a tolerable plantation there also; for first, i had my little bower, as i called it, which i kept in repair; that is to say, i kept the hedge which circled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside; i kept the trees, which at first were no more than my stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall; i kept them always so cut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. in the middle of this i had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; and under this i had made me a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures i had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which i had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here, whenever i had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, i took up my country habitation. adjoining to this i had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my goats: and as i had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground, i was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that i never left off, till with infinite labour i had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through between them, which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong, like a wall, indeed stronger than any wall. this will testify for me that i was not idle, and that i spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support; for i considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand, would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese, for me as long as i lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and that keeping them in my reach, depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a degree, that i might be sure of keeping them together; which by this method indeed i so effectually secured, that when these little stakes began to grow, i had planted them so very thick, i was forced to pull some of them up again. in this place also i had my grapes growing, which i principally depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which i never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet; and indeed they were not agreeable only, but physical, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree. as this was also about half way between my other habitation and the place where i had laid up my boat, i generally staid and lay here in my way thither; for i used frequently to visit my boat, and i kept all things about or belonging to her in very good order: sometimes i went out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would i go, nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, i was so apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents, or winds, or any other accident. but now i come to a new scene of my life. it happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, i was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand: i stood like one thunder-struck, or as if i had seen an apparition; i listened, i looked round me, i could hear nothing, nor see any thing; i went up to a rising ground to look farther: i went up the shore, and down the shore, but it was all one, i could see no other impression but that one; i went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot; how it came thither i knew not, nor could in the least imagine. but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused, and out of myself, i came home to my mortification, 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 an affrighted imagination represented things to me in; how many wild ideas were formed 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; for never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than i to this retreat. i had no sleep 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 marks were there of any other footsteps? and how was it possible a man should come there? but then to think that satan should take human shape upon him in such a place where there could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot behind him, and that even for no purpose too (for he could not be sure i should see it:) this was an amazement the other way: i considered that the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified me, than this of the single print of a foot; that as i lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never have been so simple to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one whether i should ever see it or not, and in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea upon an high wind would have defaced entirely. all this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all notions we usually entertain of the subtlety 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 that it must be some more dangerous creature; viz. that it must be some of the savages of the main land over-against me, who had 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 loath, perhaps, to have staid 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 thought, 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 imaginations 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 uneasiness, that i would not sow any more corn one year, than would just serve me till the next season, as if no accident could intervene, to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the ground. and this i thought so just a reproof, that i resolved for the future to have two or three years corn beforehand, so that, whatever might come, i might not perish for want of bread. how strange a chequer-work of providence is the life of man! and by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about, as differing circumstances present! to-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. this was exemplified in me at this time in the most lively manner imaginable; for i, whose only 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 call a 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 on the island. such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great many curious speculations afterwards, when i had a little recovered my first surprise: i considered that this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of god had determined for me; that as i could not foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so i was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as i was his creature, had an undoubted right by creation to govern and 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 on this occasion i cannot omit; viz. one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger from the appearance of savages, i found it discomposed me very much; upon which those words of the scripture came into my thoughts, "call upon me in the day of trouble, and i will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but i was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to god for deliverance. when i had done praying, i took up my bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were, "wait on the lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart: wait, i say, on the lord." it is impossible to express the comfort this gave me; and in return, i thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least, not on that occasion. in the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when i came on shore from my boat. this cheered me up a little too, and i began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might not i come that way from the boat, as well as i was going that way to the boat? again, i considered also, that i could by no means tell for certain where i had trod, and where i had not; and that if at last this was only the print of my own foot, i had played the part of those fools, who strive to make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are themselves frighted at them more than any body else. now i began to take courage, and to peep abroad again; for i had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that i began to starve for provision; for i had little or nothing within doors, but some barley-cakes and water. then i knew that my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening diversion; and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and indeed it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk. heartening myself therefore with the belief, that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet (and so i might be truly said to start at my own shadow), i began to go abroad again, and went to my country-house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear i went forward, how often i looked behind me, how i was ready, every now and then, to lay down my basket, and run for my life; it would have made any one have thought i was haunted with an evil conscience, or that i had been lately most terribly frighted; and so indeed i had. however, as i went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, i began to be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but i could not persuade myself fully of this, till i should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that i might be assured it was my own foot. but when i came to the place first, it appeared evidently to me, that when i laid up my boat, i could not possibly be on shore any where thereabouts. secondly, when i came to 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 vapours again to the highest degree; so that i shook with cold, like one in an ague, and i went home again, filled with the belief, that some man or men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and i might be surprised before i was aware; and what course to take for my security, i knew not. o what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed with fear! it deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their relief. the first thing i proposed to myself was, to throw down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that the enemy might not find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the same, or the like booty; then to the simple thing of digging up my two corn fields, that they might not find such a grain there, and still to be prompted to frequent the island; then to demolish my bower and tent, that they might not see any vestiges of my habitation, and be prompted to look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting. these were the subjects of the first night's cogitation, after i was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as above. thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes; and, we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the evil which we are anxious about; but, which was worse than all this, i had not that relief in this trouble from the resignation i used to practise, that i hoped to have. i looked, i thought, like saul, who complained not only that the philistines were upon him, but that god had forsaken him; for i did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to god in my distress, and resting upon his providence, as i had done before, for my defence and deliverance; which if i had done, i had, at least, been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution. this confusion of my thoughts kept me 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 i awaked 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 main land than as i had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as i might imagine: that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot; yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross winds, might come to this place. that i had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with the least-shadow or figure of any people before; 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 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, there wanted but a few piles to be driven between them, that they should be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished. so that i had now a double wall, and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing i could think of to make it strong; having in it seven little holes, about as big as i might put my arm out at. in the inside of this i thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, continually 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 in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it was done. when this was done, i stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great way every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the osier-like wood, which i found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch that i believe i might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, that i might have room to see an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer wall. thus in two years time i had a thick grove; and in five or six years time i had a wood before my dwelling, grown so monstrous thick and strong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no man of what kind soever would ever imagine that there was any thing beyond it, much less an habitation: as for the way i proposed 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 mischiefing 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. 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 for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also abated the fatigue of my hunting after the wild ones; and i was loath to lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over again. to this purpose, after long consideration, i could think but of 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 labour, i thought was the most rational design. accordingly i spent some time, to find out the most retired parts of the island; and i pitched upon one, which was as private indeed as my heart could wish; for it was a little damp piece of ground in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, i almost lost myself once before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part of the island: here i found a clear piece of land near three acres, so surrounded with woods, that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least it did not want near so much labour to make it so, as the other pieces of ground i had worked so hard at. i immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than a month's time i had so fenced it round, that my flock or herd, call it which you please, which 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 ten she-goats and two he-goats to this piece; and when there, i continued to perfect the fence, till i had made it as secure as the other, which, however, i did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by a great deal. all this labour i was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on the account of the print of a man's foot which i had seen; for as yet, i never saw any human creature come near the island, and i had now lived two years under these uneasinesses, which indeed made my life much less comfortable than it was before; as may well be 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 the 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 sick bed; 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 to the west point of the island than i had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, i thought i saw a boat upon the sea at a great distance; i had found a perspective glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which i saved out of our ship; but i had it not about me, and this was so remote, that i could not tell what to make of it, though i looked at it till my eyes were not able to 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 without a perspective glass in my pocket. when i was come down the hill, to the end of the island, where indeed i had never been before, i was presently convinced, that the seeing the print of a man's foot, was not such a strange thing in the island as i imagined; and, but that it was a special providence that i was cast upon the side of the island where the savages never came, i should easily have known, that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when, they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island for harbour; likewise, as they often met, and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken any prisoners, would bring them over to this shore, where, according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them: of which hereafter. when i was come down the hill to the shore, as i said above, being the s.w. point of the island, i was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and particularly i observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where it is supposed the savage wretches had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures. i was so astonished with the sight of these things, that i entertained no notions of any danger to myself from it, for a long while; all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of 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 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, any thing here, and having often, no doubt, been up in the covered woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. i knew i had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of a human creature there before; and 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 as fearful of seeing them as of seeing, the devil himself; nor did i so much as go to look after my boat in all this time, but began rather to think of making me another; for i could not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest i should meet with some of those 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 on the island should happen to hear it; and it was therefore a very good providence to me, that i had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats, that i had no need to hunt any more about the woods, or shoot at them; and if i did catch any more of them after this, it was by traps and snares, as i had done before; so that for two years after this, i believe i never fired my gun once off, though i never went out without it; and, which was more, as i had saved three pistols out of the ship, i always carried them out with me, or at least two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt: i likewise furbished up one of the great cutlasses that i had out of the ship, and made me a belt to put it in also; so that i was now a most formidable fellow to look at when i went abroad, if you add to the former description of myself, the particular of two pistols, and a great broad-sword, hanging at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard. things going on thus, as i have said, for some time, i seemed, excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living. all these things tended to shew 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 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, had not all 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 any thing over without accomplishing it, when i once had it in my head enough to begin it. but my invention now ran quite another way; for night and day i could think of nothing, but how i might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel bloody entertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they should bring hither to destroy. it would take up a larger volume than this whole work is intended to be, to set down all the contrivances i hatched, or rather brooded upon in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or at least frightening them, so as to prevent their coming hither any more; but all was abortive; nothing could be possible to take effect, unless i was to be there to do it myself; and what could one man do among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them together, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a mark as i could with my gun? sometimes i contrived to dig a hole under the place where they made their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all that was near it; but, as in the first place i should be very loath to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of a barrel, so neither could i be sure of its going off at any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than just blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place; so i laid it aside, and then proposed, that i would place myself in ambush in some convenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and in the middle of their bloody ceremony let fly at them, when i should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shoot; and then falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my sword, i made no doubt but that, if there were twenty, i should kill them all: 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 indignation, 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; but 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 the 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 an 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 shoot, or that i could fail wounding three or four of them at the first shoot. 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 an 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 for 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 towards it; but i began to tire of this hard duty, after i had for two or three months constantly kept my watch; but came always back without any discovery, there having not in all that time been the least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but not on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach every way. as long as i kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also i kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable frame 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 further than my passions were at first fired by the horror i conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that country, who, it seems, had been 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 for some ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature, entirely abandoned of heaven, and actuated by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into; but now, 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 upon one another; also, how far these people were offenders against me, and what right i had to engage in the quarrel of that blood, which they shed promiscuously one upon another. i debated this very often with myself thus: how do i know what god himself judges in this particular case? it is certain these people do not commit this as a crime; it is not against their own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching them. they do not know it to be an offence, and then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. they think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war, than we do to kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh, than we do to 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 gave 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 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, where they destroyed millions of these people, who, however they were idolaters and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in these 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, even by 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 a 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 a wrong measure 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 least signal to them to guess by, that there were any living creatures upon the island, i mean of human shape. religion joined in with this prudential, and i was convinced now many ways that i was perfectly out of my duty, when i was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures, i mean innocent as to me; as to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, i had nothing to do with them; they were national punishments to make a just retribution for national offences; and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a public manner, by such ways as best please god. this appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a greater satisfaction to me, than that i had not been suffered to do a thing which i now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder, if i had committed it; 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 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 provoked, by any advantage which might present itself, to fall upon them; only this i did, i went and removed my boat, which i had on the other side of 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 every thing that i had left there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going thither; viz. a mast and sail, which i had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but indeed which could not be called either anchor or 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 habitation upon the island. besides this, i kept myself, as i said, more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my constant employment, viz. to milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of the island, was quite out of danger: for certain it is, that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any thoughts of finding any thing here, and consequently never wandered 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 every where, peeping and peering about the island, to see what i could get: what a surprise should i have been in, if, when i discovered the print of a man's 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 would 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 its being possible. this renewed a contemplation, which often had come to my thoughts in former time, when first i began to see the merciful dispositions of heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it: how, when we are in a quandary, (as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way, or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to go another 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 over-rule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear, that had we gone that way which we would 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 any thing that presented, or to going this way or that way, i never failed to obey the secret dictate; though i new no other reason for it, than that such a pressure, or such an hint, hung upon my mind: i could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life; but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very likely i might have taken notice of, if i had seen with the same eyes then that i saw with now: but 'tis 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 it strange, if i confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers i lived in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the contrivances that i had laid for my future accommodations and 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 very 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, &c. into my new apartment in the wood; where, after i had been some time, i found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, i dare say, no savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in, nor indeed would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat. the mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where, by mere accident, (i would say, if i did not see an abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to providence,) i was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before i go on, i must observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus: i was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as i said before; and yet i could not live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so i contrived to burn some wood here, as i had seen done in england under turf, till it became chark, or dry coal; and then putting the fire out, i preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services, which fire was wanting for at home, without danger or smoke. but this by the by: while i was cutting down some wood here, i perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brushwood, 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 further into the place, 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 large 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 frightened 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 an 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 every where, and was able to protect me; upon this i stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, i saw lying on the ground a most monstrous frightful old he-goat, just making his will, as we say, gasping for life, and dying indeed of a 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 frightened 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 ever been employed in making it but those of mere nature: i observed also, that there was a place at the farther side of it that went in farther, but so low, that it required me to creep upon my hands and knees to get into it, and whither it went i knew not; so having no candle, i gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, which i had made of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wildfire 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 goats tallow; and going into this low place, i was obliged to creep upon all fours, as i have said, almost ten yards; which, by the way, i thought was a venture bold enough, considering that i knew not how far it might go, or what was beyond it. when i was got through the streight, 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 an hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles; what it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious stones, or gold, which i rather supposed it to be, i knew not. the place i was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, of its kind, as 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 creature to be seen; neither was there any damp or wet on the sides of the 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 all 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 utmost fence, and were ready also to take out upon any expedition. upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, i was obliged 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 or four inches into the powder on every side, which, caking and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a kernel in a shell; so that i had near sixty pounds of very good powder in the centre of the cask; and this was an agreeable discovery to me at that time; so i carried all away thither, never keeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of a surprise of any kind; i also carried thither all the lead i had left for bullets. i 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, which 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 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 pol, as i noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six-and-twenty years: how long he might live afterwards i knew not; though i know they have a notion in the brasils, that they live an hundred years; perhaps some of my polls 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 them; but if he did, he would certainly believe it was the devil. my dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old age; as for my cats, they multiplied, as i have observed, to that degree, that i was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring me, and all i had; but at length, when the two old ones i brought with me were gone, and after some time continually driving them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which i kept tame, and whose young, when they had any, i always drowned, and these were part of my family: besides these, i always kept two or three household kids about me, which i taught to feed out of my hand; and i had also 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 sea-fowls, whose names i know not, which 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 savages. but it was otherwise directed; and it might 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, 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 affliction 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 stopped short within my grove, not daring to go out, lest i might be surprised; and yet i had no more peace within, from the apprehensions i had, that if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing, or cut, or any of my works and improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were people in the place, and would then never give over till they found me out. in this extremity i went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, having made all things without look as wild and natural as i could. then i prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence; i loaded all my cannon, as i called them, that is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously to recommend myself to the divine protection, and earnestly to pray to god to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians; and in this posture i continued about two hours, but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for i had no spies to send out. after sitting awhile longer, and musing what i should do in this case, i was not able to bear sitting in ignorance 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 were no less than nine naked savages sitting round a small fire they had made; not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being extreme hot; but, as i supposed, 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 haled up upon the shore; and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to me to wait 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 be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that i might go abroad with safety all the time of 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 only perceive, by my nicest observation, 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. as soon as i got thither, which was not less than two hours, (for i could not go apace, being so loaded with arms as i was,) i perceived there had been three canoes more of savages on that place; and looking out further, 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 were not very frequent; for it was above fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there again; that is to say, i never saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time; for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far; yet all this while i lived uncomfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions i was in of their coming upon me by surprise; from whence i observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation or those apprehensions. during all this time, i was in the murdering humour; and took up most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in 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 ten or a dozen, i was still the next day, or week, or mouth, to kill another, and so another, even _ad infinitum_, till i should be at length no less a murderer than they were in being men-eaters, and perhaps much more so. i spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that i should one day or other fall into the hands of those merciless creatures; 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 had provided 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; in the night i dreamed often of killing the savages, and the reasons why i might justify the doing of it. but to wave all this for awhile, it was in 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 on the sixteenth of may that it blew a great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night 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 serious thoughts about my present condition, i was surprised with the 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 up 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; that very moment a flash of fire bade me listen for a second gun, which accordingly in about half a moment i heard, and by the sound knew that it was from that part of the sea where i was driven out with 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 guns 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 may be they might help me; so i brought together all the dry wood i could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, i set it on fire upon the hill; the wood was dry, and blazed freely, and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that i was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must need 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 an hull, i could not distinguish, no not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea. i looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so i presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, i took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south-east side of the island, to the rocks, where i had been formerly 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 then from the most desperate hopeless condition that ever i had been 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 e.n.e. had they seen the island, as i must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as i thought, have endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but the firing of their guns for help, especially when they saw, as i imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts: first, i imagined, that, upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and have endeavoured 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 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 do no more than look 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 learnt 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 others 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 desire, i felt in my soul upon this sight; breaking out sometimes thus: "o that there had been but one or two, nay, but one soul saved out of the 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 want of it. there are some secret moving springs in the affections, which, when they are set a going 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! o that it had been but one!" i believe i repeated the words, "o that it had been but one!" a thousand times; and my 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 of them is, to describe the fact, which was ever 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, forbad 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 ten times more value than the first. it was now calm, and i had a great mind to venture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but i might find something on board that might be useful to me; but that did not altogether press me so much, as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose life i might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree: and this thought clung so to my heart, that i could not be quiet night nor day, but i must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to god's providence, i thought the impression was so strong upon my mind, that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and that i should be wanting to myself if i did not go. under the power of this impression, i hastened back to my castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum, (for i had still a great deal of that left) a basket full of raisins: and thus loading myself with every thing necessary, i went down to my boat, got the water out of her, 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 lush water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk, and a cheese: all which, with great labour and sweat, i brought to my boat; and praying to god to direct my voyage, i put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, i came at last to the utmost point of the island, on that side, viz. n.e. and now i was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture, or not to venture; i looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the island, at a distance, and which were very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard i had been in before, and my heart began to fail me; for i foresaw, that if i was driven into 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 inevitably lost. these thoughts so oppressed my mind, that i began to give over my enterprise, and having haled my boat into a little creek on the shore, i stepped out, and sat me down upon a little spot of rising 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 came on, upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable: upon this it presently 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 that 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 sat 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, i say, at a great rate, directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours i came up to it. it was a dismal sight to took at: the ship, which by its building was spanish, stuck fast, jambed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her main-mast and fore-mast were brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off, but her boltsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. when i came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, which, 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 ate 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. the first sight i met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. i concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water. besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life, nor any goods that i could see, but what were spoiled by the water: there were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy i knew not, which lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, i could see; but they were too big to meddle with: i saw several chests, which i believed belonged to some of the seamen, and i got two of them into the boat without examining what was in them. had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the 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 brasils, to the havanna, in the gulf of mexico, and so perhaps to spain: she had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use at that time to any body; and what became of the rest of her people i then knew not. i found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about twenty gallons, which i got into my boat with much difficulty. there were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of powder in it: as for the muskets, i had no occasion for them, so i left them, but took the powder-horn. i took a fire-shovel and tongs, which i wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a 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 harbour 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 brasils; and, in a word, not at all good; but when i came to open the chests, i found several things which i wanted: 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 the top, that the salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled: i found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. besides this, when i came to the till in the chests, i found there three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapt 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, as there was no powder in it, but about two pounds of glazed powder in the three flasks, kept, i suppose, for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. upon the whole, i got very little by this voyage that was of much use to me; for, as to the money, i had no manner of occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet; and i would have given it all for three or four pair of english shoes and stockings, which were things i greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now for many years: i had, indeed, got two pair of shoes now, which i took off 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 case 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 the 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 great pity, as i said, that the other part of the 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 brought all my things on shore, and secured them, i went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her old harbour, where i laid her up, and made the best of my way to my old habitation, where i found every thing safe and quiet; so i began to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and for awhile 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 it was born to make my body miserable, was all these 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 verity, if i had had the boat that i went from sallee in, i should have ventured to sea, bound any where, i knew not whither. i have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touched with that 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 hath 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 have been the means of my coming into this miserable condition; for had that providence, which so happily had seated me at the brasils as a planter, blessed me with confined desires, and could i have been contented to have gone on gradually, i might have been by this time, i mean in the time of my being on this island, one of the most considerable planters in the brasils; nay, i am persuaded, that by the improvements i had made in that little time i lived there, and the increase i should probably have made if i had stayed, i might have been worth a hundred thousand moidores; and what business had i to leave a settled fortune, well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to guinea, to fetch negroes, when patience and time would have so increased our stock at home, that we could have bought them at our own doors, 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 young heads, so reflection upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought experience of time; and so it was with me now; and yet, so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that i could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the means and possibility of my escape from this place; and that i may, with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape; and how, and upon what foundation, i acted. i am now to be supposed to be retired into my castle, after my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up, and secured under water as usual, and my condition restored to what it was before: i had more wealth, indeed, than i had before, but was not at all the richer; for i had no more use for it than the indians of peru had before the spaniards came thither. 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, and 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 thoroughfare 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 that 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, to that course of anxiety, fear, and care, which i had lived in ever since i had seen the print of a foot in the sand; not that i did not believe the savages had frequented the island even all the while, and might have been several hundreds of them at times on the shore there; but as 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 settled 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 perhaps when nothing but a brow on a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been between me and the worst kind of destruction, viz. that of falling into the hands of cannibals, and savages, who would have seized on me with the same view, as i did of a goat, or a turtle; and have thought it no more a crime to kill and devour me, than i did of a pigeon, or a curlieu: i would unjustly slander my self, 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 taken 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 governour of all things should give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity; nay, to something so much below, even brutality it self, as to devour its own kind; but as this ended in some (at that time fruitless) speculations, it occurred to me to enquire, 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 my self, and my business so, that i might be as able to go over thither, as they were to come to me. i never so much as troubled my self to consider what i should do with my self, 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 my self; and if i should not fall into their hands, what i should do for provision, or whither i should bend my course; none of these thoughts, i say, so much as came in my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat, to the main land: i looked back upon my present condition as the most miserable that could possibly be; that i was not able to throw myself into any thing but death that could be called worse; that if i reached the shore of the main, i might, perhaps, meet with relief; or i might coast along, as i did on the shore of africa, till i came to some inhabited country, and where i might find some relief; and after all, perhaps, i might fall in with some christian ship that might take me in: and if the worst came to the worst, i could but die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once. pray, note all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made, as it were, desperate by the long continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments i had met in the wreck i had been on board of, and where i had been so near the obtaining of what i so earnestly longed for, viz. somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from of the place where i was, and of the probable means of my 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 any thing but 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 fervour of my mind about it; nature, as if i had been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep: one would have thought i should have dreamed of it; but i did not, nor of any thing relating to it; but i dreamed, that as i was going out in the morning, as usual, from my castle, i saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and that they brought with them another savage, whom they were going to kill, in order to eat him; when on a sudden, the savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life: then 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 others sought him that way, shewed 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 shewed my ladder, made him go up it, and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon as i had got this man, i said to myself, "now i may certainly venture to the main land; for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what places to venture into, and what to escape." i waked with this thought, and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointments which i felt upon coming to myself, and finding 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 in my possession; and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill: but these thoughts still 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 these savages into my hands, cost what it would: the next thing then was to contrive how to do it; and this indeed was very difficult 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 it be what it would. with these resolutions in my thoughts, i set myself upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, till i was heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that i waited, and for a 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 the canoes, but none appeared. this was very discouraging, and began to trouble me much; though i can't 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 more careful to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by them, than 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 any time, 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 a 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 any thing had presented. having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise; at length being very impatient, i set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill by my two stages, as usual, standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. here i observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they had had meat dressed; how they 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. when 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 fall, 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 were not above three men that followed him; and still more was i encouraged, when i found that he out-stript 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 knew 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 pursuers came to the creek, i found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and that he, standing on the other side, looked at the other, but went no farther; and soon after went softly back again, which, as it happened, was very well for him in the main. i observed, that the two who swam were yet more than twice as long swimming over the creek than 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 a servant, and perhaps a companion, or assistant, and that i was called plainly by providence to save this poor creature's life. i immediately got down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both at the foot of the ladder, 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 hand to him to come back; and in the meantime i slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, i knocked him down with the stock of my piece; i was loath 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. i having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and i advanced apace 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 farther, and stopped again; and i could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two 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 ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving his life. i smiled at him, and looked 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 for ever. i took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him all i could. but there was more work to do yet; for i perceived the savage, whom i knocked down, was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself: so i pointed to him, and showed 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 five-and-twenty years. but there was no time for such reflections now: the savage, who was knocked down, recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground; and i perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when i saw that, i presented my other piece at the man, as if i would shoot him: upon this my savage, for so i call him 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 so 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 learnt 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, nay, and arms, and that at one blow too. when he had done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again, and, with abundance of gestures, which i did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just before me. but that which astonished him most was, to know how i had killed the other indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him: so i bade him go, as well as i could. when he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him; turned him first on one side, then on 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. then he took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so i turned to go away, and beckoned 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 lay down, and went to sleep. he was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight long limbs, not too large, tall, and well-shaped, and, as i reckon, 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 colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny, and yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the brasilians and virginians, and other natives of america are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive colour, that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. his face was round and plump, his nose small, not flat like the negroe's, a very good mouth, thin lips, and his teeth fine, 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 many, antic gestures to shew 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 much 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; and 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 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 spot, and shewed 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 took my man friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which i found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and i two for myself, and away we marched to the place where these creatures had been; for i had a mind now to get some further 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 the 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 over their enemies. i saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and friday, by his signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between them and their next king, whose subjects, it seems, he had been one of; and that they had taken a great number of prisoners, all which were carried to several places by those that had taken them in the flight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither. i caused friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them together on an 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 dressed, for the present, tolerably well, and mighty well was he 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, and using himself to them, at length he took to them very well. the next day after i came home to my hutch with him, i began to consider where i should lodge him; and that i might do well for him, and yet be 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 door-case, 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 awaken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with small 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 trapdoor, which if it had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened 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 obliging and engaging; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father; and i dare say, he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatsoever: the many testimonies he gave me of this put it out of doubt; and soon convinced me, that i needed to use no precautions as to my safety on his account. this frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, that, however it had pleased god in his providence, and in the government of the works of his hands, to take from so great a part of the world of his creatures the best uses to which their faculties, and the powers of their souls, are adapted; yet that he has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same 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 given to us; and that when he pleases to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay more ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed, than we are. and this made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we make of all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the spirit of god, and by the knowledge of his word, added to our understanding; and why it has pleased god to hide the life saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who, if i might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did. from hence i sometimes was led too far to invade the sovereignty of providence; and, as it were, arraign the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from both: but i shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we do not know by what light and law these should be condemned; but that as god was necessarily, and by the nature of his being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be, but that if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from himself, it was on 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, secondly, that still, as we are all clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to him, "why hast thou formed me thus?" but to return to my new companion: i was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him every thing that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when i 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 it home and dress it: but as i was going, i saw a she goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. i catched hold of friday: "hold," said i, "stand still;" and made signs to him not to stir. immediately i presented my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. the poor creature, who had, at a distance indeed, seen me kill the savage his enemy, but did not know, or could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed, that i thought he would have sunk down: he did not see the kid i 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 his 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 him fall, i made him understand that i would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly i fired, and bid him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall; he stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding all that i had said to him; and i found he was the more amazed, because he did not see me put any thing into the gun; but thought there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any thing near or far off; for 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 over; but would speak to it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as i afterwards learnt of him, was to desire it not to kill him. well; after his astonishment was a little over at this, i pointed to him to run and fetch the bird i had shot, which he did, but staid some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, had fluttered a good way off from the place where she fell; however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and, as i had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, i took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not 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; 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 month, 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 meat, or in his broth; at least, not a great while, and then but a very little. having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, i was resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid: this i did by hanging it before the fire in a string, as i had seen many people do in england, setting two poles up, one on each side the fire, and one cross on the top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the meat turn continually: this friday admired very much; but when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that i could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat man's flesh any more, which i was very glad to hear. the next day i set him to work to beating some corn out, and 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 the fence in the same manner as before, in which friday not only worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and i told him what it was for, that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that i might have enough for him and myself too: he appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know, that he thought i had much more labour upon me on his account, than i had for myself, and that he would work the harder for me, if i would tell him what to do. this was the pleasantest year of all the life i led in this place. friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost every thing i had occasion to call for, and of every place i had to send him to, and 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 any thing before. i had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own country again; and having learnt 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 than my nation in the place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one two great thousand. _master_. but why did not your side recover you from the hands of your enemies then? _friday_. they run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time. _master_. well, friday, and what does your nation do with the men they take? do they carry them away, and eat them as these did? _friday._ yes, my nation eat mans too, eat all up. _master_. where do they carry them? _friday_. go to other place where they think. _master_. do they come hither? _friday_. yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place. _master_. have you been here with them? _friday_. yes, i been here [points to the n.w. 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 said 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 ate up twenty men, two women, and one child: he could not tell twenty in english, but he numbered them by laying so many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over. i have told this passage, because it introduces what follows; that after i had had this discourse with him, i asked him, how far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost? he told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that after a little way out to sea, there was a current, and a wind always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. this i understand 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 oroonoque; in the mouth of which river, as i thought afterwards, our island lay; and that this land, which i perceived to the w. and n.w. was the great island trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. i asked friday a 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 caribees, which our maps place on that part of america which reaches from the mouth of the river oroonoque to guinea, 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 that they had killed much mans, that was his word: by which i understood he meant the spaniards, whose cruelties in america had been spread over the whole countries, and were remembered by all the nations from father to son. i inquired if he could tell me how i might come from this island, and get among those white men; he told me, yes, yes, i might go in two canoe; i could not understand what he meant by two canoe; till at last, with great difficulty, i found he meant, that 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 speak to me, and understand me, i was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly i asked him one time, who made him? the poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought i had asked who was his father: but i took it by another handle, and asked him, who made the sea, the ground he 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 said o! to him. i asked him, if the people who die in his country, went away any where? he said, yes, they all went to benamuckee. then i asked him, whether those they ate 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 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 every thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us: and thus, by degrees, i opened his eyes. he listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion of jesus christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to god, and his being able to hear us, even into heaven: he told me one day, that if our god could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater god than their benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear, till they went up to the great mountains, where he dwelt, to speak to him. i asked him, if ever he went thither to speak to him? he said, no, they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men; whom he called their oowookakee, 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 priestcraft 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 religious in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. i endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man friday; and told him, that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say 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 own destruction by our own choice. i found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the devil, as it was about the being of a god: nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great first cause, and over-ruling governing power, a secret directing providence, and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us, and the like: but there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil spirit, of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too: and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and innocent, that i scarce knew what to say to him. i had been talking a great deal to him of the power of god, his omnipotence, his dreadful aversion to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as he had made as 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," said i, friday, "god is stronger than the devil, god is above the devil, and therefore we pray to god to tread him under our feet, and enable us to resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts."--"but," says he again, "if god much strong, much might, as the devil, why god not kill the devil, so make him no more 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 casuist, or a solver of difficulties: and, at first, i could not tell what to say; so i pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question; so that he repeated it in the very same broken words, as above. by this time i had recovered myself a little, and i said, "god will at last punish him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire." this did not satisfy friday; but he returns upon me, repeating my words, "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 me, when we do wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and be pardoned." he muses awhile at this; "well, well," says he, mighty affectionately, "that well; so you i, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, god pardon all." here i was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a god, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of god, as the consequence of our nature; yet nothing but divine revelation can form the knowledge of jesus christ, and of a redemption purchased for us; of a mediator; of a 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 some thing a great 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 the redemption of man by the saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from heaven, viz. of the 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 my 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 sat 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 brought me thither, but was now to be made an instrument, under providence, to save the life, and for aught i knew the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the christian doctrine, that he might know christ jesus, to know whom is life eternal; i say, when i reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and i frequently rejoiced that ever i was brought to this place, which i had 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 me 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 found 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, and 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 reading. another thing i cannot refrain from observing here, also from experience, in this retired part of my life; viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is, that the knowledge of god, and of the doctrine of salvation by christ jesus, is so plainly laid down in the word of god, so easy to be received and understood, that as the bare reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all god's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor (i mean, human;) so the 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 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 be god! comfortable views of the spirit of god, teaching and instructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to his 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 bullets, 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 many occasions. i described to him the countries 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 the parts of the world. i gave him an account of the wreck which i had been on board of, and shewed him as near as i could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in pieces long before, and quite gone. i shewed 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, were white mans, as he called them, in the boat? "yes," he said, "the boat full of while 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 again; 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 eat no 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 main land, and in a kind of surprise falls a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for i was at some distance from him: i asked him what was the matter? "o joy!" says he, "o glad! there see my country, there my nation!" i observed an 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 obligations to me; and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back, perhaps, with an 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 of the best principles, both as a religious christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction. whilst my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure i was every day pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which i suspected were in him; but i found every thing he said was so honest and so innocent, that i could 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 learnt much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. then i asked him, if he would go back to them? he smiled at that, and told me 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 so with him. "i go!" said i, "why, they will eat me if i come there."--"no, no," says he, "me make them no eat you, me make they much love you:" he meant he would tell them how i had killed his enemies and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. then he told me, as well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore in distress. from this time, i confess, i had a mind to venture over, and see if i could possibly join with these bearded men, who, i made no doubt, were spaniards or portuguese; not doubting but, if i could, we might find some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good company together, better than i could 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, shewed it him, and we both went into it. i found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would make it go almost as swift and fast again as i could; so when he was in, i said to him, "well, now, friday, shall we go to your nation?" he looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too small to go so far. i 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 the water; he said that was big enough; but then, as i had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. friday told me, such a boat would do very well, and would carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread:" that was his way of talking. upon the whole, i was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent, that i told him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. he answered not one word, but looked very, grave and sad. i asked him, what was the matter with him? he asked me again thus, "why you angry mad with friday? what me done?" i asked him, what he meant? i told him i was not angry with him at all: "no angry! no angry!" says he, repeating the words several times, "why send friday home away to my nation?"--"why," said 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!" said i; "what should i do there?" he turned very quick upon me at this; "you do great deal much good," says he; "you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know god, pray god, and live new life."--"alas, friday," said i, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; i am but an ignorant man myself."--"yes, yes," says he, "you teechee me good, you teechee them good."--"no, no, friday," said 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, and gives it me. "what must i do with this?" said 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 former discourse; viz. that there were seventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without any delay, i went to work with friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua or canoe, to under take the voyage: there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, 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 tustick, or between that and the nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell. friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it into a boat: but i shewed him how rather to cut it out with tools, which after i shewed him how to use, he did very handily; and in about a month's hard labour we finished it, and made it very handsome, especially, when, with our axes, which i shewed 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 could 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 a 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 ships' long-boats sail with, and such as i best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as i used in the boat in which i made my escape from barbary, as related in the first part of my story. i was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for i finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail or 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 labour as making the boat. after all this was done, 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 the canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the more amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed, and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed changed; i say, when he saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed: 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 seasons; 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 my 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, and fencing, as usual; i gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing, as before. the rainy season was in the mean time upon me, when i kept more within doors than at other times; so i had stowed our now 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 haling her up to the shore, at high water mark, i made my man friday dig a little dock, just big enough for her to float in; and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam cross 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 as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of november and december, in which i designed to make my adventure. when the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather, i was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing i did was to lay up a certain quantity of provision, being the store for the 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 outward 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 cried out to me, "o master! o master! o sorrow! o bad!"--"what's the matter, friday?" said i. "o yonder there," says he, "one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three!" by this way of speaking i concluded there were six; but on inquiry i found there were but three. "well, friday," said i, "do not be frighted;" so i heartened him up as well as i could. however, i saw the poor fellow 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; 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," said i, "friday, we must resolve to fight them: can you fight, friday?" "me shoot," says he, "but there come many great number." "no matter for that," said i again; "our guns will fright them that we do not kill." so i asked him, whether, if i resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as i bade 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, so filled me with 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 charged, as before, between us: i gave friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and i took one pistol, and the other three, myself; and in this posture we marched out. i took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave friday a large bag with more powder and bullet; and as to orders, i charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, shoot, or do any thing till i bid him; and in the mean time, not to speak a word. in this posture i fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood; so that i might come within shot of them before i could 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 for national crimes; but that in the mean time, 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 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 of the wood, on the side which was next to them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them: here i called softly to friday, and shewing 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 the fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, whom he said they would kill next, and which fired 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, who came to their country in the boat. i was filled with horror at the very naming the white-bearded man, and, going to the tree, i saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes; and that he was an european, and had clothes on. there was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where i was, which, by going a little way about, i saw i might come at undiscovered, and that then 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 his feet. i turned to friday; "now, friday," said i, "do as i bid thee." friday said, he would. "then, friday," said 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 i 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 immediately, but did not 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," said 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 loaden with what i call swan shot, or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop; but so many were wounded, that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and miserably wounded most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead. "now, friday," said i, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket, which was yet loaden, "follow me," said i; which he did, with a deal of courage; upon which i rushed, out of the wood, and shewed myself, and friday close at my foot: as soon as i perceived they saw me, i shouted as loud as i could, and bade friday do so too; and running as fast as i could, which by the way was not very fast, being loaded with arms as i was, i made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as i said, lying upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they sat and the sea; the two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had left him, at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way: i turned to friday, and bade him step forwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards to be near them, he shot at them, and i thought he had killed them all; for i saw them all fall on an 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 ate; then i asked him, what countryman he was? and he said, _espagnole_; and, being a little recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. "seignior," said i, with as much spanish as i could make up, "we will talk afterwards, but we must 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 vigour 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 more power to attempt their own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that friday shot 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 as brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage, being a stout lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down, (being faint) and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting his 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, could come near him. friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched those three, who, as i said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with; and the spaniard coming to me for a gun, i gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where friday pursued them, and killed one of them; but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded, yet he plunged into the sea, and swam with all his might off to those 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 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 dropt here and there of their wounds, or killed by friday in his chase of them. 4 escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead. ----- 21 in all. those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot; and though friday made two or three shot at them, i did not find that he hit any of them: friday would 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 multitudes; so i consented to pursue them by sea; and running to one of their canoes, i jumped in, and bade friday follow me; but when i was in the canoe, i was surprised to find another poor creature lie there alive, bound hand and foot, as the spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really 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 looked 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 extravagances of his affection after this; for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many times: when he went in to him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's head close to his bosom, 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 at such a rate (for he was the swiftest fellow of his feet that ever i saw)--i say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though i called and hallooed too after him, it was all one; away he went, and in a quarter of an hour i saw him come back again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, i found his pace was slacker, because he had something in his hand. when he came up to me, i found he had been quite home for an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water; and that he had get 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 him, to know if there was any water left? he said, "yes;" and i bade him give it to the poor spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and i sent one of the cakes, that friday brought, to the spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place, under the shade of a tree, and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with: when i saw that, upon friday's coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began to eat, i went to him, and gave him a handful of raisins: he looked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand 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, turned 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 load him to the boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling, where i would take care of him: but friday, a lusty young fellow, took the spaniard quite up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and then lifted them 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 wafted me over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did; but they were neither of them able to walk; so that poor friday knew not what to do. to remedy this, i went to work in my thought, and calling to friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, i soon made a kind of 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 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: 2dly, my people were perfectly subjected: i was absolute lord and lawgiver; they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion for it, for me: it was remarkable too, i had but three subjects, and they were of three different religions. my man friday was a protestant, his father a pagan and a cannibal; and the spaniard was a papist: however, i allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions: but this 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: then i cut off the hind 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 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, which lay open to the sun, and, would presently be offensive; and i also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which i knew were pretty much, and which i could not think of doing myself; nay, i could not, bear to see them, if i went that way: all which he punctually performed, and defaced the very 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 he 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 frighted with the manner of being attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed they would tell their people they were all killed by thunder and lightning, and not by the hand of man; and that the two which appeared (viz. friday and i) were two heavenly spirits or furies come down to destroy them, and not men with weapons. this, he said, he knew, because he heard them all cry out so in their language to one another; for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man should 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 of that part never attempted to go over to the island afterwards. they were so terrified with the accounts given by these four men, (for it seems they did escape the sea) that they believed, whoever went to that enchanted island, would be destroyed with fire from the gods. this, however, i knew not, and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard, i and all my army; for as there were now four of us, i would have ventured a hundred of them fairly in the open field at any time. in a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of their coming wore off, and i began to take my former thoughts of a voyage to the main into consideration, being likewise assured by friday's father, that i might depend upon good usage from their nation on his account, if i would go. but my thoughts were a little suspended, when i had a serious discourse with the spaniard, and when i understood, that there were sixteen more of his countrymen and portuguese, who having been cast away, and made their escape to that side, lived there at peace indeed with the savages, but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life: i asked him all the particulars of their voyage; and found they were a spanish ship, bound from the rio de la plata to the havanna, being directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back what european goods they could meet with there; that they had five portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned when first the ship was lost; and that these escaped through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived almost starved on the cannibal coast, where they expected to have been devoured every moment. he told me, they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly useless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder, but a little which they used at their first landing to provide themselves some food. i asked him what he thought would become of them there; and if they had formed no design of making any escape? he said, they had many consultations about it, but that having neither vessel, nor tools to build one, or provisions of any kind, their counsels 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 brasils southward, or to the islands or spanish coast northward: but that if in requital they should, when i had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their own people, i might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make my case worse than it was before. he answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuity, that their condition was so miserable, and they were so sensible of it, that he believed they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that should contribute to their deliverance; and that, if i pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it, and return again, and bring me their answer: that he would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath, that they would be absolutely under my leading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear upon the holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me, and go to such christian country as 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 order; and that he would take my side to the last drop of blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith among his countrymen. he told me, they were all of them very civil honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country: and that he was sure, if i would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me. upon these assurances, i resolved to venture to relieve them, if possible, and to send the old savage and the spaniard over to them to treat: but when he had gotten all things in readiness to go, the spaniard himself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it on one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that i could not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. the case was thus: he had been with us now about a month; during which time i had let him see in what manner i had provided, with the assistance of providence, for my support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice i had laid up; which, as it was more, than sufficient for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increased to number four: but much less would it be sufficient, if his countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen still alive, should come over; and least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a voyage to any of the christian colonies of america. so he told me, he thought it would be more adviseable, to let him and the other two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as i could spare seed to sow; and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his countrymen when they should come; for want might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another: "you know," says he, "the children of israel, though they rejoiced at first at their being delivered out of egypt, yet rebelled even against god himself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in the wilderness." his caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that i could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as i was satisfied with his fidelity. so we fell to digging, all four of us, as well as the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's time, by the end of which it was seed time, we had gotten as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed 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 number being sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had been very great, we went freely all over the island, wherever we found occasion; and as here we had our escape or 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 thoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work: i showed them with what indefatigable pains i had hewed a large tree into single planks, and i caused them to do the like, till they had about a dozen large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labour it took up, any one may imagine. at the same time i contrived to increase my little flock of tame goats as much as i could; and to this purpose i made friday and the spaniard to go out one day, and myself with friday, the next day, for we took our turns: and by this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added them to our flock: but above all, the season for curing the grapes coming on, i caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that i believe, had we been at alicant, where the raisins of the sun are cured, we should 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 twenty two bushels of barley, we brought in and threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the rice, which was store enough for our food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen spaniards had been on shore with me; or, if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship, to have carried us to any part of the world, that is to say, of america. when we had thus housed and secured our magazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-work; viz., great baskets, in which we kept it; and the spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this part, and often blamed me, that i did not make some things for defence of this kind of work; but i saw no need of it. and now having a full supply of food for all the guests expected, i gave the spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could do with those he left behind him there: i gave him a strict charge in writing not to bring any man with him, who would not first swear, in the presence of himself and of the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or attack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind to send for them in order to their deliverance; but that they would stand by and defend him against all such attempts; and wherever they went, would be entirely under, and subjected to his command; and that this should be put in writing, and signed with their hands: how we were to have this done, when i knew they had neither pen or ink, that indeed was a question which we never asked. under these instructions, the spaniard, and the old savage, (the father of friday) went away in one of the canoes, which they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. i gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasions. this was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven years and some days. i gave them provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves for many days, and sufficient for their countrymen for about eight days time; and wishing them a good voyage, i let 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 the full; by my account in the month of october; but as for the 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 waited for them, when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. i was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "master, master, they are come, they are come." i jumped up, and, regardless of danger, i went out as soon as i could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which (by the way) was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; i say, regardless of danger, i went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but i was surprised, when, turning my eyes to the sea, i presently saw a boat at about a league and a half'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 be close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that we did not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. in the next place, i went in to fetch my perspective glass, to see what i could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, i climbed up to the top of the hill, as i used to do when i was apprehensive of any thing, and to take my view the plainer without being discovered. i had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and a half's distance from me, s.s.e. but not above a league and a half from the shore. by my observation it appeared plainly to be an english ship, and the boat appeared to be an english long-boat. i cannot express the confusion i was in, though the joy of seeing a ship, and one whom i had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as i cannot describe; but yet i had some secret doubts hung about me, i cannot tell from whence they came, bidding me keep upon my guard. in the first place, it occurred to me to consider what business an english ship could have in that part of the world; since it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the english had any traffic; and i knew there had been no storms to drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they were english really, it was most probable that they were here upon no good design; and that i had better continue as i was, than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers. let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being real. that such hints and notices are given us, i believe few that have made any observation of things can deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent, (whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question,) and that they are given for our good? the present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this reasoning; for had i not been made cautious by this secret admonition, come 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 have soon beaten me out of my castle, and, perhaps, have plundered me of all i had. when they were on shore, i was fully satisfied they were englishmen, at least most of them; one or two i thought were dutch, but it did not prove so. there were in all eleven men, whereof three of them i found were unarmed, and (as i thought) bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three i could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, i could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. i was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be; friday called out to me in english, as well as he could, "o master! you see english mans eat prisoners as well as savage mans."--"why," said i, "friday, do you think they are going to eat them then"--"yes," says friday, "they will eat them."--"no, no," said 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 our 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 ran scattering about the land, as if they wanted to see the country. i observed also, that the three other men had liberty to go 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 finest 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 tides, 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 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 place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. they had left two men in the boat, who, as i found afterwards, having drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking 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 fore-thought, 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'll float next tide." by which i was fully confirmed in the main inquiry, of what countrymen they were. all this while i kept myself close, not once daring to stir out of my castle, any further 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 know it was no less then ten hours before the boat could be on float again, and by that time it would be dark and i might be more at 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 made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms: i took myself two fowling-pieces, and i gave him three muskets. my figure, indeed, was very fierce; i had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap i mentioned, a naked sword, 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 all 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 above, my man friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as i, but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as i did. i came as near them undiscovered as i could, and then before any of them saw me, i called aloud to them in spanish, "what are ye gentlemen?" they started up at the noise, but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that i made. they made no answer at all, but i thought i perceived them just going to fly from me, when i spoke to them in english, "gentlemen," said i, "do not be surprized 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 cloathed, 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 murtherers 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 murther 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 are, 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 shew any mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to their duty. i asked him, which they were? he told me he could not at that distance describe them; but he would obey my orders in any thing i would direct. "well," says i, "let us retreat out of their view or hearing, least they awake, and we will resolve further;" so they willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us from them. "look you, sir," said i, "if i venture upon your deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions with me?" he anticipated my proposals, by telling me, that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly directed and commanded by me in every thing; and if the ship was not recovered, he would live and dye 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 mean time 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 assurance that the invention and faith of a man could devise, that he would comply with these most reasonable demands, and besides would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all occasions as long as he lived. "well then," said i, "here are three muskets for you, with powder and ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be done." he shewed all the testimony of his gratitude that he was able; but offered to be wholly guided by me: i told him, i thought it was hard venturing any thing, but the best method i could think of, was to fire upon them at once, as they lay; and if any were not killed at the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon god's providence to direct the shot. he said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship; and if they escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on board, and bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all. "well then," said i, "necessity legitimates my advice; for it is the only way to save our lives." however, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, i told him, they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. in the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. i asked him, if either of them were the 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," said 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 pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each man a piece in his hand: the two men, who were with him, going first, made some noise, at which one of the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then; for the moment he cried out, they fired, i mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece: they had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being dead he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain, stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help; he should call upon god to forgive his villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more: there were three more in the company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. by this time i was come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. the captain told them, he would spare their lives, if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to jamaica, from whence they came. they gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which i was not against; only 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 apartments, 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 shewed them all the contrivances i had made during my long, long inhabiting that place. all i shewed 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 now been planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than in england, was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was impassable in any part of it, but at that one side where i had reserved my little winding passage into it: this i told him 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 shew 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 measure 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 had said, and found it was a very rational conclusion, and that therefore something was to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. upon this it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship's crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their other boat to see for them; and that then perhaps they might come armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed 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 every thing out of her, leaving 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, an 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 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 capable 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 float her off at high water mark; and, besides, had broken 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 our glasses) hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had fire-arms with them. as the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight 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 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 operations of fear: that seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that 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, "'tis 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 centinel over them at the entrance. the other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but the other two were taken into my service upon their 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 the other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom. after they had mused awhile 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 long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched the 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 up 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 in the valley and woods, which lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree, to consider of it: had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other party of them had done, they had done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of danger, to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither. the captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of theirs; viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and they would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed: i liked the proposal, provided it was done while we heard, when they were presently stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to come up, and set them over, as indeed i expected. when they had set themselves over, i observed, that the boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and as it were, in a harbour within the land, they took one of the three men out of her to go along with them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore. this was what i wished for, and immediately leaving friday and the captain's mate to their business, i took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprized 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 sincere with us. in the mean time, friday and the captain's mate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them by hollooing 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 being able to come any faster, which was very welcome news to us. at length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible to express their confusion, when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone: we could hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were gotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered; or else there were devils or spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured. they hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a great many times, but no answer: after some time, we could see them, by the little light there was, run about wringing their hands, like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then come ashore, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again. my men would fain have had me given them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but i was willing to take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as i could; and especially i was unwilling to hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the other men 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, till the boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shewn himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager, at having the principal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him; for they only heard his tongue before: but when they came nearer, the captain and friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at them. the boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after; and the third 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 he had trusted with arms. we came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and i made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if i could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be very-willing to capitulate; so he calls out, as loud as he could, to one of them, "tom smith, tom smith." tom smith answered immediately, "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? where are they?" says smith again. "here they are," says he; "here is 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, your are all lost." "will they give us quarter then?" says tom smith, "and we will yield."--"i'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says robinson. so he asked the captain, and the captain himself then calls out, "you smith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms immediately, and submit, you shall have your lives, all but will atkins." upon this will atkins cried out, "for god's sake, captain, give me quarter: what have i done? they have been all as bad us i," (which by the way was not true, either; 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 to think of seizing the ship; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, and at length, upon the 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's of the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren uninhabited island; but it had pleased god so to direct them, that 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 wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning. but, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, i told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay: this was committed to friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain. they conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison; and it was indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their condition. the others i ordered to my bower, as i called it, of which i have given a full description; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour. to these in the morning i sent the captain, who was to enter into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me, whether he thought they might be trusted or no, to go on board, and surprise the ship. he talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were brought to; and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives, as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to england, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if they would join in such 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, that they should see that they did not want men; but 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 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 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 shewed 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 that they should not stir any where but by my direction; that if they did, they should be fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons; so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor, so i now appeared as another person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions. the captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his 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 he had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like; holding them in a chat, till they came to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate, entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the but end of their muskets; being very faithfully seconded by their men, they seemed 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 skuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. when this was done, and all safe upon the 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 upon 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 bullets 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 being 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 a 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 a little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where i 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 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 pulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me: after i 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 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 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 manner provided for one in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed? when we had talked awhile, the captain told me, he had brought me some little refreshments, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches who had been so long his masters, had not plundered him of. upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bids 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 i was to be carried 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 apiece; 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 hundred weight 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 neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a very good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little. in a word, he clothed me from head to foot. it was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first putting on. after these ceremonies passed, and after all his 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 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," said i, "i will send for them, and talk with them for you:" so i caused friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; i say, i caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till i came. after some time, i came thither dressed in my new habit, and now i was called governor again. being all met, and the captain with me, i caused the men to be brought before me, and i told them, i had had a full account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit 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 villany; for that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm: that as to them, i wanted to know what they had to say, why i should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt i had authority to do. one of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy: but i told them i knew not what mercy to shew 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 to be a little angry with the captain, and told him, that they were my prisoners, not his; and that seeing i had offered them so much favour, i would be as good as my word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, i would set them at liberty as i found them; and if he did not like that, he might take them again if he could catch them. upon this they appeared very thankful, and i accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence they came, and i would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well, if they thought fit. upon this, i prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain, 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 shewed them their 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: shewed 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 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 about a barrel 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, 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-seed, 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, i went with the boat 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 a 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 one of my parrots; also i forgot not to take the money i formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; and also the money i found in the wreck of the spanish ship. and thus i left the island the nineteenth 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 the 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 eleventh of june, in the year 1687; having been thirty and five years absent. when i came to england, i was a perfect 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 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 that subject, and a present of almost two hundred pounds 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 brasils, and 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 brasil trade. the old man did not know me, and, indeed, i hardly knew him; but i soon brought myself to his remembrance, when i told him who i was. after some passionate expressions of our 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 brasils for about nine years; but that he could assure me, that when he came away, my partner was living; but the trustees, whom i had joined with him, to take cognizance of my part, were both dead; that, however, he believed 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 would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored; but he assured me, that the steward of the king's revenue, (from lands) and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along, that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they received duly my moiety. i asked him, if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation; and whether he thought it might be worth looking 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 growing 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 county. 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 fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above, which, as he remembered, was about twelve years. i shewed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired of the old captain, how it came to pass, that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that i had made my will, and had made him, the portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c. he told me that was true; but that, as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should come of my death; and that, besides, he was not willing to 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 sugarhouse) and had given his son, who was now at the brasils, order to do it. "but," says the old man, "i have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, 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 profit, 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 merchants' trustees, being always delivered in goods; viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and i found by this account, that every year the income considerably increased: but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see, that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship, he having been shipwrecked coming home to lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving the place. the good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship; "however, my old friend," says he, "you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied." upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me two hundred portugal moidores in gold; and giving me the writings of his title to the ship which his son was gone to the brasils in, of which he was a quarter part owner, and his son another, he puts them both in 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 if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would not straiten him? he told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and i might want it more than he. every thing the good man said was full of affection, and i could hardly refrain from tears while he spake. in short, i took one hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them; then i returned him the rest, and told him, if ever i had possession of the plantation, i would return the other to him also, as indeed i afterwards did; and then, as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's ship, i would not take it by any means; but that if i wanted the money, i found he was honest enough to pay me; and if i did not, but came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, i would never have a penny more from him. when this was past, the old man began to ask me if he should put me in a method to make my claim to my plantation. i told him, i thought to go over to it myself. he said, i might do so if i pleased; but that if i did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use; and as there were ships in the river of lisbon, just ready to go away to brasil, he made me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit, 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 the procuration affixed, he directed me to send it with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return. never any thing was more honourable than the proceedings upon this procuration; for in less than seven months i received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, on 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 1171 moidores in my favour. secondly, there was the account of four years more while they kept the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they call _civil-death_; and the balance of this, the value of plantation increasing, amounted to 38892 crusadoes, which made 3241 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 also a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very affectionately upon my being alive; giving me an account how the estate was improved, and what it produced a year, with a particular of the number of squares or acres that it contained; how planted, how many slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many ave marias to thank the blessed virgin that i was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of my own; and in the mean time to give him orders to whom he should deliver my effects, if i did not come my self; concluding with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family, and sent me, as a present, seven fine leopard's 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 an hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores. by the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped me 1,200 chests 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 was better than the beginning. it is impossible to express here 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 brasil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters, brought my goods; and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. in a word, i turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, i believe the sudden surprize of joy had overset nature, and i had died upon the spot. nay after that, i continued very ill, and was so some hours, 'till a physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood; after which, i had relief, and grew well: but i verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent given in that manner, to the spirits, i should have died. i was now master, all on a sudden, of above 5000_l_. sterling in money, and had an estate, as i might well call it, in the brasils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in england: and in a word, i was in a condition which i scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose my self, 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 shewed 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 hundred fold: so i first returned to him the hundred moidores i had received of him, then i sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470 moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest manner possible; after which, i caused a procuration to be drawn, impowering 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 him, for his life: and thus i requited my old man. i was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do with the estate that providence had thus put into my hands; and indeed i had more care upon my head now, than i had in my silent state of life in the island, where i wanted nothing but what i had, and had nothing but what i wanted: whereas i had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. i had ne'er a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, 'till it grew mouldy and tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on the contrary, i knew not where to put it, or who to trust with it. my old patron, the captain, indeed was honest, and that was the only refuge i had. in the next place, my interest in the brasils seemed to summon me thither, but now i could not tell, how to think of going thither, 'till i had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. at first i thought of my old friend the widow, who i knew was honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and for ought i knew, might be in debt; so that in a word, i had no way but to go back to england my self, and take my effects with me. it was some months however before i resolved upon this; and therefore, as i had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, so i began to think of my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor. so the first thing i did, i got a merchant in lisbon to write to his correspondent in london, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money, an hundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her she should, if i lived, have a further supply: at the same time i sent my two sisters in the country, each of them an hundred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be. but among all my relations, or 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 brasils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed me. i had once a mind to have gone to the brasils, and have settled my self 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 thither for the present; and as i had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the country, all the while i was among them, so neither did i yet; only that now and then having of late thought more of it than formerly, when i began to think of living and dying among them, i began to regret my having professed myself a papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to die in. but, as i have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going to the brasils, but that really i did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me; so i resolved at last to go to england with them, where if i arrived, i concluded i should make some acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be faithful to me; and accordingly i prepared to go for england with all my wealth. in order to prepare things for my going home, i first (the brasil 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 his just dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores, which was undisposed of, which i desired might be given, five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should direct, desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and the like. i wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as for sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion 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 broad-cloth, the best i could get in lisbon, five pieces of black bays, and some flanders lace of a good value. having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go to england. i had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet i had a strange aversion to go to england by sea at that time; and though i could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, that though i had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet i altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times. it is true, i had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be one of the reasons. but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such moment. two of the ships which i had singled out to go in, i mean more particularly singled out than any other, that is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on board, and in the other to have agreed with the captain; i say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one was taken by the algerines, and the other was cast away on the start, near torbay, and all the people drowned except three; so that in either of those vessels i had been made miserable, and in which most, it was hard to say. having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom i communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go to sea; but either to go by land to the groyne, and cross over the bay of biscay to rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to paris, and so to calais and dover; or to go up to madrid, and so all the way by land through france. in a word, i was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from calais to dover, that i resolved to travel all the way by land; which, as i was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way; and to make it more so, my old captain brought an english gentleman, the son of a merchant in lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which, we picked up two who were english, and merchants also, and two young portuguese gentlemen, the last going to paris only; so that we were in all six of us, and five servants, the two merchants and the two portuguese contenting themselves with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, i got an english sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a servant upon 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 honour to call me captain, as well because i was the oldest man, as because i had two servants, and indeed was the original of the whole journey. as i have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so shall i trouble you with none of my land journals. 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 sec the court of spain, and to see what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastened away, and set out from madrid about the middle of october. but when we came to the edge of navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was fallen on the french side of the mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on. when we came to pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me that had been always used to a hot climate, and indeed to countries where we could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor, indeed, was it more painful than it was surprising: to come but ten days before out of the old castile, where the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the pyrenees mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes, was very strange. poor friday was really frighted 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, after 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: 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 staid 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 many years) proposed that we should all go away to fontarabia, and there take shipping for boardeaux, which was a very little voyage. but while we were considering this, there came in four french gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the french side of the passes, as we were on the spanish, had found out a guide, who traversing the country near the head of languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with the snow; and where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. we sent for this guide, who told us, he would undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect 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 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 fifteenth 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 having passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to the left, he approached the mountains another way; and though it is true, the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, we insensibly passed the height of the mountains, without being much encumbered with the snow; and all on a sudden he shewed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of languedoc and gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed they were at a great distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet. we were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day and a night, so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending upon our guide, we went on. it was about two hours before night, when our guide being 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 the other, "o master' o master!" but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head. it was happy for the poor man that it was my man friday; for he, having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear upon him, but went close up to him, and shot him as above; whereas any of us would have 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 howlings 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 the 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) would give us leave, to see what was the matter. as soon as we came clear of the trees which blinded us before, we saw plainly 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, which is swift and light; so he has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions: first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, i say not his proper prey, because though i can't say what excessive hunger might do, which was now their case, the ground being all covered with snow; yet 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; yet 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 the way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way, and keep going on; for sometimes, if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; and if you throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront, and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge; for he will have satisfaction in point of honour, and this is his first quality; the next is, that if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he has his revenge, but follow 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 a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the wood, and a very monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever i saw: we were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance: "o! o! o!" says friday, three times, pointing to him, "o master! you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him, me makee you good laugh." i was surprised to see the fellow so pleased: "you fool you," said 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 shew 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, and 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 to the gascoigne 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 more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered friday's end; for the rogue was so void of fear, that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and shew 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 strolling along at a strange rate, so as he would put a horse to a middling gallop. away runs friday, and takes his course, as if he ran 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 ran 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 us to follow, and doubling his pace, he gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. the bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance. the first thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. i was amazed at the folly, as i thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer to him. when we came to the tree, there was friday got out to the small 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 by a great deal: when he sees him stand still, he calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak english, "what, you come no farther? pray you come farther." so he left jumping and shaking the bough; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he fell a-jumping again, and the bear stopped again. we thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly, "o pray! o pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then;" he would have said by and by. however, to shorten the story, friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do; for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not get 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," said friday, "you no come farther, me go, me go; you no come to me, me 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 saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree; grasping it with his 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 close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him as 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?" said i; "why, you have no guns."--"no," says he, "no guns, 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 wolves ran much in my head; and indeed except the noise i once heard on the shore of africa, of which i have said something already, i never heard any thing that filled me with so much horror. these things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had 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, of which our guide told us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge. it was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood; and a little after sunset, when we came into the plain. we met with nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view: they took no notice of us, and were gone and out of sight in a few moments. upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched faint-hearted fellow, bade 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 half gone over the plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the woods, on our left, in a frightful manner; and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. i scarce knew in what manner to receive them; but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but, that we might not have too much interval, i ordered, that only every other man should fire; and that the others, who had not fired, should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and that then those who had fired at first, should not pretend to load their fusils again, but stand ready, with every one a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six vollies, half of us at a time; however, at present we had no necessity; for, upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified, as well with the noise as with the fire; four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. i found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that i had been told, that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, i caused all 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 doing; but we had but little more than loaded our fusils, 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 night began to be dusky, which made it the 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 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 only came in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when, coming near 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. 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 these ravenous creatures, and of one the man was no doubt the same whom we heard fire a 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, were 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 way from it, there by 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 these trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, i advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. we did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place; they came on us with a growling kind of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber (which, as i said, was our breastwork,) as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind us, which was the prey they aimed at. i ordered our men to fire as before, every 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 fusils, 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 our vollies of pistols; and i believe in these four firings we killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many; yet they came on again. i was loath 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 charged my fusil 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 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; and those that were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or rather jumped in among us, with the force and fright of the fire; we dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which the night, for now it was very near dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little. upon which i ordered our last pistols 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, which 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 were better understood by their fellows; so that they 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 broken into that village, and put them in a terrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and indeed their people. the next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs so swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide there, and go to tholouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, or any thing like them; but when we told our story at tholouse, 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 fifty to one but we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of the horses that made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and that at other times they are really afraid of a gun; but they 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 so much for their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and being so many in number. for my part, i was never so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing above three hundred 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 tholouse to paris, and without any considerable stay came to calais, and landed safe at dover, the fourteenth 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-counsellor was my good ancient widow, who, in gratitude for the money i had sent her, thought no pains too much, or care too great, to employ for me; and i trusted her so entirely with every thing, that i was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects; and indeed i was very happy from 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 brasils. but now another scruple came in the way, and that was religion; for as 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 brasils for me, much less going to settle there, unless i resolved to embrace the roman catholic religion, without any reserve; except on the other hand i resolved to be a sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion, and die in the inquisition: so i resolved to stay at home, and, if i could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation. to this purpose i wrote to my old friend at lisbon, who in return gave me notice, that he could easily dispose of it there: but that if i thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the brasils, who must fully understand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, and who i knew to be very rich, so that he believed they would be fond of buying it; he did not doubt, but i should make 4 or 5000 pieces of eight the more of it. accordingly i agreed, gave him orders 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 the bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces of eight 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 his life, which i had promised them; and which the plantation was to make good as a rent charge. and thus i have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to shew the like of: beginning foolishly, but closing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave to 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, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had i contracted much acquaintance; and though i had sold my estate in the brasils, yet i could not keep that 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 almost for 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 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 their lives, and of the villains i left there; how at first they insulted the poor spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were subjected to the spaniards; how honestly the spaniards used them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part: particularly also as to their battles with the caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself; and how five of them made an attempt upon the main land, 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 lands 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 brasils, from whence i sent a bark, which i bought there, with more people to the island; and in it, besides other supplies, i sent seven women, being such as i found proper for service, or for wives to such as would take them. as for the englishmen, i promised them to send them some women from england, with a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting; which i afterwards could not perform: the fellows proved very honest and diligent, after they were mastered, and had their properties set apart for them, i sent them also from the brasils five cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which, when i came again, were considerably 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 some of them killed; but at last a storm destroying their enemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island:-all these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten years more i may, perhaps, give a further account of hereafter. * * * * * that homely proverb used on so many occasions in england, viz. "that what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," was never more verified than in the story of my life. any one would think, that after thirty-five years affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life, and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy; i say, after all this, any one would have thought that the native propensity to rambling, which i gave an account of in my first setting out into the world to have been so predominant in my thoughts, should be worn out, the volatile part be fully evacuated, or at least condensed, and i might at sixty-one years of age have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life and fortune any more. nay farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken away in me; for i had no fortune to make, i had nothing to seek: if i had gained ten thousand pounds, i had been no richer; for i had already sufficient for me, and for those i had to leave it to, and that i had was visibly increasing; for having no great family, i could not spend the income of what i had, unless i would set up for an expensive way of living, such as a great family, servants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things i had no notion of, or inclination to; so that i had nothing indeed to do, but to sit still, and fully enjoy what i had got, and see it increase daily upon my hands. yet all these things, had no effect upon me, or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination i had to go abroad again, which hung about me like a chronical distemper; particularly the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the colony i left there, ran in my head continually. i dreamed of it all night, and my imagination ran upon it all day; it was uppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it, that i talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothing could remove it out of my mind; it even broke so violently into all my discourses, that it made my conversation tiresome; for i could talk of nothing else, all my discourse ran into it, even to impertinence, and i saw it myself. i have often heard persons of good judgment say, that all the stir people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions, is owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost walking, and the like; that people's poring affectionately upon the past conversation of their deceased friends so realizes it to them, that they are capable of fancying upon some extraordinary circumstances that they see them, talk to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour in the thing; and they really know nothing of the matter. for my part, i know not to this hour whether there are any such things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they are dead, or whether there is any thing in the stories they tell us of that kind, more than the product of vapours, sick minds, and wandering fancies. but this i know, that my imagination worked up to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, or what else i may call it, that i actually supposed myself oftentimes upon the spot, at my old castle behind the trees, saw my old spaniard, friday's father, and the reprobate sailors whom i left upon the island; nay, i fancied i talked with them, and looked at them so steadily, though i was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and this i did till i often frightened myself with the images my fancy represented to me: one time in my sleep i had the villany of the three pirate sailors so lively related to me, by the first spaniard and friday's father, that it was surprising; they told me how they barbarously attempted to murder all the spaniards, and that they set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve them; things that i had never heard of, and that were yet all of them true in fact; but it was so warm in my imagination, and so realized to me, that to the hour i saw them, i could not be persuaded but that it was or would be true; also how i resented it when the spaniard complained to me, and how i brought them to justice, tried them before me, and ordered them all three to be hanged. what there was really in this, shall be seen in its place; for however i came to form such things in my dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was, i say, very much of it true. i own, that this dream had nothing literally and specifically true; but the general part was so true, the base and villanous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, and had been so much worse than all i can describe, that the dream had too much similitude of the fact; and as i would afterwards have punished them severely, so if i had hanged them all, i had been much in the right, and should have been justifiable both by the laws of god and man. but to return to my story.--in this kind of temper i had lived some years, i had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion but what had something or other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind so wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night, that she believed there was some secret powerful impulse of providence upon me, which had determined me to go thither again; and that she found nothing hindered my going, but my being engaged to a wife and children. she told me, that it was true she could not think of parting with me; but as she was assured, that if she was dead it would be the first thing i would do; so, as it seemed to her that the thing was determined above, she would not be the only obstruction; for if i thought fit, and resolved to go--here she found me very intent upon her words, and that i looked very earnestly at her; so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. i asked her why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say? but i perceived her heart was too full, and some tears stood in her eyes: "speak out, my dear," said i; "are you willing i should go?"--"no," says she, very affectionately, "i am far from willing: but if you are resolved to go," says she, "and rather than i will be the only hindrance, i will go with you; for though i think it a preposterous thing for one of your years, and in your condition, yet if it must be," said she again, weeping, "i won't leave you; for if it be of heaven, you must do it; there is no resisting it; and if heaven makes it your duty to go, he will also make it mine to go with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that i may not obstruct it." this affectionate behaviour of my wife brought me a little out of the vapours, and i began to consider what i was doing; i corrected my wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately, what business i had, after threescore years, and after such a life of tedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner, i say, what business had i to rush into new hazards, and put myself upon adventures, fit only for youth and poverty to run into? with those thoughts, i considered my new engagement; that i had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of another; that i had all the world could give me and had no need to seek hazards for gain; that i was declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what i had gained, than of seeking to increase it; that as to what my wife had said, of its being an impulse from heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, i had no notion of that; so after many of these cogitations, i struggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, _as i believe people may always do in like cases, if they will_; and, in a word, i conquered it; composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my thoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifully with; and particularly, as the most effectual method, i resolved to divert myself with other things, and to engage in some business that might effectually tie me up from any more excursions of this kind; for i found the thing return upon me chiefly when i was idle, had nothing to do, or any thing of moment immediately before me. to this purpose i bought a little farm in the county of bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither. i had a little convenient house upon it, and the land about it i found was capable of great improvement, and that it was many ways suited to my inclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, and improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, i was removed from conversing among ships, sailors, and things relating to the remote part of the world. in a word, i went down to my farm, settled my family, bought me ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon, horses, cows, sheep; and setting seriously to work, became in one half year a mere country gentleman; my thoughts were entirely taken up in managing my servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and i lived, as i thought, the most agreeable life that nature was capable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortunes was capable of being retreated to. i farmed upon my own land, i had no rent to pay, was limited by no articles; i could pull up or cut down as i pleased; what i planted was for myself, and what i improved, was for my family; and having thus left off the thoughts of wandering, i had not the least discomfort in any part of my life, as to this world. now i thought indeed, that i enjoyed the middle state of life which my father so earnestly recommended to me, a kind of heavenly life, something like what is described by the poet upon the subject of a country life: free from vices, free from care, age has no pains, and youth no snare. but in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unforeseen providence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon me, inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequence, upon a deep relapse into the wandering disposition; which, as i may say, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me, and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with an irresistible force upon me; so that nothing could make any more impression upon me. this blow was the loss of my wife. it is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, to give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. she was, in a few words, the stay of all my affairs, the centre of all my enterprises, the engine that by her prudence reduced me to that happy compass i was in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that fluttered in my head as above; and did more to guide my rambling genius, than a mother's tears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my own reasoning powers could do. i was happy in listening to her tears, and in being moved by her entreaties, and to the last degree desolate and dislocated in the world by the loss of her. when she was gone the world looked awkwardly round me, i was as much a stranger in it in my thoughts as i was in the brasils when i went first on shore there; and as much alone, except as to the assistance of servants, as i was in my island. i knew neither what to do, or what not to do; i saw the world busy round me, one part labouring for bread, and the other part squandering in vile excesses or empty pleasures, equally miserable, because the end they proposed still fled from them; for the men of pleasure every day surfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow and repentance, and the men of labour spent their strength in daily strugglings for bread to maintain the vital strength they laboured with; so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end of a wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily bread. this put me in mind of the life i lived in my kingdom the island, where i suffered no more corn to grow, because i did not want it; and bred no more goats, because i had no more use for them; where the money lay in the drawer till it grew mildewed, and had scarce the favour to be looked upon in twenty years. all these things, had i improved them as i ought to have done, and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have taught me to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity, and that there was something which certainly was the reason and end of life, superior to all these things, and which was either to be possessed, or at least hoped for, on this side the grave. but my sage counsellor was gone, i was like a ship without a pilot, that could only run before the wind; my thoughts run all away again into the old affair, my head was quite turned with the whimsies of foreign adventures; and all the pleasing innocent amusements of my farm and my garden, my cattle and my family, which before entirely possessed me, were nothing to me, had no relish, and were like music to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste: in a word, i resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm, and return to london; and in a few months after i did so. when i came to london i was still as uneasy as before; i had no relish to the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but to saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said, he is perfectly useless in god's creation, and it is not one farthing matter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive. this also was the thing which of all circumstances of life was the most my aversion, who had been all my days used to an active life; and i would often say to myself, "a state of idleness is the very dregs of life;" and indeed i thought i was much more suitably employed when i was twenty-six days making me a deal board. it was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, whom, as i have observed before, i had brought up to the sea, and had made him commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage to bilboa, being the first he had made; he came to me, and told me, that some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing to him to go a voyage for them to the east indies and to china, as private traders; "and now, uncle," says he, "if you will go to sea with me, i'll engage to land you upon your old habitation in the island, for we are to touch at the brasils." nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and of the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of second causes with the ideas of things which we form in our minds, perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world. my nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering was returned upon me, and i knew nothing of what he had in his thoughts to say, when that very morning, before he came to me, i had, in a great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, viz. that i would go to lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and so, if it was rational and practicable, i would go and see the island again, and see what was become of my people there. i had pleased myself also with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the possession, and i know not what; when in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as i have said, with his project of carrying me thither, in his way to the east indies. i paused awhile at his words, and looking steadily at him, "what devil," said i, "sent you of this unlucky errand?" my nephew startled, as if he had been frighted at first; but perceiving i was not much displeased with the proposal, he recovered himself. "i hope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir," says he; "i dare say you would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once reigned with more felicity than most of your brother-monarchs in the world." in a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that is to say, with the prepossession i was under, and of which i have said so much, that i told him, in a few words, if he agreed with the merchants i would go with him: but i told him i would not promise to go any farther than my own island. "why, sir," says he, "you don't want to be left there again, i hope?"--"why," said i, "can you not take me up again in your return?" he told me, it could not be possible that the merchants would allow him to come that way with a loaden ship of such value, it being a month's sail out of his way, and might be three or four: "besides, sir, if i should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, then you would be just reduced to the condition you were in before." this was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it, which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being taken in pieces and shipped on board the ship, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom we agreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, and finished, fit to go to sea in a few days. i was not long resolving; for indeed the importunities of my nephew joined in so effectually with my inclination, that nothing could oppose me: on the other hand, my wife being dead, i had nobody concerned themselves so much for me, as to persuade me one way or other, except my ancient good friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to consider my years, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazard of a long voyage; and, above all, my young children: but it was all to no purpose; i had an irresistible desire to the voyage; and i told her i thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions i had upon my mind for the voyage, that it would be a kind of resisting providence, if i should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased her expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provision for my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs in my absence, and providing for the education of my children. in order to this i made my will, and settled the estate i had in such a manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that i was perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them, whatever might befal me; and for their education, i left it wholly to my widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken more care in their education, or understood it better; and as she lived till i came home, i also lived to thank her for it. my nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of january 1694--5, and i with my man friday went on board in the downs the 8th, having, besides that sloop which i mentioned above, a very considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony, which if i did not find in good condition, i resolved to leave so. first, i carried with me some servants, whom i purposed to place there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my own account while i stayed, and either to leave them there, or carry them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, i carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious fellow, who was a cooper by trade, but was also a general mechanic; for he was dexterous at making wheels, and hand-mills to grind corn, was a good turner, and a good potmaker; he also made any thing that was proper to make of earth, or of wood; in a word, we called him our jack of all trades. with these i carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go passenger to the east indies with my nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired, in many other businesses besides that of this trade; for, as i observed formerly, necessity arms us for all employments. my cargo, as near as i can recollect, for i have not kept an account of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, and some thin english stuffs for clothing the spaniards that i expected to find there, and enough of them as by my calculation might comfortably supply them for seven years: if i remember right, the materials which i carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for wearing, amounted to above two hundred pounds, including some beds, bedding, and household-stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c. besides near a hundred pounds more in iron-work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges, and every necessary thing i could think of. i carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fuzees, besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and because i knew not what time and what extremities i was providing for, i carried an hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes and halberts; so that, in short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of stores; and i made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leave behind if there was occasion; that when they came there we might build a fort, and man it against all sorts of enemies: and indeed i at first thought there would be need enough of it all, and much more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen in the course of the story. i had not such bad luck in this voyage as i had been used to meet with; and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds, and bad weather happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer than i expected it at first; and i, who had never made but one voyage, viz. my first voyage to guinea, in which i might be said to come back again as the voyage was at first designed, began to think the same ill fate still attended me; and that i was born to be never contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at sea. contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were obliged to put in at galway, in ireland, where we lay wind bound two-and-thirty days; but we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that provisions were here, exceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched the ship's stores, but rather added to them: here also i took several hogs, and two cows with their calves, which i resolved, if i had a good passage, to put on shore in my island; but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them. we set out the 5th of february from ireland, and had a very fair gale of wind for some days; as i remember, it might be about the 20th of february in the evening late, when the mate having the watch, came into the round-house, and told us he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, a boy came in, and told us the boatswain heard another. this made us all run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard nothing, but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found that there was some very terrible fire at a distance. immediately we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed that there could be no land that way in which the fire shewed itself, no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at w.n.w. upon this we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as by our hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded it could not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and were presently satisfied we should discover it, because the farther we sailed the greater the light appeared, though the weather being hazy we could not perceive any thing but the light for a while; in about half an hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of the sea. i was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all acquainted with the persons engaged in it; i presently recollected my former circumstances, in what condition i was in when taken up by the portugal captain; and how much more deplorable the circumstances of the poor creatures belonging to this ship must be if they had no other ship in company with them: upon this i immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon after another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that there was help for them at hand, and that they might endeavour to save themselves in their boat; for though we could see the flame in the ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us. we lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship drove, waiting for daylight; when on a sudden, to our great terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the air, and immediately sunk. this was terrible, and indeed an afflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, i concluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost distress in their boats in the middle of the ocean, which, at present, by reason it was dark, i could not see: however, to direct them as well as i could, i caused lights to be hung out in all the parts of the ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept firing guns all the night long; letting them know by this, that there was a ship not far off. about eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats, by the help of our perspective-glasses; and found there were two of them, both thronged with people, and deep in the water; we perceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they saw our ship, and did the utmost to make us see them. we immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we saw them; and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on board; and then made more sail, standing directly to them. in a little more than half an hour we came up with them, and in a word took them all in, being no less than sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great many passengers. upon the whole, we found it was a french merchant-ship of three hundred tons, homeward-bound from quebec, in the river of canada. the master gave us a long account of the distress of his ship, how the fire began in the steerage by the negligence of the steersman; but, on his crying out for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out: but they soon found that some sparks of the first fire had gotten into some part of the ship, so difficult to come at, that they could not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between the timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they were able to exert. they had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to their great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great service to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisions into her, after they had secured themselves from the fire. they had indeed small hope of their lives by getting into these boats at that distance from any land; only, as they said well, that they were escaped from the fire, and had a possibility, that some ship might happen to be at sea, and might take them in. they had sails, oars, and a compass; and were preparing to make the best of their way to newfoundland, the wind blowing pretty fair; for it blew an easy gale at s.e. by e. they had as much provisions and water, as, with sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might support them about twelve days; in which, if they had no bad weather, and no contrary winds, the captain said, he hoped he might get to the banks of newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish to sustain them till they might go on shore. but there were so many chances against them in all these cases; such as storms to overset and founder them; rains and cold to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds to keep them out and starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had escaped. in the midst of their consultations, every one being hopeless, and ready to despair, the captain with tears in his eyes told me, they were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and after that four more; these were the five guns which i caused to be fired at first seeing the light: this revived their hearts, and gave them the notice which, as above, i designed it should, viz. that there was a ship at hand for their help. it was upon the hearing these guns, that they took down their masts and sails; and the sound coming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning. some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired three muskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, the wind being contrary, we never heard. some time after that again, they were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights, and hearing the guns, which, as i have said, i caused to be fired all the rest of the night: this set them to work with their oars to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might the sooner come up with them; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found we saw them. it is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the strange ecstasies, the variety of postures, which these poor delivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at so unexpected a deliverance; grief and fear are easily described; sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of head and hands, make up the sum of its variety: but an excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it; there were some in tears, some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downright lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others wringing their hands; some were dancing, several singing, some laughing, more crying; many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; others sick and vomiting, several swooning, and ready to faint; and a few were crossing themselves and giving god thanks. i would not wrong them neither; there might be many that were thankful afterward; but the passion was too strong for them at first, and they were not able to master it; they were thrown into ecstasies and a kind of frenzy, and so there were but a very few who were composed and serious in their joy. perhaps also the case may have some addition to it, from the particular circumstance of the nation they belonged to; i mean the french, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid, than of other nations. i am not philosopher to determine the cause, but nothing i had ever seen before came up to it: the ecstasies poor friday, my trusty savage, was in, when he found his father in the boat, came the nearest to it; and the surprise of the master, and his two companions, whom i delivered from the two villains that set them on shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that i saw in friday, or any where else in my life. it is farther observable, that these extravagances did not shew themselves in that different manner i have mentioned, in different persons only: but all the variety would appear in a short succession of moments, in one and the same person. a man that we saw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, should the next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic; and the next moment a-tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feet like a madman; a few minutes after that, we should have him all in tears, then sick, then swooning; and had not immediate help been had, would in a few moments more have been dead; and thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if i remember right, our surgeon was obliged to let above thirty of them blood. there were two priests among them, one an old man, and the other a young man; and that which was strangest was, that the oldest man was the worst. as soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe, he dropped down stone dead, to all appearance; not the least sign of life could be perceived in him; our surgeon immediately applied proper remedies to recover him; and was the only man in the ship that believed he was not dead: and at length he opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible: upon this the blood, which only dropped at first, flowed something freely; in three minutes after the man opened his eyes; and about a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew better, and, in a little time, quite well; after the blood was stopped he walked about, told us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial which the surgeon gave him, and was, what we called, come to himself; about a quarter of an hour after this they came running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a french woman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. it seems he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his mind, and this put him into an ecstasy of joy: his spirits whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them; the blood grew hot and feverish; and the man was as fit for bedlam as any creature that ever was in it; the surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him to sleep, which, after some time, operated upon him, and he waked next morning perfectly composed and well. the younger priest behaved himself with great command of his passion, and was really an example of a serious, well-governed mind; at his first coming on board the ship, he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliverance; in which i unhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a swoon: but he spoke calmly; thanked me; told me he was giving god thanks for his deliverance; begged me to leave him a few moments, and that next to his maker he would give me thanks also. i was heartily sorry that i disturbed him, and not only left him, but kept others from interrupting him also; he continued in that posture about three minutes, or a little more, after i left him, then came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of seriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me that had, under god, given him and so many miserable creatures their lives: i told him, i had no room to move him to thank god for it rather than me; for i had seen that he had done that already: but i added, that it was nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to give thanks to god, who had blessed us so far as to make us the instruments of his mercy to so many of his creatures. after this the young priest applied himself to his country-folks; laboured to compose them; persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their reason; and with some he had success, though others were, for a time, out of all government of themselves. i cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be useful to those into whose hands it may fall, in the guiding themselves in all the extravagances of their passions; for if an excess of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage, and a provoked mind, carry us to? and, indeed, here i saw reason for keeping an exceeding watch over our passions of every kind, as well those of joy and satisfaction, as those of sorrow and anger. we were something disordered by these extravagances among our new guests for the first day; but when they had been retired, lodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and they had slept heartily, as most of them did, being fatigued and frightened, they were quite another sort of people the next day. nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness shown them, was wanting; the french, it is known, are naturally apt enough to exceed that way. the captain and one of the priests came to me the next day; and, desiring to speak with me and my nephew, the commander, began to consult with us what should be done with them; and first they told us, that as we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enough for a return to us for the kindness received. the captain said, they had saved some money, and some things of value in their boats, catched hastily out of the flames: and if we would accept it, they were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only desired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible, they might get a passage to france. my nephew was for accepting their money at first word, and to consider what to do with them afterwards; but i overruled him in that part; for i knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if the portugal captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and took all i had for my deliverance, i must have starved, or have been as much a slave at the brasils as i had been at barbary, the being sold to a mahometan only excepted; and perhaps a portuguese is not a much better master than a turk, if not, in some cases, a much worse. i therefore told the french captain that we had taken them up in their distress, it was true; but that it was our duty to do so, as we were fellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so delivered, if we were in the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for them but what we believed they would have done for us if we had been in their case and they in ours; but that we took them up to serve them, not to plunder them; and that it would be a most barbarous thing, to take that little from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; that this would be first to save them from death and then kill them ourselves; save them from drowning and then abandon them to starving; and therefore i would not let the least thing be taken from them: as to setting them on shore, i told them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the east indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward a very great way, which perhaps was directed by heaven on purpose for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage on this particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charter-party to pursue his voyage by the way of brasil; and all i knew he could do for them was, to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships homeward-bound from the west indies, and get them passage, if possible, to england or france. the first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they could not but be very thankful for it; but they were in a great consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the east indies: they then entreated me, that seeing i was driven so far to the westward before i met with them, i would at least keep on the same course to the banks of newfoundland, where it was possible i might meet some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to canada, from whence they came. i thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and therefore i inclined to agree to it; for indeed i considered, that to carry this whole company to the east indies would not only be an intolerable severity to the poor people, but would be ruining our voyage by devouring all our provisions; so i thought it no breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessary to us; and in which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws of god and nature would have forbid, that we should refuse to take up two boats full of people in such a distressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to see them on shore somewhere or other, for their deliverance; so i consented that we would carry them to newfoundland, if wind and weather would permit; and, if not, that i would carry them to martinico in the west indies. the wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as it had blowed continually in the points between n.e. and s.e. a long time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to france; for we met several ships bound to europe, whereof two were french, from st. christopher's; but they had been so long beating up against the wind, that they durst take in no passengers for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on. it was about a week after this, that we made the banks of newfoundland, where, to shorten my story, we put all our french people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them to france, if they could get provisions to victual themselves with: when, i say, all the french went on shore, i should remember that the young priest i spoke of, hearing we were bound to the east indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on shore on the coast of coromandel: i readily agreed to that; for i wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in our ship, and proved very useful fellows. from hence we directed our course for the west indies, steering away s. and s. by e. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no wind at all, when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before. it was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes n. and the 19th day of march 1684--5, when we espied a sail, our course s.e. and by s. we soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us; but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fires a gun as a signal of distress. the weather was pretty good, wind at n.n.w. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her. we found her a ship of bristol bound home from barbadoes, but had been blown out of the road at barbadoes, a few days before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone on shore; so that beside the terror of the storm, they were but in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship home; they had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terrible storm after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they had lost their masts, as above; they told us, they expected to have seen the bahama islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong gale of wind at n.n.w. the same that blew now, and having no sails to work the ship with, but a main-course, and a kind of square sail upon a jury-foremast, which they had set up, they could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away for the canaries. but that which was worst of all, was, that they were almost starved for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone; their bread and flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce left in the ship, and had had none for eleven days; the only relief they had, was, their water was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some succades or sweetmeats they had at first, but they were devoured; and they had seven casks of rum. there was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant, on board, who were going passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable condition than the rest; for the seamen, being reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and they were indeed in a condition that their misery is very hard to describe. i had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, the weather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board the ship: the second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, had been on board our ship; and he told me indeed, that they had three passengers in the great cabin, that they were in a deplorable condition; "nay," says he, "i believe they are dead, for i have heard nothing of them for above two days; and i was afraid to inquire after them," said he, "for i had nothing to relieve them with." we immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could spare; and indeed i had so far overruled things with my nephew, that i would have victualled them, though we had gone away to virginia, or any part of the coast of america, to have supplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that. but now they were in a new danger, for they were afraid of eating too much, even of that little we gave them. the mate or commander brought six men with him in his boat, but these poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak they could hardly sit to their oars; the mate himself was very ill, and half-starved, for he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and went share and share alike with them in every bit they ate. i cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him immediately, and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be sick, and out of order; so he stopped awhile, and our surgeon mixed him up something with some broth, which he said would be to him both food and physic; and after he had taken it, he grew better: in the meantime i forgot not the men; i ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it; they were so exceeding hungry, that they were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them ate with so much greediness, that they were in danger of their lives the next morning. the sight of these people's distress was very moving to me, and brought to mind what i had a terrible respect of at my first coming on shore in my island, where i had not the least mouthful of food, or any hopes of procuring it; besides the hourly apprehension i had of being made the food of other creatures. but all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miserable condition of the ship's company, i could not put out of my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the great cabin; viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days; and whom he seemed to confess they had wholly neglected, their own extremities being so great; by which i understood that they had really given them no food at all; and that therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps on the floor or deck of the cabin. as i therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with his men to refresh them, so i also forgot not the starving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship and with my mate and twelve men to carry them a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. our surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men's taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at a time; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose to save their lives. at the same time i ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and see what condition the poor passengers were in, and, if they were alive, to comfort them and give them what refreshment was proper; and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher with some of the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he did not question would restore them gradually. i was not satisfied with this; but, as i said above, having a great mind to see the scene of misery, which i knew the ship itself would present me with, in a more lively manner than i could have it by report, i took the captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went myself a little after in their boat. i found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate observed his order, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door; and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasion to have patience, kept them off by force: however, he caused some biscuit cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they call brewis, and gave every one one, to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their own safety that he was obliged to give them but little at a time. but it was all in vain, and had i not come on board, and their own commander and officers with me, and with good words, and some threats also of giving them no more, i believe they would have broke into the cook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace; for words indeed are of a very small force to an hungry belly: however, we pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously for the first time, and the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and the men did well enough. but the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company had so little for themselves, it was but too true, that they had at first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them; so that for six or seven days, it might be said, they had really had no food at all, and for several days before, very little. the poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman of good sense and good breeding, had spared all she could get so affectionately for her son, that at last she entirely sunk under it; and when the mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or deck, with her back up against the sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head sunk in between her shoulders, like a corpse, though not quite dead. my mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put some broth into her mouth; she opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late for her; but pointed to her child, as if she would have said, they should take care of him. however, the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into her mouth; and, as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down, though i question whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was too late, and she died the same night. the youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate mother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-bed as one stretched out, with hardly any life left in him; he had a piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; however, being young, and having more strength than his mother, the mate got something down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive, though, by giving him some time after but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again. but the next care was the poor maid; she lay all along upon the deck hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down with an apoplexy, and struggled for life: her limbs were distorted, one of her hands was clasped round the frame of one chair, and she griped it so hard, that we could not easily make her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the frame of the cabin-table; in short, she lay just like one in the last agonies of death; and yet she was alive too. the poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly. we knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who was a man of very great knowledge and experience, and with great application recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hand as to her senses, for she was little less than distracted for a considerable time after; as shall appear presently. whoever shall read these memorandums, must be desired to consider, that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. our business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not lie by for them; and though they were willing to steer the same course with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with a ship that had no masts: however, as their captain begged of us to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of topmast to his jury-foremast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days, and then having given him five barrels of beef and pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks of sugar and some rum, and some pieces of eight of them for satisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods. the young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred, modest, and sensible youth; greatly dejected with the loss of his mother, and, as it happened had lost his father but a few months before at barbados. he begged of the surgeon to speak to me, to take him out of the ship; for he said, the cruel fellows had murdered his mother; and indeed so they had, that is to say, passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to the poor helpless widow, that might have preserved her life, though it had been just to keep her alive. but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, no right; and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion. the surgeon told him how far we were going, and how it would carry him away from all his friends, and put him perhaps in as bad circumstance, almost, as we found them in; that is to say, starving in the world. he said it mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among: that the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us carry them whither we would. the surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me, that i yielded, and we took them both on board with all their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed, or come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, i made his commander sign a writing, obliging him to go, as soon as he came to bristol, to one mr. rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which i wrote to him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow; which i suppose was not done; for i could never learn that the ship came to bristol; but was, as is most probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that i am of opinion, the first storm she met with afterwards she might founder in the sea; for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when i met with her. i was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hitherto had a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds had been contrary. i shall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c. on the rest of our voyage; but, shortening my story for the sake of what is to follow, shall observe, that i came to my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of april, 1695. it was with no small difficulty that i found the place; for as i came to it, and went from it before, on the south and east side of the island, as coming from the brasils; so now coming in between the main and the island, and having no chart for the coast, nor any land-mark, i did not know it when i saw it, or know whether i saw it or no. we beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands in the mouth of the great river oroonoque, but none for my purpose: only this i learnt by my coasting the shore, that i was under one great mistake before, viz. that the continent which i thought i saw from the island i lived in, was really no continent, but a long island, or rather a ridge of islands reaching from one to the other side of the extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who came to my island, were not properly those which we call caribbees, but islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited something nearer to our side than the rest. in short, i visited several of the islands to no purpose; some i found were inhabited, and some were not. on one of them i found some spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with them, found they had a sloop lay in a small creek hard by, and that they came thither to make salt, and catch some pearl-muscles, if they could; but they belonged to the isle de trinidad, which lay farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees. thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship, sometimes with the frenchman's shallop (which we had found a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will,) at length i came fair on the south side of my island, and i presently knew the very countenance of the place; so i brought the ship safe to an anchor broadside with the little creek where was my old habitation. as soon as i saw the place, i called for friday, and asked him, if he knew where he was? he looked about a little, and presently clapping his hands, cried, "o yes, o there, o yes, o there!" pointing to our old habitation, and fell a-dancing and capering like a mad fellow; and i had much ado to keep him from jumping into the sea, to swim ashore to the place. "well, friday," said i, "do you think we shall find any body here, or no? and what do you think, shall we see your father?" the fellow stood mute as a stock a good while; but when i named his father, the poor affectionate creature looked dejected; and i could see the tears run down his face very plentifully. "what is the matter, friday?" said i; "are you troubled because you may see your father"--"no, no," says he, shaking his head, "no see him more, no ever more see again."--"why so," said i, "friday? how do you know that?"--"o no, o no," says friday, "he long ago die; long ago, he much old man."--"well, well," said i, "friday, you don't know; but shall we see any one else then?" the fellow, it seems, had better eyes than i, and he points just to the hill above my old house; and though we lay half a league off, he cries out, "me see! me see! yes, yes, me see much man there, and there, and there." i looked, but i could see nobody, no, not with a perspective-glass; which was, i suppose, because i could not hit the place; for the fellow was right, as i found upon inquiry the next day, and there were five or six men all together stood to look at the ship, not knowing what to think of us. as soon as friday had told me he saw people, i caused the english ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we were friends; and about half a quarter of an hour after, we perceived a smoke rise from the side of the creek; so i immediately ordered a boat out, taking friday with me; and hanging out a white flag, or a flag of truce, i went directly on shore, taking with me the young friar i mentioned, to whom i had told the whole story of living there, and the manner of it, and every particular both of myself and those that i left there, and who was on that account extremely desirous to go with me, we had besides about sixteen men very well armed, if we had found any new guest there which we did not know of; but we had no need of weapons. as we went on shore upon the tide of flood near high water, we rowed directly into the creek; and the first man i fixed my eye upon was the spaniard whose life i had saved, and whom i knew by his face perfectly well; as to his habit, i shall describe it afterwards. i ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself; but there was no keeping friday in the boat; for the affectionate creature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off of the spaniards, where indeed i saw nothing of him; and if they had not let him go on shore he would have jumped into the sea. he was no sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow out of a bow. it would have made any man shed tears in spite of the firmest resolution to have seen the first transports of this poor fellow's joy, when he came to his father; how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him as any one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay down upon the ground, and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and then got up again, and stared at him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched: but it would have made a dog laugh to see how the next day his passion run out another way: in the morning he walked along the shore to and again, with his father, several hours, always leading him by the hand as if he had been a lady and every now and then would come to fetch something or other for him from the boat, either a lump of sugar, or a dram, a biscuit, or something or other that was good. in the afternoon his frolics ran another way; for then he would set the old man down upon the ground, and dance about him, and made a thousand antic postures and gestures; and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, and telling him one story or another of his travels, and of what had happened to him abroad, to divert him. in short, if the same filial affection was to be found in christians to their parents in our parts of the world, one would be tempted to say there hardly would have been any need of the fifth commandment. but this is a digression; i return to my landing. it would be endless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the spaniards received me with. the first spaniard whom, as i said, i knew very well, was he whose life i saved; he came towards the boat attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce also; and he did not only not know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no notion, of its being me that was come til i spoke to him. "seignior," said i, in portuguese, "do you not know me?" at which he spoke not a word; but giving his musket to the man that was with him, threw his arms abroad, and saying something in spanish that i did not perfectly hear, came forward, and embraced me, telling me, he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he had once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life: he said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred spaniard always knows how: and then beckoning to the person that attended him, bade him go and call out his comrades. he then asked me if i would walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possession of my own house again, and where i should see there, had been but mean improvements; so i walked along with him; but alas! i could no more find the place again than if i had never been there; for they had planted so many trees, and placed them in such a posture, so thick and close to one another, in ten years time they were grown so big, that, in short, the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways as they themselves only who made them could find. i asked them, what put them upon all these fortifications? he told me, i would say there was need enough of it, when they had given an account how they had passed their time since their arriving in the island, especially after they had the misfortune to find that i was gone: he told me he could not but have some satisfaction in my good fortune, when he heard that i was gone in a good ship, and to my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong persuasion that one time or other he should see me again: but nothing that ever befel him in his life, he said, was so surprising and afflicting to him at first, as the disappointment he was under when he came back to the island, and found i was not there. as to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left behind, and of whom he said he had a long story to tell me; the spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages, only that their number was so small. "and," says he, "had they been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory and with that he crossed himself upon the breast. but, sir," says he, "i hope you will not be displeased, when i shall tell you how, forced by necessity, we were obliged, for our own preservation, to disarm them, and making them our subjects, who would not be content with being moderately our masters, but would be our murderers." i answered, i was heartily afraid of it when i left them there; and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island, but that they were not come back, that i might have put them in possession of every thing first, and left the other in a state of subjection, as they deserved; but if they had reduced them to it, i was very glad, and should be very far from finding any fault with it; for i knew they were a parcel of refractory, ungovernable villains, and were fit for any manner of mischief. while i was saying this came the man whom he had sent back, and with him eleven men more: in the dress they were in, it was impossible to guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear both to them and to me. first he turned to me, and pointing to them, said, "these, sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to you;" and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let them know who i was; upon which they all came up one by one, not as if they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and i the like, but really as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and i a monarch or a great conqueror: their behaviour was to the last degree obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly majestic gravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they had so much more manners than i, that i scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much less how to return them in kind. the history of their coming to, and conduct in the island after my going away, is so remarkable, and has so many incidents, which the former part of my relation will help to understand, and which will, in most of the particulars, refer to that account i have already given, that i cannot but commit them with great delight to the reading of those that come after me. i shall no longer trouble the story with a relation in the first person, which will put me to the expense of ten thousand said i's, and said he's, and he told me's, and i told him's, and the like; but i shall collect the facts historically as near as i can gather them out of my memory from what they related to me, and from what i met with in my conversing with them, and with the place. in order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as i can, i must go back to the circumstance in which i left the island, and which the persons were in of whom i am to speak. at first it is necessary to repeat, that i had sent away friday's father and the spaniard, the two whose lives i had rescued from the savages; i say, i had sent them away in a large canoe to the main, as i then thought it, to fetch over the spaniard's companions whom he had left behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity that he had been in, and in order to succour them for the present, and that, if possible, we might together find some way for our deliverance afterward. when i sent them away, i had no visible appearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance, any more than i had twenty years before; much less had i any foreknowledge of what after happened, i mean of an english ship coming on shore there to fetch them off; and it could not but be a very great surprise to them when they came back, not only to find that i was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot, possessed of all that i had left behind me, which would otherwise have been their own. the first thing, however, which i inquired into, that i might begin where i left off, was of their own part; and i desired he would give me a particular account of his voyage back to his countrymen with the boat, when i sent him to fetch them over. he told me there was little variety in that part; for nothing remarkable happened to them on the way, they having very calm weather and a smooth sea; for his countrymen it could not be doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seems he was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel they had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time:) they were, he said, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he was fallen into the hands of savages, who, they were satisfied, would devour him, as they did all the rest of their prisoners; that when he told them the story of the deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream to them; and their astonishment, they said, was something like that of joseph's brethren, when he told them who he was, and told them the story of his exaltation in pharaoh's court; but when he shewed them the arms, the powder, the ball, and the provisions that he brought them for their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately prepared to come away with him. their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were obliged not to stick so much upon the honest part of it, but to trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large canoes or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for pleasure. in these they came away the next morning; it seems they wanted no time to get themselves ready, for they had no baggage, neither clothes, or provisions, or any thing in the world, but what they had on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their bread. they were in all three weeks absent, and in that time, unluckily for them, i had the occasion offered for my escape, as i mentioned in my other part, and to get off from the island; leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable villains behind me that any man could desire to meet with, to the poor spaniards' great grief and disappointment you may be sure. the only just thing the rogues did, was, that when the spaniards came on shore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions and other relief, as i had ordered them to do; also they gave them the long paper of directions, which i had left with them, containing the particular methods which i took for managing every part of my life there; the way how i baked my bread, bred up my tame goats, and planted my corn; how i cured my grapes, made my pots, and, in a word, every thing i did; all this being written down, they gave to the spaniards, two of whom understood english well enough; nor did they refuse to accommodate the spaniards with any thing else, for they agreed very well for some time; they gave them an equal admission into the house, or cave, and they began to live very sociably; and the head spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my method, and friday's father together, managed all their affairs; for as for the englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises, and when they came home at night, the spaniards provided their suppers for them. the spaniards would have been satisfied with this would the other but have left them alone; which however, they could not find in their hearts to do long; but, like the dog in the manger, they would not eat themselves, and would not let others eat neither: the differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial and such as are not worth relating: but at last it broke out into open war, and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can be imagined, without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the first relation of it came from the spaniards themselves, whom i may call the accusers, yet when i came to examine the fellows, they could not deny a word of it. but before i come to the particulars of this part, i must supply a defect in my former relation; and this was, that i forgot to set down among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set sail, there happened a little quarrel on board our ship, which i was afraid once would turn to a second mutiny; nor was it appeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us all to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons; and as they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some ugly dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry them in irons to england, and have them hanged there for mutiny, and running away with the ship. this, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, frighted some other men in the ship; and some of them had put it in the heads of the rest, that the captain only gave them good words for the present till they should come to some english port, and that then they should be all put into a gaol, and tried for their lives. the mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it; upon which it was desired that i, who still passed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate and satisfy the men, and tell them, that they might be assured, if they behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time past should be pardoned. so i went, and after passing my honour's word to them they appeared easy, and the more so, when i caused the two men who were in irons to be released and forgiven. but this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night, the wind also falling calm. next morning we found that our two men who had been laid in irons, had stole each of them a musket and some other weapons; what powder or shot they had we knew not; and had taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet haled up, and run away with her to their companions in roguery on shore. as soon as we found this, i ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they could neither find them, nor any of the rest; for they all fled into the woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. the mate was once resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their plantations, burnt all their household stuff and furniture, and left them to shift without it; but having no order, he let all alone, left every thing as they found it, and bringing the pinnace away, came on board without them. these two men made their number five: but the other three villains were so much wickeder than these, that after they had been two or three days together, they turned their two new-comers out of doors to shift for themselves, and would have nothing to do with them; nor could they, for a good while, be persuaded to give them any food: as for the spaniards, they were not yet come. when the spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go forward; the spaniards would have persuaded the three english brutes to have taken in their two countrymen again, that, as they said, they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it: so the two poor fellows lived by themselves, and finding nothing but industry and application would make them live comfortable, they pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little more to the west, to be out of the danger of the savages, who always landed on the east parts of the island. here they built two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and stores in; and the spaniards having given them some corn for seed, and especially some of the peas which i had left them, they dug and planted, and enclosed, after the pattern i had set for them all, and began to live pretty well; their first crop of corn was on the ground, and though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with bread or other eatables; and one of the fellows, being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, puddings, and such other preparations, as the rice and the milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do. they were going on in a little thriving posture, when the three unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was theirs; that the governor, meaning me, had given them possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and, damn them, they should build no houses upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent for them. the two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them to come and sit down, and see what fine houses they were that they had built, and tell them what rent they demanded: and one of them merrily told them, if they were ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon the land and made improvements, they would, according to the custom of all landlords, grant them a long lease; and bid them go fetch a scrivener to draw the writings. one of the three, damning and raging, told them they should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a firebrand and claps it to the outside of their hut, and very fairly set it on fire; and it would have been all burnt down in a few minutes, if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not without some difficulty too. the fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him away, that he turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand; and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his days at once. his comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran in after him, and immediately they came both out with their muskets; and the man that was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow down who began the quarrel with the stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to help him; and then seeing the rest come at them, they stood together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, bade them stand off. the others had fire-arms with them too; but one of the two honest men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger, told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were all dead men, and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. they did not indeed lay down their arms; but seeing him resolute, it brought them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with them, and be gone; and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow: however, they were much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to the spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues treated them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them some intimation that they did so. but not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of their rogueries, such as treading down their corn, shooting three young kids and a she-goat, which the poor men had got to breed up tame for their store; and in a word, plaguing them night and day in this manner, it forced the two men to such a desperation, that they resolved to fight them all three the first time they had a fair opportunity. in order to this they resolved to go to the castle, as they called it, that was my old dwelling, where the three rogues and the spaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair battle, and the spaniards should stand by to see fair play. so they got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, and called the englishmen by their names, telling a spaniard that answered, that they wanted to speak with them. it happened that the day before two of the spaniards, having been in the woods, had seen one of the two englishmen, whom, for distinction, i call the honest men; and he had made a sad complaint to the spaniards, of the barbarous usage they had met with from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat, and their three kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance; and that if he and his friends, meaning the spaniards, did not assist them again, they should be starved. when the spaniards came home at night, and they were all at supper, he took the freedom to reprove the three englishmen, though in gentle and mannerly terms, and asked them, how they could be so cruel, they being harmless inoffensive fellows, and that they were putting themselves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them a great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they had? one of the englishmen returned very briskly, "what had they to do there? that they came on shore without leave, and that they should not plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground."--"why," says the spaniard, very calmly, "seignior inglese, they must not starve." the englishman replied, like a true rough-hewn tarpaulin, "they might starve and be d--ed, they should not plant nor build in that place."--"but what must they do then, seignior?" says the spaniard. another of the brutes returned, "do! d--n them, they should be servants, and work for them."--"but how can you expect that of them? they are not bought with your money; you have no right to make them servants." the englishman answered, "the island was theirs, the governor had given it to them, and no man had any thing to do there but themselves;" and with that swore by his maker, that he would go and burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land. "why, seignior," says the spaniard, "by the same rule, we must be your servants too."--"ay," says the bold dog, "and so you shall too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or three g--d d--mme's in the proper intervals of his speech. the spaniard only smiled at that, and made him no answer. however, this little discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other, i think it was he they called will atkins, "come, jack, let us go and have the other brush with them; we will demolish their castle, i will warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions." upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among themselves, of what they would do to the spaniards too, when opportunity offered; but the spaniards, it seems, did not so perfectly understand them as to know all the particulars; only that, in general, they threatened them hard for taking the two englishmen's part. whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that evening, the spaniards said they did not know; but it seems they wandered about the country part of the night; and then lying down in the place which i used to call my bower, they were weary, and overslept themselves. the case was this: they had resolved to stay till midnight, and so to take the poor men when they were asleep; and they acknowledged it afterwards, intending to set fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burn them in them, or murder them as they came out: and, as malice seldom sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been kept waking. however, as the two men had also a design upon them, as i have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they were up, and gone abroad, before the bloody-minded rogues came to their huts. when they came thither, and found the men gone, atkins, who it seems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrades, "ha! jack, here's the nest; but d--n them, the birds are flown." they mused awhile to think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad so soon, and suggested presently, that the spaniards had given them notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to one another, that they would be revenged of the spaniards. as soon as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell to work with the poor men's habitation; they did not set fire indeed to any thing, but they pulled down both their houses, and pulled them so limb from limb, that they left not the least stick standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; they tore all their little collected household-stuff in pieces, and threw every thing about in such a manner, that the poor men found, afterwards, some of their things a mile off from their habitation. when they had done this, they pulled up all the young trees which the poor men had planted; pulled up the enclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plundered every thing, as completely as a herd of tartars would have done. the two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have been bloodshed among them; for they were all very stout, resolute fellows, to give them their due. but providence took more care to keep them asunder, than they themselves could do to meet; for, as they had dogged one another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three were come to the old habitation again: we shall see their differing conduct presently. when the three came back, like furious creatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about put them into, they came up to the spaniards, and told them what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of them stepping up to one of the spaniards, as if they had been a couple of boys at play, takes hold of his hat, as it was upon his head, and giving it a twirl about, jeering in his face, says he to him, "and you, seignior jack spaniard, shall have the same sauce, if you do not mend your manners." the spaniard, who, though quite a civil man, was as brave as a man could desire to be, and withal a strong well-made man, looked steadily at him for a good while; and then, having no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and with one blow of his fist knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; at which one of the rogues, insolent as the first, fixed his pistol at the spaniard immediately; he missed his body indeed, for the bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, and he bled pretty much. the blood made the spaniard believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into some heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but now resolving to go through with his work, he stooped and took the fellow's musket whom he had knocked down, and was just going to shoot the man who had fired at him; when the rest of the spaniards, being in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them. when they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they began to cool; and giving the spaniards better words, would have had their arms again; but the spaniards, considering the feud that was between them and the other two englishmen, and that it would be the best method they could take to keep them from one another, told them they would do them no harm; and if they would live peaceably they would be very willing to assist and associate with them, as they did before; but that they could not think of giving them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do mischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened them all to make them their servants. the rogues were now more capable to hear reason than to act reason; but being refused their arms, they went raving away, and raging like madmen, threatening what they would do, though they had no fire-arms: but the spaniards, despising their threatening, told them they should take care how they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they did, they would shoot them, as they would do ravenous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they would certainly be hanged. however, this was far from cooling them; but away they went, swearing and raging like furies of hell. as soon as they were gone, came back the two men in passion and rage enough also, though of another kind; for, having been at their plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough; they could scarce have room to tell their tale, the spaniards were so eager to tell them theirs; and it was strange enough to find, that three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment at all. the spaniards indeed despised them, and especially having thus disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the two englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains soever it cost to find them out. but the spaniards interposed here too, and told them, that they were already disarmed: they could not consent that they (the two) should pursue them with fire-arms, and perhaps kill them: "but," said the grave spaniard, who was their governor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if you will leave it to us; for, as there is no doubt but they will come to us again when their passion is over, being not able to subsist without our assistance, we promise you to make no peace with them, without having full satisfaction for you; and upon this condition we hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other than in your defence." the two englishmen; yielded to this very awkwardly and with great reluctance; but the spaniards protested, they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make all easy at last; "for," said they, "we are not so many of us; here is room enough for us all, and it is great pity we should not be all good friends." at length they did consent, and waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with the spaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed. in about five days time the three vagrants, tired with wandering, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggs all that while, came back to the grove: and finding my spaniard, who, as i have said, was the governor, and two more with him, walking by the side of the creek; they came up in a very submissive humble manner, and begged to be received again into the family. the spaniards used them civilly, but told them, they had acted so unnaturally by their countrymen, and so very grossly by them, (the spaniards) that they could not come to any conclusion without consulting the two englishmen, and the rest; but however they would go to them and discourse about it, and they should know in half-an-hour. it may be guessed that they were very hard put to it; for, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they begged they would send them out some bread in the meantime, which they did, sending at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh and a boiled parrot, which they ate very eagerly. after half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a long debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they owned before, and therefore could not deny now. upon the whole, the spaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they had obliged the two englishmen not to hurt the three while they were naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuild their fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other of larger dimensions than they were before; to fence their ground again, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the land again for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything to the same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could. well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty of provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together again; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded to work--i mean for themselves--except now and then a little, just as they pleased. however, the spaniards told them plainly that if they would but live sociably and friendly together, and study the good of the whole plantation, they would be content to work for them, and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; and thus, having lived pretty well together for a month or two, the spaniards let them have arms again, and gave them liberty to go abroad with them as before. it was not above a week after they had these arms, and went abroad, before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and troublesome as ever. however, an accident happened presently upon this, which endangered the safety of them all, and they were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the preservation of their lives. it happened one night that the governor, the spaniard whose life i had saved, who was now the governor of the rest, found himself very uneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep: he was perfectly well in body, only found his thoughts tumultuous; his mind ran upon men fighting and killing one another; but he was broad awake, and could not by any means get any sleep; in short, he lay a great while, but growing more and more uneasy, he resolved to rise. as they lay, being so many of them, on goat-skins laid thick upon such couches and pads as they made for themselves, so they had little to do, when they were willing to rise, but to get upon their feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their pumps, and they were ready for going any way that their thoughts guided them. being thus got up, he looked out; but being dark, he could see little or nothing, and besides, the trees which i had planted, and which were now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that he could only look up, and see that it was a starlight night, and hearing no noise, he returned and lay down again; but to no purpose; he could not compose himself to anything like rest; but his thoughts were to the last degree uneasy, and he knew not for what. having made some noise with rising and walking about, going out and coming in, another of them waked, and, calling, asked who it was that was up? the governor told him how it had been with him. "say you so?" says the other spaniard; "such things are not to be slighted, i assure you; there is certainly some mischief working," says he, "near us;" and presently he asked him, "where are the englishmen?" "they are all in their huts," says he, "safe enough." it seems, the spaniards had kept possession of the main apartment, and had made a place, where the three englishmen, since their last mutiny, always quartered by themselves, and could not come at the rest. "well," says the spaniard, "there is something in it, i am persuaded from my own experience; i am satisfied our spirits embodied have converse with, and receive intelligence from, the spirits unembodied, and inhabiting the invisible world; and this friendly notice is given for our advantage, if we know how to make use of it. come," says he, "let us go out and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it to justify our trouble, i'll tell you a story of the purpose, that shall convince you of the justice of my proposing it." in a word, they went out to go to the top of the hill, where i used to go; but they, being strong, and in good company, nor alone, as i was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and then pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top but were going round through the grove unconcerned and unwary, when they were surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way off from them, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a great number. in all the discoveries i had made of the savage landing on the island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place; and when by any necessity they came to know it, they felt it so effectively, that they that got away, were scarce able to give any account of it, for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that had seen me, escape to tell any one else, except it were the three savages in our last encounter, who jumped into the boat, of whom i mentioned that i was afraid they should go home, and bring more help. whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men, that so great a number came now together; or whether they came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the spaniards could not, it seems, understand: but whatever it was, it had been their business, either to have: concealed themselves, and not have seen them at all; much less to have let the savages have seen, that there were any inhabitants in the place; but to have fallen upon them so effectually, as that not a man of them should have escaped, which could only have been by getting in between them and their boats: but this presence of mind was wanting to them; which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a great while. we need not doubt but that the governor, and the man with him, surprised with this sight, ran back immediately, and raised their fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they were all in; and they again as readily took the alarm, but it was impossible to persuade them to stay close within where they were, but that they must all run out to see how things stood. while it was dark indeed, they were well enough, and they had opportunity enough, for some hours, to view them by the light of three fires they had made at some distance from one another; what they were doing they knew not, and what to do themselves they knew not; for, first, the enemy were too many; and, secondly, they did not keep together, but were divided into several parties, and were on shore in several places. the spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and as they found that the fellows ran straggling all over the shore, they made no doubt, but, first or last, some of them would chop in upon their habitation, or upon some other place, where they would see the tokens of inhabitants; and they were in great perplexity also for fear of their flock of goats, which would have been little less than starving them, if they should have been destroyed; so the first thing they resolved upon, was to dispatch three men away before it was light, viz. two spaniards and one englishman, to drive all the goats away to the great valley where the cave was, and, if need were, to drive them into the very cave itself. could they have seen the savages all together in one body, and at a distance from their canoes, they resolved, if there had been an hundred of them, to have attacked them; but that could not be obtained, for there were some of them two miles off from the other, and, as it appeared afterwards, were of two different nations. after having mused a great while on the course they should take, and beaten their brains in considering their present circumstances, they resolved, at last while it was dark, to send the old savage (friday's father) out as a spy, to learn if possible something concerning them, as what they came for, and what they intended to do, and the like. the old man readily undertook it, and stripping himself quite naked, as most of the savages were, away he went. after he had been gone an hour or two, he brings word that he had been among them undiscovered, that he found they were two parties, and of two several nations who had war with one another, and had had a great battle in their own country, and that both sides having had several prisoners taken in the fight, they were by mere chance landed in the same island for the devouring their prisoners, and making merry; but this coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled all their mirth; that they were in a great rage at one another, and were so near, that he believed they would fight again as soon as daylight began to appear; he did not perceive that they had any notion of anybody's being on the island but themselves. he had hardly made an end of telling the story, when they could perceive, by the unusual noise they made, that the two little armies were engaged in a bloody fight. friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade our people to lie close, and not be seen; he told them their safety consisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but to lie still, and the savages would kill one another to their hands, and the rest would go away; and it was so to a tittle. but it was impossible to prevail, especially upon the englishmen, their curiosity was so importunate upon their prudentials, that they must run out and see the battle; however, they used some caution, viz. they did not go openly just by their own dwelling, but went farther into the woods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they might securely see them manage the fight, and, as they thought, not to be seen by them; but it seems the savages did see them, as we shall find hereafter. the battle was very fierce, and if i might believe the englishmen, one of them said he could perceive that some of them were men of great bravery, of invincible spirits, and of great policy in guiding the fight. the battle, they said, held two hours before they could guess which party would be beaten; but then that party which was nearest our people's habitation began to appear weakest, and, after some time more, some of them began to fly; and this put our men again into a great consternation, lest any of those that fled should run into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, and thereby involuntarily discover the place, and that by consequence the pursuers should do the like in search for them. upon this they resolved, that they would stand armed within the wall, and whoever came into the grove they should sally out over the wall, and kill them, so that if possible not one should return to give an account of it; they ordered also, that it should be done with their swords, or by knocking them down with the stock of the musket, not by shooting them, for fear of raising an alarm by the noise. as they expected it fell out: three of the routed army fled for life, and crossing the creek ran directly into the place, not in the least knowing whither they went, but running as into a thick wood for shelter. the scout they kept to look abroad gave notice of this within, with this addition to our men's great satisfaction, viz. that the conquerors had not pursued them, or seen which way they were gone. upon this the spaniard governor, a man of humanity, would not suffer them to kill the three fugitives; but sending three men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round and come in behind them, surprise and take them prisoners; which was done: the residue of the conquered people fled to their canoes, and got off to sea; the victors retired, and made no pursuit, or very little, but drawing themselves into a body together, gave two great screaming shouts, which they suppose were by way of triumph, and so the fight ended; and the same day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their canoes. and thus the spaniards had their island again free to themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages in several years after. after they were all gone, the spaniards came out of their den, and viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty dead men upon the spot; some were killed with great long arrows, several of which were found sticking in their bodies, but most of them were killed with their great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found in the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great many arrows. these swords were great unwieldy things, and they must be very strong men that used them; most of those men that were killed with them had their heads mashed to pieces, as we may say, or, as we call it in english, their brains knocked out, and several of their arms and legs broken; so that it is evident they fight with inexpressible rage and fury. they found not one wounded man that was not stone dead; for either they stay by their enemy till they have quite killed them, or they carry all the wounded men, that are not quite dead, away with them. this deliverance tamed our englishmen for a great while; the sight had filled them with horror, and the consequence appeared terrible to the last degree; especially upon supposing that some time or other they should fall into the hands of those creatures, who would not only kill them as enemies, but kill them for food as we kill our cattle. and they professed to me, that the thoughts of being eaten up like beef or mutton, though it was supposed it was not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horrible that it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when they thought of it, and filled their minds with unusual terror, that they were not themselves for some weeks after. this, as i said, tamed even the three english brutes i have been speaking of, and for a great while after they were very tractable, and went about the common business of the whole society well enough; planted, sowed, reaped, and began to be all naturalized to the country; but some time after this they fell all into such simple measures again as brought them into a great deal of trouble. they had taken three prisoners, as i had observed; and these three being lusty stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taught them to work for them; and as slaves they did well enough; but they did not take their measures with them as i did by my man friday, viz. to begin with them upon the principle of having saved their lives, and then instructed them in the rational principles of life, much less of religion, civilizing and reducing them by kind usage and affectionate arguings; but as they gave them their food every day, so they gave them their work too, and kept them fully employed in drudgery enough; but they failed in this by it, that they never had them to assist them and fight for them as i had my man friday, who was as true to me as the very flesh upon my bones. but to come to the family part: being all now good friends (for common danger, as i said above, had effectually reconciled them,) they began to consider their general circumstances; and the first thing that came under their consideration was, whether, seeing the savages particularly haunted that side of the island, and that there were more remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way of living, and manifestly to their advantage, they should not rather remove their habitation, and plant in some more proper place for their safety, and especially for the security of their cattle and corn. upon this, after long debate, it was conceived that they should not remove their habitation, because that some time or other they thought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; and if i should send any one to seek them, i would be sure to direct them on that side, where if they should find the place demolished they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we were gone, and so our supply would go away too. but as to their corn and cattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cave was, where the land was as proper to both, and where indeed there was land enough; however, upon second thoughts they altered one part of that resolution too, and resolved only to remove part of their cattle thither, and plant part of their corn there; and so, if one part was destroyed, the other might be saved; and one piece of prudence they used, which it was very well they did; viz. that they never trusted these three savages, which they had taken prisoners, with knowing any thing of the plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle they had there; much less of the cave there, which they kept in case of necessity as a safe retreat; and thither they carried also the two barrels of powder which i had left them at my coming away. but however they resolved not to change their habitation; yet they agreed, that as i had carefully covered it first with a wall and fortification, and then with a grove of trees; so seeing their safety consisted entirely in their being concealed, of which they were now fully convinced, they set to work to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually than before: to this purpose, as i had planted trees (or rather thrust in stakes which in time all grew to be trees) for some good distance before the entrance into my apartment, they went on in the same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole space of ground, from the trees i had set quite down to the side of the creek, where, as i said, i landed my floats, and even into the very ooze where the tide flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or any sign that there had been any landing thereabout. these stakes also being of a wood very forward to grow, as i had noted formerly, they took care to have generally very much larger and taller than those which i had planted, and placed them so very thick and close, that when they had been three or four years grown there was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into the plantation. as for that part which i had planted, the trees were grown as thick as a man's thigh; and among them they placed so many other short ones, and so thick, that, in a word, it stood like a palisado a quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible to penetrate it but with a little army to cut it all down; for a little dog could hardly get between the trees, they stood so close. but this was not all; for they did the same by all the ground to the right hand, and to the left, and round even to the top of the hill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves to come out, but by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then lifted up and placed again from the first stage up to the top; which ladder, when it was taken down, nothing but what had wings or witchcraft to assist it, could come at them. this was excellently well contrived, nor was it less than what they afterwards found occasion for; which served to convince me, that as human prudence has authority of providence to justify it, so it has, doubtless, the direction of providence to set it to work, and, would we listen carefully to the voice of it, i am fully persuaded we might prevent many of the disasters which our lives are now by our own negligence subjected to: but this by the way. i return to the story: they lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and had no more visits from the savages; they had indeed an alarm given them one morning, which put them in a great consternation for some of the spaniards being out early one morning on the west side, or rather end of the island which, by the way, was that end where i never went, for fear of being discovered, they were surprised with seeing above twenty canoes of indians just coming on shore. they made the best of their way home in hurry enough, and, giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all that day and the next, going out only at night to make observation; but they had the good luck to be mistaken, for wherever the savages went, they did not land at that time on the island, but pursued some other design. and now they had another broil with the three englishmen, one of which, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of the three slaves which i mentioned they had taken, because the fellow had not done something right which he bid him do, and seemed a little untractable in his shewing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt, in which he bore it by his side, and fell upon him, the poor savage, not to correct him but to kill him. one of the spaniards who was by, seeing him give the fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet which he aimed at his head, but struck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the poor creature's arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not to murder the poor man, clapt in between him and the savage to prevent the mischief. the fellow being enraged the more at this, struck at the spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he intended to serve the savage; which the spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and with a shovel which he had in his hand (for they were working in the field about the corn-land) knocked the brute down; another of the englishmen running at the same time to help his comrade, knocked the spaniard down, and then two spaniards more came to help their man, and a third englishman fell upon them. they had none of them any fire-arms, or any other weapons but hatchets and other tools, except the third englishman; he had one of my old rusty cutlasses, with which he made at the last spaniards, and wounded them both. this fray set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in, they took the three englishmen prisoners. the next question was, what should be done with them? they had been so often mutinous, and were so furious, so desperate, and so idle withal, that they knew not what course to take with them, for they were mischievous to the highest degree, and valued not what hurt they did any man; so that, in short, it was not safe to live with them. the spaniard who was governor, told them in so many words, that if they had been his own countrymen he would have hanged them all; for all laws and all governors were to preserve society, and those who were dangerous to the society ought to be expelled out of it; but as they were englishmen, and that it was to the generous kindness of an englishman that they all owed their preservation and deliverance, he would use them with all possible lenity, and would leave them to the judgment of the other two englishmen, who were their countrymen. one of the two honest englishmen stood up, and said they desired it might not be left to them; "for," says he, "i am sure we ought to sentence them to the gallows," and with that gives an account how will atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have all the five englishmen join together, and murder all the spaniards when they were in their sleep. when the spanish governor heard this, he calls to will atkins: "how, seignior atkins," says he, "will you murder us all? what have you to say to that?" that hardened villain was so far from denying it, that he said it was true, and g-d d-mn him they would do it still before they had done with them. "well, but seignior atkins," said the spaniard, "what have we done to you that you will kill us? and what would you get by killing us? and what must we do to prevent your killing us? must we kill you, or will you kill us? why will you put us to the necessity of this, seignior atkins?" says the spaniard very calmly and smiling. seignior atkins was in such a rage at the spaniard's making a jest of it, that had he not been held by three men, and withal had no weapons with him, it was thought he would have attempted to have killed the spaniard in the middle of all the company. this harebrained carriage obliged them to consider seriously what was to be done. the two englishmen and the spaniard who saved the poor savage, were of the opinion that they should hang one of the three for an example to the rest; and that particularly it should be he that had twice attempted to commit murder with his hatchet; and indeed there was some reason to believe he had done it, for the poor savage was in such a miserable condition with the wound he had received, that it was thought he could not live. but the governor spaniard still said, no, it was an englishman that had saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an englishman to death though he had murdered half of them; nay, he said if he had been killed himself by an englishman, and had time left to speak, it should be that they should pardon him. this was so positively insisted on by the governor spaniard, that there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels are most apt to prevail, where they are so earnestly pressed, so they all came into it; but then it was to be considered what should be done to keep them from the mischief they designed; for all agreed, governor and all, that means were to be used for preserving the society from danger. after a long debate it was agreed, first, that they should be disarmed, and not permitted to have either gun, or powder, or shot, or sword, or any weapon, and should be turned out of the society, and left to live where they would, and how they could by themselves; but that none of the rest, either spaniards or english, should converse with them, speak with them, or have any thing to do with them; that they should be forbid to come within a certain distance of the place where the rest dwelt; and that if they offered to commit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the society, that they should die without mercy, and would shoot them wherever they could find them. the governor, a man of great humanity, musing upon the sentence, considered a little upon it, and turning to the two honest englishmen, said, "hold, you must reflect, that it will be long ere they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not starve; we must therefore allow them provisions." so he caused to be added, that they should have a proportion of corn given them to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by which time they might be supposed to raise some of their own; that they should have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids given them, as well for present subsistence as for a store; and that they should have tools given them for their work in the field; such as six hatchets, an axe, a saw, and the like: but they should have none of these tools or provisions unless they would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure any of the spaniards with them, or of their fellow englishmen. thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to shift for themselves. they went away sullen and refractory, as neither contented to go away or to stay; but as there was no remedy they went, pretending to go and choose a place where they should settle themselves, to plant and live by themselves; and some provisions were given, but no weapons. about four or five days after they came again for some victuals, and gave the governor an account where they had pitched their tents, and marked themselves out an habitation or plantation: it was a very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part of the island, n.e. much about the place where i providentially landed in my first voyage when i was driven out to sea, the lord alone knows whither, in my foolish attempt to surround the island. here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrived them in a manner like my first habitation being close under the side of a hill, having some trees growing already to the three sides of it; so that by planting others it would be very easily covered from the sight, unless narrowly searched for. they desired some dry goat-skins for beds and covering, which were given them; and upon their giving their words that they would not disturb the rest, or injure any of their plantations, they gave them hatchets, and what other tools they could spare; some peas, barley, and rice, for sowing, and, in a word, any thing they wanted but arms and ammunition. they lived in this separate condition about six months, and had got in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the parcel of land they had planted being but little; for indeed having all their plantation to form, they had a great deal of work upon their hands; and when they came to make boards, and pots, and such things, they were quite out of their element, and could make nothing of it; and when the rainy season came on, for want of a cave in the earth, they could not keep their grain dry, and it was in great danger of spoiling: and this humbled them much; so they came and begged the spaniards to help them, which they very readily did; and in four days worked a great hole in the side of the hill for them, big enough to secure their corn and other things from the rain: but it was but a poor place at best compared to mine; and especially as mine was then; for the spaniards had greatly enlarged it, and made several new apartments in it. about three quarters of a year after this separation a new frolic took these rogues, which, together with the former villany they had committed, brought mischief enough upon them, and had very near been the ruin of the whole colony. the three new associates began, it seems, to be weary of the laborious life they led, and that without hope of bettering their circumstances; and a whim took them that they would make a voyage to the continent from whence the savages came, and would try if they could not seize upon some prisoners among the natives there, and bring them home, so as to make them do the laborious part of the work for them. the project was not so preposterous if they had gone no farther; but they did nothing and proposed nothing but had either mischief in the design or mischief in the event; and if i may give my opinion, they seemed to be under a blast from heaven; for if we will not allow a visible curse to pursue visible crimes, how shall we reconcile the events of things with divine justice? it was certainly an apparent vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy that brought them to the state they were in; and as they shewed not the least remorse for the crime, but added new villanies to it, such as particularly that piece of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor slave because he did not, or perhaps could not understand to do what he was directed, and to wound him in such a manner as, no question, made him a cripple all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicine could be had for his cure; and what was still worse, the murderous intent, or, to do justice to the crime, the intentional murder, for such to be sure it was, as was afterwards the formed design they all laid to murder the spaniards in cold blood, and in their sleep. but i leave observing, and return to the story: the three fellows came down to the spaniards one morning, and in very humble terms desired to be admitted to speak with them; the spaniards very readily heard what they had to say, which was this, that they were tired of living in the manner they did, that they were not handy enough to make the necessaries they wanted; and that, having no help, they found they should be starved; but if the spaniards would give them leave to take one of the canoes which they came over in, and give them arms and ammunition proportioned for their defence, they would go over to the main, and seek their fortune, and so deliver them from the trouble of supplying them with any other provisions. the spaniards were glad enough to be rid of them; but yet very honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were running into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell them that they would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider of it. the men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work; and they could but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered, there was an end of them, they had no wives or children to cry after them; and, in short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring that they would go, whether they would give them any arms or no. the spaniards told them with great kindness, that if they were resolved to go, they should not go like naked men, and be in no condition to defend themselves, and that though they could ill spare their fire-arms, having not enough for themselves, yet they would let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each man a hatchet, which they thought sufficient for them. in a word, they accepted the offer, and having baked them bread enough to serve them a month, and given them as much goat's flesh as they could eat while it was sweet, and a great basket full of dried grapes, a pot full of fresh water, and a young kid alive to kill, they boldly set out in a canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was at least forty miles broad. the boat was indeed a large one, and would have very well carried fifteen or twenty men, and therefore was rather too big for them to manage; but as they had a fair breeze and the flood-tide with them, they did well enough; they had made a mast of a long pole, and a sail of four large goat-skins dried, which they had sewed or laced together; and away they went merrily enough; the spaniards called after them, "bon veajo;" and no man ever thought of seeing them any more. the spaniards would often say to one another, and the two honest englishmen who remained behind, how quietly and comfortably they lived now those three turbulent fellows were gone; as for their ever coming again, that was the remotest thing from their thoughts could be imagined; when, behold, after twenty-two days absence, one of the englishmen being abroad upon his planting work, sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, two of them with guns upon their shoulders. away runs the englishman, as if he was bewitched, and became frighted and amazed, to the governor spaniard, and tells him they were all undone, for there were strangers landed upon the island, he could not tell who. the spaniard pausing a while, says to him, "how do you mean, you cannot tell who? they are savages to be sure."--"no, no," says the englishman, "they are men in clothes, with arms."--"nay then," says the spaniard, "why are you concerned? if they are not savages, they must be friends; for there is no christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than harm." while they were debating thus, came the three englishmen, and standing without the wood which was new-planted, hallooed to them; they presently knew their voices, and so all the wonder of that kind ceased. but now the admiration was turned upon another question, viz. what could be the matter, and what made them come back again? it was not long before they brought the men in; and inquiring where they had been, and what they had been doing? they gave them a full account of their voyage in a few words, viz. that they reached the land in two days, or something less, but finding the people alarmed at their coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they durst not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they perceived that the land they saw from our island was not the main, but an island: that entering that opening of the sea, they saw another island on the right hand north, and several more west; and being resolved to land somewhere, they put over to one of the islands which lay west, and went boldly on shore; that they found the people were courteous and friendly to them, and they gave them several roots, and some dried fish, and appeared very sociable: and the women, as well as the men, were very forward to supply them with any thing they could get for them to eat, and brought it to them a great way upon their heads. they continued here four days, and inquired, as well as they could of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way; and were told of several fierce and terrible people, that lived almost every way; who, as they made known by signs to them, used to eat men; but as for themselves, they said, that they never ate men or women, except only such as they took in the wars; and then they owned that they made a great feast, and ate their prisoners. the englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that kind, and they told them two moons ago, pointing to the moon, and then to two-fingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to make them fat for the next feast. the englishmen seemed mighty desirous to see those prisoners, but the others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own eating. so they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify, that the next morning at sun-rising they would bring some for them; and accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave them to the englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a sea-port town to victual a ship. as brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do; to refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the savage gentry that offered them; and what to do with them they knew not; however, upon some debate, they resolved to accept of them; and in return they gave the savages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets, which, though they did not understand, they seemed extremely pleased with; and then tying the poor creatures' hands behind them, they (the people) dragged the prisoners into the boat for our men. the englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them, or else they that gave them his noble present would certainly have expected that they should have gone to work with them, have killed two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the donors to dinner. but having taken their leave with all the respect and thanks that could well pass between people, where, on either side, they understood not one word they could say, they put off with their boat, and came back towards the first island, where when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too many of them for their occasion. in their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication with their prisoners, but it was impossible to make them understand any thing; nothing they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was looked upon as going about to murder them: they first of all unbound them, but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; for they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be killed. if they gave them any thing to eat, it was the same thing; then they concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and so not be fat enough to kill; if they looked at one of them more particularly, the party presently concluded it was to see whether he or she was fattest and fittest to kill first; nay, after they had brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly and treat them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or supper for their new masters. when the three wanderers had given this unaccountable history or journal of their voyage, the spaniard asked them where their new family was? and being told that they had brought them on shore, and put them into one of their huts, and were come to beg some victuals for them; they (the spaniards) and the other two englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all down to the place and see them, and did so, and friday's father with them. when they came into the hut, there they sat all bound; for when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands, that they might not take the boat and make their escape; there, i say, they sat all of them stark naked. first, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well shaped, straight and fair limbs, about thirty or thirty-five years of age, and five women; whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more not above twenty-four or twenty-five, and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden, about sixteen or seventeen. the women were well-favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would have passed for handsome women, even in london itself, having very pleasant, agreeable countenances, and of a very modest behaviour, especially when they came afterwards to be clothed, and dressed, as they called it, though that dress was very indifferent it must be confessed, of which hereafter. the sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our spaniards, who were (to give them a just character) men of the best behaviour, of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour that ever i met with; and, in particular, of the most modesty, as will presently appear: i say the sight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women, all together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be dragged out, and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killed for a dainty. the first thing they did was to cause the old indian, friday's father, to go in and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he understood any of their speech. as soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women. however, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy them, that the men into whose hands they were fallen were christians; that they abhorred eating of men or women, and that they might be sure they would not be killed. as soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by such awkward and several ways as is hard to describe, for it seems they were of several nations. the woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought them away to save their lives? at which they all fell a dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, any thing that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate that they were willing to work. the governor, who found that the having women among them would presently be attended with some inconveniency, and might occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or as women? one of the englishmen answered very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both. to which the governor said, "i am not going to restrain you from it; you are your own masters as to that: but this i think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and i desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of you take any of these women as a woman, or wife, he shall take but one; and that, having taken one, none else should touch her; for though we cannot marry any of you, yet it is but reasonable that while you stay here, the woman any of you takes should be maintained by the man that takes her, and should be his wife; i mean," says he, "while he continues here; and that none else should have any thing to do with her." all this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without any difficulty. then the englishmen asked the spaniards if they designed to take any of them? but every one answered, "no;" some of them said they had wives in spain; and the others did not like women that were not christians; and all together declared, that they would not touch one of them; which was an instance of such virtue as i have not met with in all my travels. on the other hand, to be short, the five englishmen took them every one a wife; that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the spaniards and friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the three servants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages, lived with them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest with food, and assisting them in any thing as they could, or as they found necessity required. but the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that two of them should not pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the others: but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves; for they set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first. he that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it was worth observing that he that chose first took her that was reckoned the homeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among the rest; and even the spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was application and business that they were to expect assistance in as much as any thing else, and she proved the best wife in the parcel. when the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and they firmly believed that they were now going to be devoured: accordingly, when the english sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and such affection as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world; nor was it possible for the englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, friday's father, who instantly let them know, that the five men who had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives. when they had done this, and the fright the women were in was a little over, the men went to work, and the spaniards came and helped them; and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. the three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they continued separate as before: and thus my island was peopled in three places, and, as i might say, three towns were begun to be planted. and here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens in the world, (what the wise ends of god's providences are in such a disposition of things i cannot say) the two honest fellows had the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and ingenious wives, not that the two first were ill wives as to their temper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning is, they were not alike, capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat. another observation i must make, to the honour of a diligent application on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, that when i came to the place, and viewed the several improvements, planting, and management of the several little colonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison; they had indeed both of them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted; and the reason was, because according to my rule, nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view. the two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, that when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a wood; and though they had their plantation twice demolished, once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shewn in its place; yet they had restored all again, and every thing was flourishing and thriving about them: they had grapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves never seen any thing of that kind; and by their good ordering their vines their grapes were as good again as any of the others. they had also formed themselves a retreat in the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as i had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives and children so as they could never be found; they having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, as i said, grow so easily, made a grove impassable except in one place, where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in by ways of their own leaving. as to the three reprobates, as i justly call them, though they were much civilized by their new settlement compared to what they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was their idleness. it is true, they planted corn and made fences; but solomon's words were never better verified than in them: "i went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;" for when the spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some places for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when they looked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face of industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified solomon's words in another place: "the diligent hand maketh rich;" for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversion too. it is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within doors; and having learnt the english ways of dressing and cooking from one of the other englishmen, who, as i said, was a cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands' victuals very nicely; whereas the other could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who as i said, had been cook's mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared accordingly. the diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothful lived hard and beggarly; and so i believe, generally speaking, it is all over the world. but now i come to a scene different from all that had happened before, either to them or me; and the origin of the story was this: early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of indians, or savages, call them which you please; and there is no room to doubt that they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the spaniards, and to our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it as i did; but having been made sensible by their experience, that their only business was to lie concealed, and that, if they were not seen by any of the savages, they would go off again quietly when the business was done, having as yet not the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; i say having been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not to shew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice when the boats went off to sea again. this was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all these measures, and made it known among the savages that there were inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of almost the whole colony. after the canoes with the savages were gone off, the spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. here, to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep, and would not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into the woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in. the spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at a loss what to do; the spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them, and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not what to do; as for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, they were none of them inclined to that. the spaniard governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures had done no wrong, invaded none of their property; and they thought they had no just quarrel against them to take away their lives. and here i must, in justice to these spaniards, observe, that let all the accounts of spanish cruelty in mexico and peru be what they will, i never met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humoured, and so courteous as these spaniards; and, as to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men of great courage and spirit. their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the insufferable usage of the three englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared now in the case of the savages as above. after some consultation they resolved upon this, that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible, these three men might be gone; but then the governor spaniard recollected that the three savages had no boat; and that if they were left to rove about the island, they would certainly discover that there were inhabitants in it, and so they should be undone that way. upon this they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep still; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them prisoners; and they did so. the poor fellows were strangely frighted when they were seized upon and bound, and afraid, like the women, that they should be murdered and eaten; for it seems those people think all the world do as they do, eating mens' flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that: and away they carried them. it was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to their castle; i mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them first to the bower, where was the chief of their country work; such as the keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterwards they carried them to the habitation of the two englishmen. here they were set to work, though it was not much, they had for them to do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that they thought the fellows could not mend themselves, i know not, but one of them ran away, and taking into the woods, they could never hear of him more. they had good reason to believe he got home again soon after in some other boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their revels as usual, went off again in two days time. this thought terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellow got safe home among his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there were people in the island, as also how weak and few they were; for this savage, as i observed before, had never been told, as it was very happy he had not, how many they were, or where they lived, nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less had they shewn him any other of their retired places, such as the cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two englishmen had made, and the like. the first testimony they had that this fellow had given intelligence of them was, that about two months after this, six canoes of savages, with about seven or eight, or ten men in a canoe, came rowing along the north side of the island, where they never used to come before, and landed about an hour after sunrise, at a convenient place, about a mile from the habitation of the two englishmen, where this escaped man had been kept. as the spaniard governor said, had they been all there the damage would not have been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped: but the case differed now very much; for two men to fifty were too much odds. the two men had the happiness to discover them about a league off, so that it was about an hour before they landed, and as they landed about a mile from their huts, it was some time before they could come at them. now having great reason to believe that they were betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the slaves which were left, and cause two of the three men whom they brought with the women, who, it seems, proved very faithful to them, to lead them with their two wives, and whatever they could carry away with them, to their retired place in the woods, which i have spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot till they heard farther. in the next place, seeing the savages were all come on shore, and that they bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences where their milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out, leaving their goats to straggle into the wood, whither they pleased, that the savages might think they were all bred wild; but the rogue who came with them was too cunning for that, and gave them an account of it all, for they went directly to the place. when the poor frighted men had secured their wives and goods, they sent the other slave they had of the three, who came with the women, and who was at their place by accident, away to the spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire speedy help; and in the mean time they took their arms, and what ammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in the wood where their wives were sent, keeping at a distance; yet so that they might see, if possible, which way the savages took. they had not gone far but that, from a rising ground, they could see the little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation, and in a moment more could see all their huts and household-stuff flaming up together, to their great grief and mortification; for they had a very great loss, and to them irretrievable, at least for some time. they kept their station for a while, till they found the savages, like wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place, rummaging every way, and every place they could think of, in search for prey, and in particular for the people, of whom it plainly appeared they had intelligence. the two englishmen, seeing this, thinking themselves not secure where they stood, as it was likely some of the wild people might come that way, so they might come too many together, thought it proper to make another retreat about half a mile farther, believing, as it afterwards happened, that the farther they strolled, the fewer would be together. the next halt was at the entrance into a very thick grown part of the woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow, and vastly large; and in this tree they both took their standing, resolving to see what might offer. they had not stood there long, but two of the savages appeared running directly that way, as if they had already notice where they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and a little way farther they espied three more coming after them, and five more beyond them, all coming the same way; besides which, they saw seven or eight more at a distance, running another way; for, in a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen beating for their game. the poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they should stand and keep their posture, or fly; but after a very short debate with themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the country thus before help came, they might, perhaps, find out their retreat in the woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them there; and if there were too many to deal with, then they would get to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, though all the savages that were landed, which were near fifty, were to attack them. having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should fire at the two first, or wait for the three, and so take the middle party, by which the two and the five that followed would be separated: at length they resolved to let the two first pass by, unless they should spy them in the tree, and come to attack them. the two first savages also confirmed them in this resolution, by turning a little from them towards another part of the wood; but the three, and the five after them, came forwards directly to the tree, as if they had known the englishmen were there. seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in a line as they came; and as they resolved to fire but one at a time, perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; to which purpose, the man who was to fire put three or four bullets into his piece, and having a fair loop-hole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss. while they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they plainly saw, that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped from them; and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that, if possible, he should not escape, though they should both fire; so the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at the first shot, he should be sure to have a second. but the first was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for as the savages kept near one another, a little behind in a line, he fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost was killed outright, being shot in the head; the second, which was the runaway indian, was shot through the body, and fell, but was not quite dead; and the third had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball that went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully frightened, though not so much hurt, sat down upon the ground, screaming and yelling in a hideous manner. the five that were behind, more frightened with the noise than sensible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made the sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes rattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from all parts, screaming, and every sort making a different noise, according to their kind; just as it was when i fired the first gun that perhaps was ever shot off in the island. however, all being silent again, and they not knowing what the matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place where their companions lay in a condition miserable enough. here the poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach of the same mischief, stood all together over the wounded man, talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came to be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after that thunder from their gods, had killed those two and wounded him. this, i say, is rational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no man near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, nor so much as heard of a gun; neither knew they anything of killing and wounding at a distance with fire and bullets: if they had, one might reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcerned to view the fate of their fellows, without some apprehensions of their own. our two men, as they confessed to me, were grieved to be obliged to kill so many poor creatures, who had no notion of their danger; yet, having them all thus in their power, and the first having loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly both together among them; and singling out, by agreement, which to aim at, they shot together, and killed, or very much wounded, four of them; the fifth, frightened even to death, though not hurt, fell with the rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, thought they had killed them all. the belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns, which was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise when they came to the place, and found no less than four of them alive, and of them two very little hurt, and one not at all. this obliged them to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause of all the mischief, and of another that was hurt in the knee, and put them out of their pain; then the man that was not hurt at all came and kneeled down to them, with his two hands held up, and made piteous moans to them, by gestures and signs, for his life, but could not say one word to them that they could understand. however, they made signs to him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and one of the englishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by great chance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and there they left him; and with what speed they could made after the other two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more of them, should find the way to their covered place in the woods, where their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay. they came once in sight of the two men, but it was at a great distance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a valley towards the sea, the quite contrary way from that which led to their retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that, they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner, who as they supposed was delivered by his comrades; for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him, lay just at the foot of the tree. they were now in as great a concern as before, not knowing what course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what numbers; so they resolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to see if all was well there, and to make them easy, who were in fright enough to be sure; for though the savages were their own country-folks, yet they were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more, for the knowledge they had of them. when they came thither, they found the savages had been in the wood, and very near the place, but had not found it; for indeed it was inaccessible, by the trees standing so thick, as before, unless the persons seeking it had been directed by those that knew it, which these were not; they found, therefore, every thing very safe, only the women in a terrible fright. while they were here they had the comfort of seven of the spaniards coming to their assistance: the other ten with their servants, and old friday, i mean friday's father, were gone in a body to defend their bower, and the corn and cattle that were kept there, in case the savages should have roved over to that side of the country; but they did not spread so far. with the seven spaniards came one of the savages, who, as i said, were their prisoners formerly, and with them also came the savage whom the englishmen had left bound hand and foot at the tree; for it seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of the seven men, and unbound the eighth, and brought him along with them, where, however, they were obliged to bind him again, as they had done the two others, who were left when the third run away. the prisoners began now to be a burden to them; and they were so afraid of their escaping, that they thought they were under an absolute necessity to kill them for their own preservation: however, the spaniard governor would not consent to it; but ordered, that they should be sent out of the way to my old cave in the valley, and be kept there, with two spaniards to guard them and give them food; which was done; and they were bound there hand and foot for that night. when the spaniards came, the two englishmen were so encouraged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer there; but taking five of the spaniards, and themselves, with four muskets and a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves, away they went in quest of the savages. and first, they came to the tree where the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy to see that some more of the savages had been there; for they attempted to carry their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good way, but had given it over; from thence they advanced to the first rising ground, where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed, and where they had the mortification still to see some of the smoke; but neither could they here see any of the savages: they then resolved, though with all possible caution, to go forward towards their ruined plantation; but a little before they came thither, coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly the savages all embarking again in their canoes, in order to be gone. they seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them to give them a parting blow; but upon the whole were very well satisfied to be rid of them. the poor englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their improvements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them to rebuild, and to assist them with needful supplies. their three countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclination to do any thing good, yet, as soon as they heard of it (for they, living remote, knew nothing till all was over), came and offered their help and assistance, and did very friendly work for several days to restore their habitations and make necessaries for them; and thus in a little time they were set upon their legs again. about two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of seeing three of the savages' canoes come driving onshore, and at some distance from them, with two drowned men; by which they had reason to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset some of them, for it blew very hard the night after they went off. however, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done, as of what happened to them; and to whet them on to another enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems, resolved to attempt, with sufficient force to carry all before them; for except what the first man told them of inhabitants, they could say little to it of their own knowledge; for they never saw one man, and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they had no other witness to confirm it to them. it was five or six months after this before they heard any more of the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had not forgot their former bad luck, or had given over the hopes of better; when on a sudden they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no less than twenty-eight canoes, full of savages, armed with bows and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such-like engines of war; and they brought such numbers with them, that in short it put all our people into the utmost consternation. as they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what to do; and in the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed was their only safety before, and would much more be so now, while the number of their enemies was so great, they therefore resolved, first of all, to take down the huts which were built for the two englishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave; because they supposed the savages would go directly thither as soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, though they did not now land within two leagues of it. in the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats they had at the old bower, as i called it, which belonged to the spaniards; and, in short, left as little appearance of inhabitants any where as possible; and the next morning early they posted themselves with all their force at the plantation of the two men, waiting for their coming. as they guessed, so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their canoes at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore, directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, as near as our men could judge. our army was but small indeed; but that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number neither: the whole account, it seems, stood thus:--first, as to men: 17 spaniards. 5 englishmen. 1 old friday, or friday's father. 3 slaves, taken with the women, who proved very faithful. 3 other slaves who lived with the spaniards. - 29 to arm these they had: 11 muskets. 5 pistols. 3 fowling-pieces. 5 muskets, or fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whom i reduced. 2 swords. 3 old halberts. - 29 to their slaves they did not give either musket or fusil, but they had every one an halbert, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a hatchet; also every one of our men had hatchets. two of the women could not be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and they had bows and arrows, which the spaniards had taken from the savages when the first action happened, which i have spoken of, where the indians fought with one another; and the women had hatchets too. the spaniard governor, whom i have described so often, commanded the whole; and william atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow for wickedness, was a most daring, bold fellow, commanded under him. the savages came forward like lions, and our men, which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage in their situation; only that will atkins, who now proved a most useful fellow, with six men, was planted just behind a small thicket of bushes, as an advanced guard, with orders to let the first of them pass by, and then fire into the middle of them; and as soon as he had fired to make his retreat, as nimbly as he could, round a part of the wood, and so come in behind the spaniards where they stood, having a thicket of trees all before them. when the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way in heaps, out of all manner of order, and will atkins let about fifty of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a very thick throng, he orders three of his men to fire, having loaded their muskets with six or seven bullets apiece, about as big as large pistol-bullets. how many they killed or wounded they knew not; but the consternation and surprise was inexpressible among the savages, who were frighted to the last degree, to hear such a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and others hurt, but see nobody that did it. when in the middle of their fright, william atkins and his other three let fly again among the thickest of them and in less than a minute the first three, being loaded again, gave them a third volley. had william atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon as they had fired, as they were ordered to do; or had the rest of the body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually, the savages had been effectually routed; for the terror that was among them came principally from this; viz. that they were killed by the gods with thunder and lightning, and could see nobody that hurt them: but william atkins staying to load again, discovered the cheat; some of the savages who were at a distance, spying them, came upon them behind; and though atkins and his men fired at them also, two or three times, and killed above twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded atkins himself, and killed one of his fellow englishmen with their arrows, as they did afterwards one spaniard, and one of the indian slaves who came with the women. this slave was a most gallant fellow, and fought most desperately, killing five of them with his own hand, having no weapon but one of the armed staves and a hatchet. our men being thus hard laid at, atkins wounded, and two other men killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and the spaniards, after firing three vollies upon them, retreated also; for their number was so great, and they were so desperate, that though above fifty of them were killed, and more than so many wounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of danger, and shot their arrows like a cloud; and it was observed, that their wounded men, who were not quite disabled, were made outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen. when our men retreated, they left the spaniard and the englishman that were killed behind them; and the savages, when they came up to them, killed them over again in a wretched manner, breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and wooden swords, like true savages. but finding our men were gone, they did not seem inclined to pursue them, but drew themselves up in a kind of ring, which is, it seems, their custom, and shouted twice in token of their victory; after which, they had the mortification to see several of their wounded men fall, dying with the mere loss of blood. the spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together upon a rising ground, atkins, though he was wounded, would have had him march, and charge them again all together at once: but the spaniard replied, "seignior atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; let them alone till morning; all these wounded men will be stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood, and so we shall have the fewer to engage." the advice was good; but will atkins replied merrily, "that's true, seignior, and so shall i too; and that's the reason i would go on while i am warm."--"well, seignior atkins," says the spaniard, "you have behaved gallantly, and done your part; we will fight for you, if you cannot come on; but i think it best to stay till morning:" so they waited. but as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great hurry and noise among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved to fall upon them in the night, especially if they could come to give them but one volley before they were discovered. this they had a fair opportunity to do; for one of the two englishmen, in whose quarter it was where the fight began, led them round between the woods and the sea-side, westward, and turning short south, they came so near where the thickest of them lay, that before they were seen or heard, eight of them fired in among them, and did dreadful execution upon them; in half a minute more eight others fired after them, pouring in their small shot in such a quantity, that abundance were killed and wounded; and all this while they were not able to see who hurt them, or which way to fly. the spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and then divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among them all together. they had in each body eight persons; that is to say, twenty-four, whereof were twenty-two men, and the two women, who, by the way, fought desperately. they divided the fire-arms equally in each party, and so of the halberts and staves. they would have had the women keep back; but they said they were resolved to die with their husbands. having thus formed their little army, they marched out from among the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loud as they could. the savages stood all together, but were in the utmost confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting from three quarters together; they would have fought if they had seen us; and as soon as we came near enough to be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old friday was wounded, though not dangerously. but our men gave them no time, but running up to them, fired among them three ways, and then fell in with the butt ends of their muskets, their swords, armed staves, and hatchets; and laid about them so well, that in a word they set up a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their lives which way soever they could. our men were tired with the execution; and killed, or mortally wounded, in the two fights, about one hundred and eighty of them: the rest, being frighted out of their wits, scoured through the woods and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimble feet could help them to do; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to pursue them, they got all together to the sea-side, where they landed, and where their canoes lay. but their disaster was not at an end yet, for it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from the seaward, so that it was impossible for them to put off; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tide came up their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea so high upon the shore, that it required infinite toil to get them off; and some of them were even dashed to pieces against the beach, or against one another. our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest that night; but having refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved to march to that part of the island where the savages were fled, and see what posture they were in. this necessarily led them over the place where the fight had been, and where they found several of the poor creatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a sight disagreeable enough to generous minds; for a truly great man, though obliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takes no delight in his misery. however, there was no need to give any order in this case; for their own savages, who were their servants, dispatched those poor creatures with their hatchets. at length they came in view of the place where the more miserable remains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about one hundred still: their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with their knees up towards their mouth, and the head put between the hands, leaning down upon the knees. when our men came within two musket-shot of them, the spaniard governor ordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to alarm them; this he did, that by their countenance he might know what to expect, viz. whether they were still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten, as to be dispirited and discouraged, and so he might manage accordingly. this stratagem took; for as soon as the savages heard the first gun, and saw the flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in the greatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly towards them, they all ran screaming and yawling away, with a kind of an howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had never heard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the country. at first our men had much rather the weather had been calm, and they had all gone away to sea; but they did not then consider, that this might probably have been the occasion of their coming again in such multitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least, to come so many and so often, as would quite desolate the island and starve them. will atkins therefore, who, notwithstanding his wound, kept always with them, proved the best counsellor in this case. his advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and clap in between them and their boats, and so deprive them of the capacity of ever returning any more to plague the island. they consulted long about this, and some were against it, for fear of making the wretches fly into the woods, and live there desperate; and so they should have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir about their business, and have their plantation continually rifled, all their tame goats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of continual distress. will atkins told them they had better have to do with one hundred men than with one hundred nations; that as they must destroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed themselves. in a word, he shewed them the necessity of it so plainly, that they all came into it; so they went to work immediately with the boats, and getting some dry wood together from a dead tree, they tried to set some of them on fire; but they were so wet that they would scarce burn. however, the fire so burned the upper part, that it soon made them unfit for swimming in the sea as boats. when the indians saw what they were about, some of them came running out of the woods, and coming as near as they could to our men, kneeled down and cried, _oa, oa, waramokoa_, and some other words of their language, which none of the others understood any thing of; but as they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy to understand they begged to have their boats spared, and that they would be gone, and never return thither again. but our men were now satisfied, that they had no way to preserve themselves or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of these people from ever going home again; depending upon this, that if ever so much as one of them got back into their country to tell the story, the colony was undone; so that letting them know that they should not have any mercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and destroyed them, every one that the storm had not destroyed before; at the sight of which the savages raised a hideous cry in the woods, which our people heard plain enough; after which they ran about the island like distracted men; so that, in a word, our men did not really know at first what to do with them. nor did the spaniards, with all their prudence, consider that while they made those people thus desperate, they ought to have kept good guard at the same time upon their plantations; for though it is true they had driven away their cattle, and the indians did not find their main retreat, i mean my old castle at the hill, nor the cave in the valley; yet they found out my plantation at the bower, and pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod all the corn under foot; tore up the vines and grapes, being just then almost ripe, and did our men an inestimable damage, though to themselves not one farthing's-worth of service. though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yet they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; for as they were too nimble of foot for our men when they found them single, so our men durst not go about single for fear of being surrounded with their numbers: the best was, they had no weapons; for though they had bows they had no arrows left, nor any materials to make any, nor had they any edged tool or weapon among them. the extremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and indeed deplorable, but at the same time our men were also brought to very hard circumstances by them; for though their retreats were preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled; and what to do or which way to turn themselves, they knew not; the only refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they had in the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there. the three englishmen, william atkins and his comrades, were now reduced to two, one of them being killed by an arrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under the temples, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable, that this was the same barbarous fellow who cut the poor savage slave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murdered the spaniards. i look upon their case to have been worse at this time than mine was at any time after i first discovered the grains of barley and rice, and got into the method of planting and raising my corn, and my tame cattle; for now they had, as i may say, an hundred wolves upon the island, which would devour every thing they could come at, yet could be very hardly come at themselves. the first thing they concluded when they saw what their circumstances were, was, that they would, if possible, drive them up to the farther part of the island, south-east, that if any more savages came on shore, they might not find one another; then that they would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till they had reduced the number; and if they could at last tame them, and bring them to any thing, they would give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their daily labour. in order to this they followed them, and so terrified them with their guns, that in a few days, if any of them fired a gun at an indian, if he did not hit him, yet he would fall down for fear; and so dreadfully frighted they were, that they kept out of sight farther and farther, till at last our men following them, and every day almost killing and wounding some of them, they kept up in the woods and hollow places so much, that it reduced them to the utmost misery for want of food; and many were afterwards found dead in the woods, without any hurt, but merely starved to death. when our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity moved them; especially the spaniard governor, who was the most gentleman-like, generous-minded man that ever i met with in my life; and he proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive, and bring him to understand what they meant, so far as to be able to act as interpreter, and to go among them, and see if they might be brought to some conditions that might be depended upon, to save their lives, and do us no spoil. it was some time before any of them could be taken; but being weak, and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised, and made a prisoner: he was sullen at first, and would neither eat nor drink; but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given him, and no violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, and came to himself. they brought old friday to him, who talked often with him, and told him how kind the others would be to them all: that they would not only save their lives, but would give them a part of the island to live in, provided they would give satisfaction; that they should keep in their own bounds, and not come beyond them, to injure or prejudice others; and that they should have corn given them, to plant and make it grow for their bread, and some bread given them for their present subsistence; and old friday bade the fellow go and talk with the rest of his countrymen, and hear what they said to it, assuring them that if they did not agree immediately they should all be destroyed. the poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in number to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, and begged to have some food given them; upon which twelve spaniards and two englishmen, well armed, and three indian slaves, and old friday, marched to the place where they were; the three indian slaves carried them a large quantity of bread, and some rice boiled up to cakes, and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and they were ordered to go to the side of an hill, where they sat down, ate the provisions very thankfully, and were the most faithful fellows to their words that could be thought of; for except when they came to beg victuals and directions they never came out of their bounds; and there they lived when i came to the island, and i went to see them. they had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, breed tame goats, and milk them; they wanted nothing but wives, and they soon would have been a nation: they were confined to a neck of land surrounded with high rocks behind them, and lying plain towards the sea before them, on the south-east corner of the island; they had land enough, and it was very good and fruitful; for they had a piece of land about a mile and a half broad, and three or four miles in length. our men taught them to make wooden spades, such as i made for myself; and gave among them twelve hatchets, and three or four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected innocent creatures that were ever heard of. after this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect to the savages, till i came to revisit them, which was in about two years. not but that now and then some canoes of savages came on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they were of several nations, and, perhaps, had never heard of those that came before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have been very hard for them to have found them out. thus, i think, i have given a full account of all that happened to them to my return, at least that was worth notice. the indians, or savages, were wonderfully civilized by them, and they frequently went among them; but forbid, on pain of death, any of the indians coming to them, because they would not have their settlement betrayed again. one thing was very remarkable, viz. that they taught the savages to make wicker-work, or baskets; but they soon outdid their masters; for they made abundance of most ingenious things in wicker-work; particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &c. as also chairs to sit on, stools, beds, couches, and abundance of other things, being very ingenious at such work when they were once put in the way of it. my coming was a particular relief to these people, because we furnished them with knives, scissars, spades, shovels, pickaxes, and all things of that kind which they could want. with the help of these tools they were so very handy, that they came at last to build up their huts, or houses, very handsomely; raddling, or working it up like basket-work all the way round, which was a very extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd; but was an exceeding good fence, as well against heat, as against all sorts of vermin; and our men were so taken with it, that they got the wild savages to come and do the like for them; so that when i came to see the two englishmen's colonies, they looked, at a distance, as if they lived all like bees in a hive; and as for will atkins, who was now become a very industrious, necessary, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent of basket work as i believe was never seen. it was one hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as i measured by my steps; the walls were as close worked as a basket, in pannels or squares, thirty-two in number, and very strong, standing about seven feet high: in the middle was another not above twenty-two paces round, but built stronger, being eight-square in its form, and in the eight corners stood eight very strong posts, round the top of which he laid strong pieces, joined together with wooden pins, from which he raised a pyramid before the roof of eight rafters, very handsome i assure you, and joined together very well, though he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he had made himself too, out of the old iron that i had left there; and indeed this fellow shewed abundance of ingenuity in several things which he had no knowledge of; he made himself a forge, with a pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; he made himself charcoal for his work, and he formed out of one of the iron crows a middling good anvil to hammer upon; in this manner he made many things, but especially hooks, staples and spikes, bolts and hinges. but to return to the house: after he pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked it up between the rafters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched that over again so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or slated. indeed he owned that the savages made the basket-work for him. the outer circuit was covered, as a lean-to, all round his inner, apartment, and long rafters lay from the thirty two angles to the top posts of the inner house, being about twenty feet distant; so that there was a space like a walk within the outer wicker wall, and without the inner, near twenty feet wide. the inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker work, but much fairer, and divided into six apartments, for that he had six rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a door: first, into the entry, or coming into the main tent; and another door into the space or walk that was round it; so that this walk was also divided into six equal parts, which served not only for a retreat, but to store up any necessaries which the family had occasion for. these six spaces not taking up the whole circumference, what other apartments the outer circle had, were thus ordered: as soon as you were in at the door of the outer circle, you had a short passage straight before you to the door of the inner house; but on either side was a wicker partition, and a door in it, by which you went first into a large room or storehouse, twenty feet wide, and about thirty feet long, and through that into another not quite so long: so that in the outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were only to be come at through the apartments of the inner tent, and served as closets or retired rooms to the respective chambers of the inner circle; and four large warehouses or barns, or what you please to call them, which went in through one another, two on either hand of the passage that led through the outer door to the inner tent. such a piece of basket-work, i believe, was never seen in the world; nor an house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built. in this great beehive lived the three families; that is to say, will atkins and his companions; the third was killed, but his wife remained with three children; for she was, it seems, big with child when he died, and the other two were not at all backward to give the widow her full share of every thing, i mean as to their corn, milk, grapes, &c. and when they killed a kid, or found a turtle on the shore; so that they all lived well enough, though it was true, they were not so industrious as the other two, as has been observed already. one thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that, as for religion, i don't know that there was any thing of that kind among them; they pretty often indeed put one another in mind that there was a god, by the very common method of seamen, viz. swearing by his name; nor were their poor, ignorant, savage wives much the better for having been married to christians as we must call them; for as they knew very little of god themselves, so they were utterly incapable of entering into any discourse with their wives about a god or to talk any thing to them concerning religion. the utmost of all the improvement which i can say the wives had made from them, was, that they had taught them to speak english pretty well; and all the children they had, which were near twenty in all were taught to speak english too, from their first learning to speak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, like their mothers. there were none of those children above six years old when i came thither; for it was not much above seven years that they had fetched these five savage ladies over, but they had all been pretty fruitful, for they had all children, more or less: i think the cook's mate's wife was big of her sixth child; and the mothers were all a good sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to one another, mighty observant and subject to their masters, i cannot call them husbands; and wanted nothing but to be well instructed in the christian religion, and to be legally married; both which were happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least by the consequence of my coming among them. having thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty much of my five runagate englishmen, i must say something of the spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable enough. i had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances when they were among the savages; they told me readily, that they had no instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that country; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of people; that if means had been put into their hands, they had yet so abandoned themselves to despair, and so sunk under the weight of their misfortunes, that they thought of nothing but starving. one of them, a grave and very sensible man, told me he was convinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the part of wise men to give up themselves to their misery, but always to take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well for present support, as for future deliverance; he told me that grief was the most senseless insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded only things past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or to be remedied, but had no view to things to come, and had no share in any thing that looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated a spanish proverb, which though i cannot repeat in just the same words that he spoke it, yet i remember i made it into an english proverb of my own, thus; in trouble to be troubled, is to have your trouble doubled. he then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements i had made in my solitude; my unwearied application, as he called it, and how i had made a condition, which in its circumstances was at first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs was, even now when they were all together. he told me it was remarkable that englishmen had a greater presence of mind in their distress than any people that ever he met with; that their unhappy nation, and the portuguese, were the worst men in the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers, after common efforts are over, was always to despair, lie down under it and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape. i told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or of present sustenance, till they could provide it; that it is true, i had this disadvantage and discomfort, that i was alone; but then the supplies i had providentially thrown into my hands, by the unexpected driving of the ship on shore, was such a help as would have encouraged any creature in the world to have applied himself as i had done. "seignior," says the spaniard, "had we poor spaniards been in your case we should never have gotten half those things out of the ship as you did." "nay," says he, "we should never have found means to have gotten a raft to carry them, or to have gotten a raft on shore without boat or sail; and how much less should we have done," said he, "if any of us had been alone!" well, i desired him to abate his compliment, and go on with the history of their coming on shore, where they landed. he told me they unhappily landed at a place where there were people without provisions; whereas, had they had the common sense to have put off to sea again, and gone to another island a little farther, they had found provisions though without people; there being an island that way, as they had been told, where there were provisions though no people; that is to say, that the spaniards of trinidad had frequently been there, and filled the island with goats and hogs at several times, where they have bred in such multitudes, and where turtle and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have been in no want of flesh though they had found no bread; whereas here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they understood not, and which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave them sparingly enough, and who could treat them no better unless they would turn cannibals, and eat men's flesh, which was the great dainty of the country. they gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilize the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in the ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted it upon them as unjust, that they, who came thither for assistance and support, should attempt to set up for instructors of those that gave them bread; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for the instructors of others but those who could live without them. they gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven to; how sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived more indolent, and for that reason were less supplied with the necessaries of life than they had reason to believe others were in the same part of the world; and yet they found that these savages were less ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies of food. also they added, that they could not but see with what demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of god directs the event of things in the world, which they said appeared in their circumstances; for if, pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barrenness of the country where they were, they had searched after a better place to live in, they had then been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by my means. then they gave me an account how the savages whom they lived among expected them to go out with them into their wars; and it was true, that as they had fire-arms with them, had they not had the disaster to lose their ammunition, they should not have been serviceable only to their friends, but have made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies; but being without powder and shot, and in a condition that they could not in reason deny to go out with their landlords to their wars; when they came in the field of battle they were in a worse condition than the savages themselves, for they neither had bows nor arrows, nor could they use those the savages gave them, so that they could do nothing but stand still and be wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth of their enemy; and then indeed the three halberts they had were of use to them, and they would often drive a whole little army before them with those halberts and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets: but that for all this, they were sometimes surrounded with multitudes, and in great danger from their arrows; till at last they found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which they covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered them from the arrows of the savages; that notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of them knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner, that is to say, the spaniard whom i had relieved; that at first they thought he had been killed, but when afterwards they heard he was taken prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him. they told me, that when they were so knocked down, the rest of their company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were come to themselves, all but he who they thought had been dead; and then they made their way with their halberts and pieces, standing close together in a line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating down all that came in their way, got the victory over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend; whom the other party, finding him alive, carried off with some others, as i gave an account in my former. they described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind, viz. by wild men; and yet how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave them of his errand, and that there was a christian in a place near, much more one that was able, and had humanity enough to contribute to their deliverance. they described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief i sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things they had not seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossed it, and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other things i had sent for their supply. and, after all, they would have told me something of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots to carry them away to the person and place from whence all these new comforts came; but they told me it was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive joy driving them to unbecoming extravagancies, they had no way to describe them but by telling me that they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passion suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it worked one way, and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise of joy, would burst out into tears; others be half mad, and others immediately faint. this discourse extremely affected me, and called to my mind friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor people's ecstasy when i took them up at sea, after their ship was on fire; the mate of the ship's joy, when he found himself delivered in the place where he expected to perish; and my own joy, when after twenty-eight years captivity i found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country. all these things made me more sensible of the relation of these poor men, and more affected with it. having thus given a view of the state of things as i found them, i must relate the heads of what i did for these people, and the condition in which i left them. it was their opinion, and mine too, that they would be troubled no more with the savages; or that, if they were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before; so that they had no concern about that. then i entered into a serious discourse with the spaniard whom i called governor, about their stay in the island; for as i was not come to carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off some and leave others, who perhaps would be unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished. on the other hand i told them, i came to establish them there, not to remove them; and then i let them know that i had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that i had been at a great charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and that i had such particular persons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to, being artificers, to assist them in those things in which at present they were to seek. they were all together when i talked thus to them; and before i delivered to them the stores i had brought, i asked them, one by one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had been among them, and could shake hands with one another, and engage in a strict friendship and union of interest, so that there might be no more misunderstandings or jealousies. william atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said, they had met with afflictions enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends: that for his part he would live and die with them; and was so far from designing any thing against the spaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what his own bad humour made necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps much worse, in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if i desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to them; and was very willing and desirous of living on terms of entire friendship and union with them; and would do any thing that lay in his power, to convince them of it: and as for going to england, he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years. the spaniards said, they had indeed at first disarmed and excluded william atkins and his two countrymen, for their ill conduct, as they had let me know; and they appealed to me for the necessity they were under to do so; but that william atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with the savages, and on several occasions since, and had shewed himself so faithful to, and concerned for the general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms, and supplied with necessaries, as any of them; and that they had testified their satisfaction in him, by committing the command to him, next to the governor himself; and as they had an entire confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to be valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never have any interest separate from one another. upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the next day to dine all together, and indeed we made a splendid feast. i caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. we brought on shore six pieces of good beef, and four pieces of pork, out of the ship's provision, with our punch-bowl, and materials to fill it; and, in particular, i gave them ten bottles of french claret, and ten bottles of english beer, things that neither the spaniards nor the englishmen had tasted for many years; and which it may be supposed they were exceeding glad of. the spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board our ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with their salt meal from on board. after this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, i brought out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no dispute about dividing, i shewed them that there was sufficient for them all; and desired that they might all take an equal quantity of the goods that were for wearing; that is to say, equal when made up. as first, i distributed linen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts; and, at the spaniards' request, afterwards made them up six; these were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what, as i may say, they had long since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them. i allotted the thin english stuffs, which i mentioned before, to make every one a light coat like a frock, which i judged fittest for the heat of the season, cool and loose; and ordered, that whenever they decayed, they should make more, as they thought fit. the like for pumps, shoes, stockings, and hats, &c. i cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat upon the countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care i had taken of them, and how well i had furnished them; they told me i was a father to them; and that having such a correspondent as i was, in so remote a part of the world, it would make them forget that they were left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the place without my consent. then i presented to them the people i had brought with me, particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them most necessary people; but above all, my general artificer, than whom they could not name any thing that was more needful to them; and the tailor, to shew his concern for them, went to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did; and, which was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their husbands and for all the rest. as for the carpenters, i scarce need mention how useful they were, for they took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things, and made them clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and every thing they wanted of that kind. but to let them see how nature made artificers at first, i carried the carpenters to see william atkins's basket house, as i called it, and they both owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, nor any thing so regular and so handily built, at least of its kind; and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while, turning about to me, "i am sure," says he, "that man has no need of us; you need do nothing but give him tools." then i brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows or ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broadaxe, and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any were broken, or worn out, they should be supplied, without grudging, out of the general stores that i left behind. nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of tools and iron-work, they had without tale as they required; for no man would care to take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil them on any account whatever. and for the use of the smith i left two tons of unwrought iron for a supply. my magazine of powder and arms which i brought them, was such, even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now they could march, as i used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if there was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if they had but some little advantages of situation, which also they could not miss of if they had occasion. i carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved to death, and the maid also: she was a sober, well-educated, religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively, that every one gave her a good word. she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in the ship but herself; but she bore it with patience. after a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in so fine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in the east indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage; i say, considering all this, both of them came to me, and desired i would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among my family, as they called it. i agreed to it readily, and they had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisaded like atkins's, and adjoining to his plantation. their tents were contrived so, that they had each of them a room, a part to lodge in, and a middle tent, like a great storehouse, to lay all their goods in, and to eat and drink in. and now the other two englishmen moved their habitation to the same place, and so the island was divided into three colonies, and no more; viz. the spaniards, with old friday, and the first servants, at my old habitation under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the outside of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, i believe, in any part of the world; for i verily believe a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and if they had not known there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not have found it; for the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew so fast matted into one another, that nothing but cutting them down first, could discover the place, except the two narrow entrances where they went in and out, could be found, which was not very easy. one of them was just down at the water's edge, on the side of the creek; and it was afterwards above two hundred yards to the place; and the other was up the ladder at twice, as i have already formerly described it; and they had a large wood, thick planted, also on the top of the hill, which contained above an acre, which grew apace, and covered the place from all discovery there, with only one narrow place between two trees, not easy to be discovered, to enter on that side. the other colony was that of will atkins, where there were four families of englishmen, i mean those i had left there, with their wives and children; three savages that were slaves; the widow and children of the englishman that was killed; the young man and the maid; and by the way, we made a wife of her also before we went away. there were also the two carpenters and the tailor, whom i brought with me for them; also the smith, who was a very necessary man to them, especially as the gunsmith, to take care of their arms; and my other man, whom i called jack of all trades, who was himself as good almost as twenty men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow; and before i went away we married him to the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship, whom i mentioned before. and now i speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say something of the french ecclesiastic that i had brought with me out of the ship's crew whom i took at sea. it is true, this man was a roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter, if i leave any thing extraordinary upon record of a man, whom, before i begin, i must (to set him out in just colours) represent in terms very much to his disadvantage in the account of protestants; as, first, that he was a papist; secondly, a popish priest; and thirdly, a french popish priest. but justice demands of me to give him a due character; and i must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person; exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost every thing he did. what then can any one say against my being very sensible of the value of such a man, notwithstanding his profession? though it may be my opinion, perhaps as well as the opinion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken. the first hour that i began to converse with him, after he had agreed to go with me to the east indies, i found reason to delight exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me about religion, in the most obliging manner imaginable. "sir," says he, "you have not only, under god" (and at that he crossed his breast), "saved my life, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging civility have taken me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free conversation. now, sir," says he, "you see by my habit what my profession is, and i guess by your nation what yours is. i may think it is my duty, and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost endeavours on all occasions to bring all the souls that i can to the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace the catholic doctrine; but as i am here under your permission, and in your family, i am bound in justice to your kindness, as well as in decency and good manners, to be under your government; and therefore i shall not, without your leave, enter into any debates on the points of religion, in which we may not agree, farther than you shall give me leave." i told him his carriage was so modest that i could not but acknowledge it; that it was true, we were such people as they call heretics, but that he was not the first catholic that i had conversed with without falling into any inconveniencies, or carrying the questions to any height in debate; that he should not find himself the worse used for being of a different opinion from us; and if we did not converse without any dislike on either side, upon that score, it would be his fault, not ours. he replied, that he thought our conversation might be easily separated from disputes; that it was not his business to cap principles with every man he discoursed with; and that he rather desired me to converse with him as a _gentleman_ than as a _religieux_; that if i would give him leave at any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he would readily comply with it; and that then he did not doubt but i would allow him also to defend his own opinions as well as he could; but that without my leave he would not break in upon me with any such thing. he told me farther, that he would not cease to do all that became him in his office as a priest, as well as a private christian, to procure the good of the ship, and the safety of all that was in her; and though perhaps we would not join with him, and he could not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which he would do upon all occasions. in this manner we conversed; and as he was of a most obliging gentleman-like behaviour, so he was, if i may be allowed to say so, a man of good sense, and, as i believe, of great learning. he gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of the many extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which had befallen him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world, and particularly this was very remarkable; viz. that during the voyage he was now engaged in he had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped, and never to go to the place whither any of the ships he was in were at first designed: that his first intent was to have gone to martinico, and that he went on board a ship bound thither at st. maloes; but being forced into lisbon in bad weather, the ship received some damage by running aground in the mouth of the river tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there: that finding a portuguese ship there, bound to the madeiras, and ready to sail, and supposing he should easily meet with a vessel there bound to martinico, he went on board in order to sail to the madeiras; but the master of the portuguese ship being but an indifferent mariner, had been out in his reckoning, and they drove to fyal; where, however, he happened to find a very good market for his cargo, which was corn, and therefore resolved not to go to the madeiras, but to load salt at the isle of may, to go away to newfoundland. he had no remedy in the exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty good voyage as far as the banks, (so they call the place where they catch the fish) where meeting with a french ship bound from france to quebec, in the river of canada, and from thence to martinico, to carry provisions, he thought he should have an opportunity to complete his first design. but when he came to quebec the master of the ship died, and the ship proceeded no farther. so the next voyage he shipped himself for france, in the ship that was burnt, when we took them up at sea, and then shipped them with us for the east indies, as i have already said. thus he had been disappointed in five voyages, all, as i may call it, in one voyage, besides what i shall have occasion to mention farther of the same person. but i shall not make digressions into other men's stories which have no relation to my own. i return to what concerns our affair in the island. he came to me one morning, for he lodged among us all the while we were upon the island, and it happened to be just when i was going to visit the englishmen's colony at the farthest part of the island; i say, he came to me, and told me with a very grave countenance, that he had for two or three days desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped would not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might in some measure correspond with my general design, which was the prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps might put it at least more than he yet thought it was in the way of god's blessing. i looked a little surprised at the last part of his discourse, and turning a little short, "how, sir," said i, "can it be said, that we are not in the way of god's blessing, after such visible assistances and wonderful deliverances as we have seen here, and of which i have given you a large account?" "if you had pleased, sir," said he, with a world of modesty, and yet with great readiness, "to have heard me, you would have found no room to have been displeased, much less to think so hard of me, that i should suggest, that you have not had wonderful assistances and deliverances; and i hope, on your behalf, that you are in the way of god's blessing, and your design is exceeding good, and will prosper. but, sir," said he, "though it were more so than is even possible to you, yet there may be some among you that are not equally right in their actions; and you know that in the story of israel, one achan, in the camp, removed god's blessing from them, and turned his hand so against them, that thirty-six of them, though not concerned in the crime, were the objects of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of that punishment." i was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his inference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and was really so religious in its own nature, that i was very sorry i had interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and in the meantime, because it seemed that what we had both to say might take up some time, i told him i was going to the englishmens' plantation, and asked him to go with me, and we might discourse of it by the way. he told me he would more willingly wait on me thither, because there, partly, the thing was acted which he desired to speak to me about. so we walked on, and i pressed him to be free and plain with me in what he had to say. "why then, sir," says he, "be pleased to give me leave to lay down a few propositions as the foundation of what i have to say, that we may not differ in the general principles, though we may be of some differing opinions in the practice of particulars. first, sir, though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion, and it is very unhappy that it is so, especially in the case before us, as i shall shew afterwards, yet there are some general principles in which we both agree; viz. first, that there is a god, and that this god, having given us some stated general rules for our service and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him, either by neglecting to do what he has commanded, or by doing what he has expressly forbidden; and let our different religions be what they will, this general principle is readily owned by us all, that the blessing of god does not ordinarily follow a presumptuous sinning against his command; and every good christian will be affectionately concerned to prevent any that are under his care, living in a total neglect of god and his commands. it is not your men being protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such, that discharges me from being concerned for their souls, and from endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as little distance from and enmity with their maker as possible; especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit." i could not yet imagine, what he aimed at, and told him i granted all he had said; and thanked him that he would so far concern himself for us; and begged he would explain the particulars of what he had observed, that, like joshua, (to take his own parable) i might put away the accursed thing from us. "why then, sir," says he, "i will take the liberty you give me; and there are three things which, if i am right, must stand in the way of god's blessing upon your endeavours here, and which i should rejoice, for your sake, and their own, to see removed. and, sir," says he, "i promise myself that you will fully agree with me in them all as soon as i name them; especially because i shall convince you that every one of them may with great ease, and very much to your satisfaction, be remedied." he gave me no leave to put in any more civilities, but went on: "first, sir," says he, "you have here four englishmen, who have fetched women from among the savages, and have taken them as their wives, and have had many children by them all, and yet are not married to them after any stated legal manner, as the laws of god and man require; and therefore are yet, in the sense of both, no less than adulterers, and living in adultery. to this, sir," says he, "i know you will object, that there was no clergyman or priest of any kind, or of any profession, to perform the ceremony; nor any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a contract of marriage, and have it signed between them. and i know also, sir, what the spaniard governor has told you; i mean of the agreement that he obliged them to make when they took these women, viz. that they should choose them out by consent, and keep separately to them; which, by the way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement with the women as wives, but only an agreement among themselves, to keep them from quarrelling. "but, sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony (so he called it, being a roman) consists not only in the mutual consent of the parties to take one another as man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation that there is in the contract to compel the man and woman at all times to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the man to abstain from all other women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist; and on all occasions, as ability allows, to provide honestly for them and their children; and to oblige the women to the same, on like conditions, _mutatis mutandis_, on their side. "now, sir," says he, "these men may, when they please, or when occasion presents, abandon these women, disown their children, leave them to perish, and take other women and marry them whilst these are living." and here he added, with some warmth, "how, sir, is god honoured in this unlawful liberty? and how shall a blessing succeed your endeavours in this place, however good in themselves, and however sincere in your design, while these men, who at present are your subjects, under your absolute government and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open adultery?" i confess i was struck at the thing itself, but much more with the convincing arguments he supported it with. for it was certainly true, that though they had no clergyman on the spot, yet a formal contract on both sides, made before witnesses, and confirmed by any token which they had all agreed to be bound by, though it had been but the breaking a stick between them, engaging the men to own these women for their wives upon all occasions, and never to abandon them or their children, and the women to the same with their husbands, had been an effectual lawful marriage in the sight of god, and it was a great neglect that it was not done. but i thought to have gotten off with my young priest by telling him, that all that part was done when i was not here; and they had lived so many years with them now, that if it was adultery it was past remedy, they could do nothing in it now. "sir," says he, "asking your pardon for such freedom, you are right in this; that it being done in your absence, you could not be charged with that part of the crime. but i beseech you, matter not yourself that you are not therefore under an obligation to do your uttermost now to put an end to it. how can you think, but that, let the time past lie on whom it will, all the guilt for the future will lie entirely upon you? because it is certainly in your power now to put an end to it, and in nobody's power but yours." i was so dull still, that i did not take him right, but i imagined that by putting an end to it he meant that i should part them, and not suffer them to live together any longer; and i said to him i could not do that by any means, for that it would put the whole island in confusion. he seemed surprised that i should so far mistake him. "no, sir," says he, "i do not mean that you should separate them, but legally and effectually marry them now. and, sir, as my way of marrying may not be so easy to reconcile them to, though it will be as effectual even by your own laws; so your way may be as well before god, and as valid among men; i mean by a written contract signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present; which all the laws of europe would decree to be valid." i was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse, as to his own party or church, and such a true warmth for the preserving people that he had no knowledge of or relation to; i say, for preserving them from transgressing the laws of god; the like of which i had indeed not met with any where. but recollecting what he had said of marrying them by a written contract, which i knew would stand too, i returned it back upon him, and told him i granted all that he had said to be just, and on his part very kind; that i would discourse with the men upon the point now when i came to them. and i knew no reason why they should scruple to let him marry them all; which i knew well enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in england as if they were married by one of our own clergymen. what was afterwards done in this matter i shall speak of by itself. i then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint which he had to make, acknowledging i was very much his debtor for the first, and thanked him heartily for it. he told me he would use the same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped i would take it as well; and this was, that notwithstanding these english subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived with these women for almost seven years, and had taught them to speak english, and even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived, women of tolerable understanding and capable of instruction; yet they had not, to this hour taught them any thing of the christian religion; no not so much as to know that there was a god, or a worship, or in what manner god was to be served; or that their own idolatry, and worshipping they knew not who, was false and absurd. this, he said, was an unaccountable neglect, and what god would certainly call them to an account for; and perhaps at last take the work out of their hands. he spoke this very affectionately and warmly. "i am persuaded," says he, "had those men lived in the savage country whence their wives came, the savages would have taken more pains to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship the devil, than any of these men, so far as i can see, has taken with them to teach them the knowledge of the true god. now, sir," said he, "though i do not acknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet we should be all glad to see the devil's servants, and the subjects of his kingdom, taught to know the general principles of the christian religion; that they might at least hear of god, and of a redeemer, and of the resurrection, and of a future state, things which we all believe; they had at least been so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true church, than they are now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-worship." i could hold no longer; i took him in my arms, and embraced him with an excess of passion. "how far," said i to him, "have i been from understanding the most essential part of a christian, viz. to love the interest of the christian church, and the good of other men's souls! i scarce have known what belongs to being a christian."--"o, sir, do not say so," replied he; "this thing is not your fault."--"no," said i; "but why did i never lay it to heart as well as you?"--"it is not too late yet," said he; "be not too forward to condemn yourself."--"but what can be done now?" said i; "you see i am going away."--"will you give me leave," said he, "to talk with these poor men about it?"--"yes, with all my heart," said i, "and i will oblige them to give heed to what you say too."--"as to that," said he, "we must leave them to the mercy of christ; but it is our business to assist them, encourage them, and instruct them; and if you will give me leave, and god his blessing, i do not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought home into the great circle of christianity, if not into the particular faith that we all embrace; and that even while you stay here." upon this i said, "i shall not only give you leave, but give you a thousand thanks for it." what followed on this account i shall mention also again in its place. i now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame. "why really," says he, "it is of the same nature, and i will proceed (asking your leave) with the same plainness as before; it is about your poor savages yonder, who are, as i may say, your conquered subjects. it is a maxim, sir, that is, or ought to be received among all christians, of what church, or pretended church soever, viz. that christian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible means, and on all possible occasions. it is on this principle that our church sends missionaries into persia, india, and china; and that our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the most hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence among murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true god, and to bring them over to embrace the christian faith. now, sir, you have an opportunity here to have six or seven-and-thirty poor savages brought over from idolatry to the knowledge of god, their maker and redeemer, that i wonder how you can pass by such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth the expense of a man's whole life." i was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to say; i had here a spirit of true christian zeal for god and religion before me, let his particular principles be of what kind soever. as for me, i had not so much as entertained a thought of this in my heart before, and i believe should not have thought of it; for i looked upon these savages as slaves, and people whom, had we any work for them to do, we would have used as such, or would have been glad to have transported them to any other part of the world; for our business was to get rid of them, and we would all have been satisfied if they had been sent to any country, so they had never seen their own. but to the case: i say i was confounded at his discourse, and knew not what answer to make him. he looked earnestly at me, seeing me in some disorder; "sir," said he, "i shall be very sorry, if what i have said gives you any offence."--"no, no," said i, "i am offended with nobody but myself; but i am perfectly confounded, not only to think that i should never take any notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice i am able to take of it now. you know, sir," said i, "what circumstances i am in; i am bound to the east indies, in a ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferable piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying all this while at victuals and wages upon the owners' account. it is true, i agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if i stay more i must pay 32 sterling per diem demurrage; nor can i stay upon demurrage above eight days more, and i have been here thirteen days already; so that i am perfectly unable to engage in this work; unless i would suffer myself to be left behind here again; in which case, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of her voyage, i should be just in the same condition that i was left in here at first, and from which i have been so wonderfully delivered." he owned the case was very hard upon me as to my voyage, but laid it home upon my conscience, whether the blessing of saving seven-and-thirty souls was not worth my venturing all i had in the world for. i was not so sensible of that as he was, and i returned upon him thus: "why, sir, it is a valuable thing indeed to be an instrument in god's hand to convert seven-and-thirty heathens to the knowledge of christ: but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given over to that work, so that it seems naturally to fall into the way of your profession, how is it then that you do not rather offer yourself to undertake it, than press me to it!" upon this he faced about, just before me, as he walked along, and pulling me to a full stop, made me a very low bow: "i most heartily thank god, and you, sir," says he, "for giving me so evident a call to so blessed a work; and if you think yourself discharged from it, and desire me to undertake it, i will most readily do it, and think it a happy reward for all of the hazards and difficulties of such a broken disappointed voyage as i have met with, that i have dropped at last into so glorious a work." i discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this to me; his eyes sparkled like fire, his face bowed, and his colour came and went as if he had been falling into fits; in a word, he was tired with the agony of being embarked in such a work. i paused a considerable while before i could tell what to say to him, for i was really surprised to find a man of such sincerity and zeal, and carried out in his zeal beyond the ordinary rate of men, not of his profession only, but even of any profession whatsoever. but after i had considered it awhile, i asked him seriously if he was in earnest, and that he would venture on the single consideration of an attempt on those poor people, to be locked up in an unplanted island for perhaps his life, and at last might not know whether he should be able to do them any good or not? he turned short upon me, and asked me what i called a venture? "pray, sir," said he, "what do you think i consented to go in your ship to the east indies for?"--"nay," said i, "that i know not, unless it was to preach to the indians."--"doubtless it was," said he; "and do you think if i can convert these seven-and-thirty men to the faith of christ, it is not worth my time, though i should never be fetched off the island again? nay, is it not infinitely of more worth to save so many souls than my life is, or the life of twenty more of the same profession? yes, sir," says he, "i would give christ and the blessed virgin thanks all my days, if i could be made the least happy instrument of saving the souls of these poor men though i was never to set my foot off this island, or see my native country any more. but since you will honour me," says he, "with putting me into this work, (for which i will pray for you all the days of my life) i have one humble petition to you," said he "besides."--"what is that?" said i. "why," says he, "it is, that you will leave your man friday with me, to be my interpreter to them, and to assist me for without some help i cannot speak to them, or they to me." i was sensibly troubled at his requesting friday, because i could not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons. he had been the companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me, but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and i had resolved to do something considerable for him if he out-lived me, as it was probable he would. then i knew that as i had bred friday up to be a protestant, it would quite confound him to bring him to embrace another profession; and he would never, while his eyes were open, believe that his old master was a heretic, and would be damned; and this might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and so turn him back again to his first idolatry. however, a sudden thought relieved me in this strait, and it was this: i told him i could not say that i was willing to part with friday on any account whatever; though a work that to him was of more value than his life, ought to me to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with a servant. but on the other hand, i was persuaded, that friday would by no means consent to part with me; and then to force him to it without his consent would be manifest injustice, because i had promised i would never put him away, and he had promised and engaged to me that he would never leave me unless i put him away. he seemed very much concerned at it; for he had no rational access to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word of their language, nor they one word of his. to remove this difficulty, i told him friday's father had learnt spanish, which i found he also understood, and he should serve him for an interpreter; so he was much better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he would stay to endeavour to convert them; but providence gave another and very happy turn to all this. i come back now to the first part of his objections. when we came to the englishmen i sent for them all together; and after some accounts given them of what i had done for them, viz. what necessary things i had provided for them, and how they were distributed, which they were sensible of, and very thankful for; i began to talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full account of the notice the clergyman had already taken of it; and arguing how unchristian and irreligious a life it was, i first asked them if they were married men or bachelors? they soon explained their condition to me, and shewed me that two of them were widowers, and the other three were single men or bachelors. i asked them with what conscience they could take these women, and lie with them as they had done, call them their wives, and have so many children by them, and not be married lawfully to them? they all gave me the answer that i expected, viz. that there was nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep them as their wives; and to keep them and own them as their wives; and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as legally married as if they had been married by a parson, and with all the formalities in the world. i told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of god, and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that the laws of men being otherwise, they might pretend they were not married, and so desert the poor women and children hereafter; and that their wives, being poor, desolate women, friendless and moneyless, would have no way to help themselves: i therefore told them, that unless i was assured of their honest intent, i could do nothing for them; but would take care that what i did should be for the women and children without them; and that unless they would give some assurances that they would marry the women, i could not think it was convenient they should continue together as man and wife; for that it was both scandalous to men and offensive to god, who they could not think would bless them if they went on thus. all this passed as i expected; and they told me, especially will atkins, who seemed now to speak for the rest, that they loved their wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country, and would not leave them upon any account whatever; and they did verily believe their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and did to the utmost of their skill as much for them and for their children as any women could possibly do, and they would not part with them on any account: and will atkins for his own particular added, if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him home to england, and to make him captain of the best man of war in the navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her now with all his heart. this was just as i would have it. the priest was not with me at that moment, but was not far off. so to try him farther, i told him i had a clergyman with me, and if he was sincere i would have him married the next morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk with the rest. he said, as for himself, he need not consider of it at all, for he was very ready to do it, and was glad i had a minister with me; and he believed they would be all willing also. i then told him that my friend the minister was a frenchman, and could not speak english, but that i would act the clerk between them. he never so much as asked me whether he was a papist or protestant, which was indeed what i was afraid of. but i say they never inquired about it. so we parted; i went back to my clergyman, and will atkins went in to talk with his companions. i desired the french gentleman not to say any thing to them till the business was thorough ripe, and i told him what answer the men had given me. before i went from their quarter they all came to me, and told me, they had been considering what i had said; that they were very glad to hear i had a clergyman in my company; and they were very willing to give me the satisfaction i desired, and to be formally married as soon as i pleased; for they were far from desiring to part from their wives; and that they meant nothing but what was very honest when they chose them. so i appointed them to meet me the next morning, and that in the mean time they should let their wives know the meaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not forsake them, whatever might happen. the women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing, and were very well satisfied with it, as indeed they had reason to be; so they failed not to attend all together at my apartment next morning, where i brought out my clergyman: and though he had not on a minister's gown, after the manner of england, or the habit of a priest, after the manner of france; yet having a black vest, something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for his language i was interpreter. but the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the scruple he made of marrying the women because they were not baptized, and professed christians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his person; and there was no need after that to inquire whether he was a clergyman or no. indeed i was afraid his scruple would have been carried so far as that he would not have married them at all: nay, notwithstanding all i was able to say to him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very steadily; and at last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked with the men and the women too; and though at first i was a little backward to it, yet at last i agreed to it with a good will, perceiving the sincerity of his design. when he came to them, he let them know that i had acquainted him with their circumstances, and with the present design; that he was very willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them as i had desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the liberty to talk with them. he told them that in the sight of all different men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had lived all this while in an open adultery; and that it was true that nothing but the consenting to marry, or effectually separating them from one another now, could put an end to it; but there was a difficulty in it too, with respect to the laws of christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, viz. that of marrying one that is a professed christian to a savage, an idolater, and a heathen, one that is not baptized; and yet that he did not see that there was time left for it to endeavour to persuade the women to be baptized, or to profess the name of christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing of, and without which they could not be baptized. he told me he doubted they were but indifferent christians themselves; that they had but little knowledge of god or his ways, and therefore he could not expect that they had said much to their wives on that head yet; but that unless they would promise him to use their endeavours with their wives to persuade them to become christians, and would as well as they could instruct them in the knowledge and belief of god that made them, and to worship jesus christ that redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he would have no hand in joining christians with savages; nor was it consistent with the principles of the christian religion, and was indeed expressly forbidden in god's law. they heard all this very attentively, and i delivered it very faithfully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as i could, only sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them how just it was, and how i was of his mind: and i always very faithfully distinguished between what i said from myself and what were the clergyman's words. they told me it was very true what the gentleman had said, that they were but very indifferent christians themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives about religion.--"lord, sir," says will atkins, "how should we teach them religion? why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said he, "should we go to talk to them of god, and jesus christ, and heaven and hell, it would be to make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe ourselves? and if we should tell them we believe all the things that we speak of to them, such as of good people going to heaven, and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us, where we intended to go ourselves who believe all this, and yet are such wicked fellows, as we indeed are: why, sir," said will, "'tis enough to give them a surfeit of religion, at that hearing: folks must have some religion themselves before they pretend to teach other people."--"will atkins," said i to him, "though i am afraid what you say has too much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wife that she is in the wrong; that there is a god, and a religion better than her own; that her gods are idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great being that made all things, and that can destroy all that he has made; that he rewards the good, and punishes the bad; that we are to be judged by him, at last, for all we do here? you are not so ignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and i am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself." "that's true, sir," said atkins; "but with what face can i say any thing to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it cannot be true?" "not true!" said i; "what do you mean by that?"--"why, sir," said he, "she will tell me it cannot be true: that this god (i shall tell her of) can be just, or can punish or reward, since i am not punished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked creature as she knows i have been, even to her, and to every body else; and that i should be suffered to live, that have been always acting so contrary to what i must tell her is good, and to what i ought to have done." "why truly, atkins," said i, "i am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and with that i let the clergyman know what atkins had said, for he was impatient to know. "o!" said the priest, "tell him there is one thing will make him the best minister in the world to his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true penitents. he wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then be able to tell her, that there is not only a god, and that he is the just rewarder of good and evil; but that he is a merciful being, and, with infinite goodness and long-suffering, forbears to punish those that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; that he often suffers wicked men to go on a long time, and even reserves damnation to the general day of retribution: that it is a clear evidence of god, and of a future state, that righteous men receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they come into another world; and this will lend him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection, and of the last judgment: let him but repent for himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentance to his wife." i repeated all this to atkins, who looked very serious all the while, and who, we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily affected with it: when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make an end--"i know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more; but i han't the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when god and my own conscience knows, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that i have lived as if i never heard of god, or a future state, or any thing about it; and to talk of my repenting, alas! (and with that he fetched a deep sigh; and i could see that tears stood in his eyes,) 'tis past all that with me."--"past it, atkins!" said i; "what dost thou mean by that?"--"i know well enough what i mean, sir," says he; "i mean 'tis too late; and that is too true." i told my clergyman word for word what he said. the poor zealous priest (i must call him so; for, be his opinion what it will, he had certainly a most singular affection for the good of other men's souls; and it would be hard to think he had not the like for his own)--i say, this zealous, affectionate man could not refrain tears also: but recovering himself, he said to me, "ask him but one question: is he easy that it is too late, or is he troubled, and wishes it were not so?" i put the question fairly to atkins; and he answered with a great deal of passion, "how could any man be easy in a condition that certainly must end in eternal destruction? that he was far from being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time or the other ruin him." "what do you mean by that?" said i.--"why," he said, "he believed he should, one time or another, cut his own throat to put an end to the terror of it." the clergyman shook his head, with a great concern in his face, when i told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, said, "if that be his case, you may assure him it is not too late; christ will give him repentance. but pray," says he, "explain this to him, that as no man is saved but by christ, and the merit of his passion, procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man to receive mercy? does he think he is able to sin beyond the power or reach of divine mercy? pray tell him, there may be a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when god may refuse to hear; but that 'tis never too late for men to ask mercy; and we that are christ's servants are commanded to preach mercy at all times, in the name of jesus christ, to all those that sincerely repent: so that 'tis never too late to repent." i told atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest; for he said to me he would go and have some talk with his wife: so he went out awhile, and we talked to the rest. i perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion; much as i was when i went rambling away from my father; and yet that there were none of them backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do their endeavour to persuade them to turn christians. the clergyman smiled upon me when i reported what answer they gave, but said nothing a good while; but at last shaking his head, "we that are christ's servants," says he, "can go no farther than to exhort and instruct; and when men comply, submit to the reproof, and promise what we ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept their good words; but believe me, sir," said he, "whatever you may have known of the life of that man you call william atkins, i believe he is the only sincere convert among them; i take that man to be a true penitent; i won't despair of the rest; but that man is perfectly struck with the sense of his past life; and i doubt not but when he comes to talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it; for attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves. i knew a man," added he, "who having nothing but a summary notion of religion himself, and being wicked and profligate to the last degree in his life, made a thorough reformation in himself by labouring to convert a jew: and if that poor atkins begins but once to talk seriously of jesus christ to his wife, my life for it he talks himself into a thorough convert, makes himself a penitent; and who knows what may follow?" upon this discourse, however, and their promising as above to endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace christianity, he married the other three couple; but will atkins and his wife were not yet come in. after this, my clergyman waiting awhile, was curious to know where atkins was gone; and turning to me, says he, "i entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look; i dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or other, talking seriously with his wife, and teaching her already something of religion." i began to be of the same mind; so we went out together, and i carried him a way which none knew but myself, and where the trees were so thick set, as that it was not easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see out; when coming to the edge of the wood i saw atkins, and his tawny savage wife, sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse. i stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and then having shewed him where they were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while. we observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens; then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "now," says my clergyman, "you see my words are made good; the man preaches to her; mark him; now he is telling her that our god has made him, and her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees, &c."--"i believe he is," said i. immediately we perceived will atkins start up upon his feet, fall down upon his knees, and lift up both his hands; we supposed he said something, but we could not hear him; it was too far off for that: he did not continue kneeling half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks to her again. we perceived then the woman very attentive, but whether she said any thing or no we could not tell. while the poor fellow was upon his knees, i could see the tears run plentifully down my clergyman's cheeks; and i could hardly forbear myself; but it was a great affliction to us both, that we were not near enough to hear any thing that passed between them. well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of disturbing them; so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice. he sat down again, as i have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see him embrace her passionately; another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again, with a kind of transport very unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden jump up again and lend her his hand to help her up, when immediately leading her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes. my friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "st. paul, st. paul, behold he prayeth!"--i was afraid atkins would hear him; therefore i entreated him to withhold himself awhile, that we might see an end of the scene, which to me, i must confess, was the most affecting, and yet the most agreeable, that ever i saw in my life. well, he strove with himself, and contained himself for awhile, but was in such raptures of joy to think that the poor heathen woman was become a christian, that he was not able to contain himself; he wept several times: then throwing up his hands, and crossing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and by way of giving god thanks for so miraculous a testimony of the success of our endeavours: some he spoke softly, and i could not well hear; others audibly; some in latin, some in french; then two or three times the tears of joy would interrupt him, that he could not speak at all. but i begged that he would compose himself, and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, which he did for a time, and the scene was not ended there yet; for after the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, we observed he stood talking still eagerly to her; and we observed by her motion that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequent lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as usually express the greatest seriousness and attention. this continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away too; so that we could see no more of them in that situation. i took this interval to talk with my clergyman: and first i told him, i was glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to; that though i was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that i began to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his wife, however ignorant they both might be; and i hoped such a beginning would have yet a more happy end: "and who knows," said i, "but these two may in time, by instruction and example, work upon some of the others?"--"some of them!" said he, turning quick upon me, "ay, upon all of them: depend upon it, if those two savages (for _he_ has been but little better as you relate it) should embrace jesus christ, they will never leave till they work upon all the rest; for true religion is naturally communicative, and he that is once made a christian will never leave a pagan behind him if he can help it," i owned it was a most christian principle to think so, and a testimony of a true zeal, as well as a generous heart in him. "but, my friend," said i, "will you give me liberty to start one difficulty here? i cannot tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate concern which you shew for the turning the poor people from their paganism to the christian religion; but how does this comfort you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of the catholic church, without which, you believe, there is no salvation; so that you esteem these but heretics still; and, for other reasons, as effectually lost as the pagans themselves?" to this he answered with abundance of candour and christian charity, thus: "sir, i am a catholic of the roman church, and a priest of the order of st. benedict, and i embrace all the principles of the roman faith. but yet, if you will believe me, and this i do not speak in compliment to you, or in respect to my circumstances and your civilities; i say, nevertheless, i do not look upon you, who call yourselves reformed, without some charity: i dare not say, though i know it is our opinion in general, yet i dare not say, that you cannot be saved; i will by no means limit the mercy of christ, so far as to think that he cannot receive you into the bosom of his church, in a manner to us imperceivable, and which it is impossible for us to know; and i hope you have the same charity for us. i pray daily for your being all restored to christ's church, by whatsoever methods he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. in the mean time, sure you will allow it to consist with me, as a roman, to distinguish far between a protestant and a pagan; between him that calls on jesus christ, though in a way which i do not think is according to the true faith; and a savage, a barbarian, that knows no god, no christ, no redeemer at all; and if you are not within the pale of the catholic church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than those that know nothing at all of god or his church. i rejoice, therefore, when i see this poor man, who, you say, has been a profligate, and almost a murderer, kneel down and pray to jesus christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened; believing that god, from whom every such work proceeds, will sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge of the truth in his own time; and if god shall influence this poor man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage his wife, i can never believe that he shall be cast away himself; and have i not reason then to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the knowledge of christ, though they may not be brought quite home into the bosom of the catholic church, just at the time when i may desire it; leaving it to the goodness of christ to perfect his work in his own time, and his own way? certainly i would rejoice if all the savages in america were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to god, though they were to be all protestants at first, rather than they should continue pagans and heathens; firmly believing, that he who had bestowed that first light upon them, would farther illuminate them with a beam of his heavenly grace, and bring them into the pale of his church, when he should see good." i was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this truly pious papist, as much as i was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and it presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was universal, we might be all catholic christians, whatever church or particular profession we were joined to, or joined in; that a spirit of charity would soon work us all up into right principles; and, in a word, as he thought that the like charity would make us all catholics, as i told him, i believed had all the members of his church the like moderation they would soon be all protestants; and there we left that part, for we never disputed at all. however, i talked to him another way; and taking him by the hand, "my friend," said i, "i wish all the clergy of the roman church were blessed with such moderation, and an equal share of your charity. i am entirely of your opinion; but i must tell you, that if you should preach such doctrine in spain or italy, they would put you into the inquisition." "it may be so," said he; "i know not what they might do in spain and italy; but i will not say they would be the better christians for that severity; for i am sure there is no heresy in too much charity." well, as will atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over; so we went back our own way; and when we came back we found them waiting to be called in. observing this, i asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush, or no; and it was his opinion we should not; but that we should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us: so we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves; and i began with him thus: "will atkins," said i, "pr'ythee what education had you? what was your father?" _w.a._ a better man than ever i shall be. sir, my father was a clergyman. _r.c._ what education did he give you? _w.a._ he would have taught me well, sir; but i despised all education, instruction, or correction, like a beast as i was. _r.c._ it is true, solomon says, "he that despiseth reproof is brutish." _w.a._ ay, sir, i was brutish indeed; i murdered my father; for god's sake, sir, talk no more about that, sir; i murdered my poor father. _priest_. ha! a murderer? [here the priest started (for i interpreted every word as he spoke it), and looked pale: it seems he believed that will had really killed his own father.] _r.c._ no, no, sir, i do not understand him so. will atkins, explain yourself: you did not kill your father, did you, with your own hands? _w.a._ no, sir; i did not cut his throat; but i cut the thread of all his comforts, and shortened his days; i broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most tender, affectionate treatment that ever father gave, or child could receive. _r.c._ well, i did not ask you about your father to extort this confession; i pray god give you repentance for it, and forgive you that and all your other sins; but i asked you, because i see that, though you have not much learning, yet you are not so ignorant as some are in things that are good; that you have known more of religion a great deal than you have practised. _w.a._ though you, sir, did not extort the confession that i make about my father, conscience does; and whenever we come to look back upon our lives, the sins against our indulgent parents are certainly the first that touch us; the wounds they make lie deepest; and the weight they leave will lie heaviest upon the mind of all the sins we can commit. _r.c._ you talk too feelingly and sensible for me, atkins; i cannot bear it. _w.a. you_ bear it, master! i dare say you know nothing of it. _r.c._ yes, atkins, every shore, every hill, nay, i may say every tree in this island, is witness to the anguish of my soul for my ingratitude and base usage of a good tender father; a father much like yours by your description; and i murdered my father as well as you, will atkins; but think for all that, my repentance is short of yours too, by a great deal. [i would have said more, if i could have restrained my passions; but i thought this poor man's repentance was so much sincerer than mine, that i was going to leave off the discourse and retire, for i was surprised with what he said, and thought, that, instead of my going about to teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me, in a most surprising and unexpected manner.] i laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly affected with it, and said to me, "did i not say, sir, that when this man was converted he would preach to us all? i tell you, sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, here will be no need of me, he will make christians of all in the island." but having a little composed myself i renewed my discourse with will atkins. "but, will," said i, "how comes the sense of this matter to touch you just now?" _w.a._ sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart through my very soul; i have been talking about god and religion to my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a christian of her; and she has preached such a sermon to me as i shall never forget while i live. _r.c._ no, no; it is not your wife has preached to you; but when you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung them back upon you. _w.a._ ay, sir, with such a force as is not to be resisted. _r.c._ pray, will, let us know what passed between you and your wife; for i know something of it already. _w.a._ sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it: i am too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it: but let her have said what she will, and though i cannot give you an account of it, this i can tell you of it, that i resolve to amend and reform my life. _r.c._ but tell us some of it. how did you begin will? for this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain; she has preached a sermon indeed, if she has wrought this upon you. _w.a._ why, i first told her the nature of our laws about marriage, and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one or other to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be maintained, and men would run from their wives and abandon their children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be kept entire, or inheritances be settled by a legal descent. _r.c._ you talk like a civilian, will. could you make her understand what you meant by inheritance and families? they know no such thing among the savages, but marry any how, without any regard to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as i have been told, even the father and daughter, and the son and the mother. _w.a._ i believe, sir, you are misinformed;--my wife assures me of the contrary, and that they abhor it. perhaps for any further relations they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me they never touch one another in the near relations you speak of. _r.c._ well, what did she say to what you told her? _w.a._ she said she liked it very well; and it was much better than in her country. _r.c._ but did you tell her what marriage was? _w.a._ ay, ay, there began all our dialogue. i asked her, if she would be married to me our way? she asked me, what way that was? i told her marriage was appointed of god; and here we had a strange talk together indeed, as ever man and wife had, i believe. [n.b. this dialogue between w. atkins and his wife, as i took it down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:] _wife_. appointed by your god! why, have you a god in your country? _w.a._ yes, my dear; god is in every country. _wife._ no your god in my country; my country have the great old benamuckee god. _w.a._ child, i am very unfit to shew you who god is; god is in heaven, and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. _wife._ no makee de earth; no you god makee de earth; no make my country. [w.a. laughed a little at her expression of god not making her country.] _wife._ no laugh: why laugh me? this no ting to laugh. [he was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious than he at first.] _w.a._ that's true, indeed; i will not laugh any more, my dear. _wife._ why you say, you god make all? _w.a._ yes, child, our god made the whole world, and you, and me, and all things; for he is the only true god; there is no god but he; he lives for ever in heaven. _wife._ why you no tell me long ago? _w.a._ that's true, indeed; but i have been a wicked wretch, and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with any thing before, but have lived without god in the world myself. _wife._ what have you de great god in your country, you no know him? no say o to him? no do good ting for him? that no impossible! _w.a._ it is too true though, for all that: we live as if there was no god in heaven, or that he had no power on earth. _wife._ but why god let you do so? why he no makee you good live! _w.a._ it is all our own fault. _wife._ but you say me he is great, much great, have much great power; can make kill when he will: why he no make kill when you no serve him? no say o to him? no be good mans? _w.a._ that is true; he might strike me dead, and i ought to expect it; for i have been a wicked wretch, that is true: but god is merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve. _wife._ but then do not you tell god tankee for that too? _w.a._ no, indeed; i have not thanked god for his mercy, any more than i have feared god for his power. _wife._ then you god no god; me no tink, believe he be such one, great much power, strong; no makee kill you, though you makee him much angry! _w.a._ what! will my wicked life hinder you from believing in god! what a dreadful creature am i! and what a sad truth is it, that the horrid lives of christians hinder the conversion of heathens! _wife._ now me tink you have great much god up there, (_she points up to heaven_) and yet no do well, no do good ting? can he tell? sure he no tell what you do. _w.a._ yes, yes, he knows and seen all things; he hears us speak, sees what we do, knows what we think, though we do not speak. _wife_ what! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the great damn? _w.a._ yes, yes, he hears it all. _wife._ where be then the muchee great power strong? _w.a._ he is merciful; that is all we can say for it; and this proves him to be the true god: he is god, and not man; and therefore we are not consumed. [here will atkins told us he was struck with horror to think how he could tell his wife so clearly that god sees, and hears, and knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and all that we do; and yet that he had dared to do all the vile things he had done.] _wife._ merciful! what you call dat? _w.a._ he is our father and maker; and he pities and spares us. _wife._ so then he never makee kill, never angry when you do wicked; then he no good himself, or no great able. _w.a._ yes, yes, my dear; he is infinitely good, and infinitely great, and able to punish too; and some times, to shew his justice and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to destroy sinners and make examples; many are cut off in their sins. _wife._ but no makee kill you yet; then he tell you, may be, that he no makee you kill, so you make de bargain with him, you do bad ting, he no be angry at you, when he be angry at other mans? _w.a._ no, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon his goodness; and he would be infinitely just if he destroyed me as he has done other men. _wife._ well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead! what you say to him for that? you no tell him tankee for all that too! _w.a._ i am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true. _wife._ why he no makee you much good better? you say he makee you. _w.a._. he made me as he made all the world; 'tis i have deformed myself, and abused his goodness, and have made myself an abominable wretch. _wife._ i wish you makee god know me; i no makee him angry; i no do bad wicked ting. [here will atkins said his heart sunk within him, to hear a poor, untaught creature desire to be taught to know god, and he such a wicked wretch that he could not say one word to her about god, but what the reproach of his own carriage would make most irrational to her to believe; nay, that already she could not believe in god, because he that was so wicked was not destroyed.] _w.a._ my dear, you mean you wish i could teach you to know god, not god to know you, for he knows you already, and every thought in your heart. _wife._ why then he know what i say to you now; he know me wish to know him; how shall me know who makee me? _w.a._ poor creature, he must teach thee, i cannot teach thee; i'll pray to him to teach thee to know him; and to forgive me that i am unworthy to teach thee. [the poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him to make her know god, and her wishing to know him, that he said he fell down on his knees before her, and prayed to god to enlighten her mind with the saving knowledge of jesus christ, and to pardon his sins, and accept of his being the unworthy instrument of instructing her in the principles of religion; after which he sat down by her again, and their dialogue went on.] n.b. this was the time when we saw him kneel down and lift up his hands. _wife._ what you put down the knee for? what you hold up the hand for? what you say? who you speak to? what is that? _w.a._ my dear, i bow my knees in token of my submission to him that made me: i said o to him, as you call it, and as you say your old men do to their idol benamuckee; that is, i prayed to him. _wife._ what you say o to him for? _w.a._ i prayed to him to open your eyes and your understanding, that you may know him, and be accepted by him. _wife._ can he do that too? _w.a._ yes, he can; he can do all things. _wife._ but he no hear what you say? _w.a._ yes, he has bid us pray to him; and promised to hear us. _wife._ bid you pray? when he bid you? how he bid you? what you hear him speak? _w.a._ no, we do not hear him speak; but he has revealed himself many ways to us. [here he was at a great loss to make her understand that god had revealed himself to us by his word; and what his word was; but at last he told it her thus:] _w.a._ god has spoken to some good men in former days, even from heaven, by plain words; and god has inspired good men by his spirit; and they have written all his laws down in a book. _wife._ me no understand that: where is book? _w.a._. alas! my poor creature, i have not this book; but i hope i shall, one time or other, get it for you to read it. [here he embraced her with great affection; but with inexpressible grief, that he had not a bible.] _wife._ but how you makee me know that god teachee them to write that book? _w.a._ by the same rule that we know him to be god. _wife._ what rule? what way you know? _w.a._ because he teaches and commands nothing but what is good, righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as well as perfectly happy; and because he forbids, and commands us to avoid, all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its consequences. _wife._ that me would understand, that me fain see; if he reward all good thing, punish all wicked thing, he teachee all good thing, forbid all wicked thing, he makee all thing, he give all thing; he hear me when i say o to him, as you go to do just now; he makee me good if i wish be good; he spare me, no makee kill me when i no be good; all this you say he do: yes, he be great god; me take, think, believe him be great god; me say o to him too with you, my dear. here the poor man said he could forbear no longer; but, raising her up, made her kneel by him; and he prayed to god aloud to instruct her in the knowledge of himself by his spirit; and that by some good providence, if possible, she might some time or other come to have a bible, that she might read the word of god, and be taught by him to know him. [this was the time that we saw him lift her up by the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above.] they had several other discourses, it seems, after this, too long to set down here; and particularly she made him promise, that, since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocation against god, he would reform it, and not make god angry any more, lest he should make him dead, as she called it, and then she should be left alone, and never be taught to know this god better; and lest he should be miserable, as he told her wicked men should be after death. this was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but particularly the young clergyman; he was indeed wonderfully surprised with it; but under the greatest affliction imaginable that he could not talk to her; that he could not speak english to make her understand him; and as she spoke but very broken english he could not understand her. however, he turned himself to me, and told me, that he believed there must be more to do with this woman than to marry her. i did not understand him at first, but at length he explained himself, viz. that she ought to be baptized. i agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going about it presently: "no, no; hold, sir," said he; "though i would have her baptized by all means, yet i must observe, that will atkins, her husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to be willing to embrace a religious life; and has given her just ideas of the being of a god, of his power, justice, and mercy; yet i desire to know of him, if he has said any thing to her of jesus christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in him, and the redemption by him; of the holy spirit, the resurrection, the last judgment, and a future state." i called will atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her of all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life, that he trembled at the apprehensions, that her knowledge of him should lessen the attention she should give to those things, and make her rather contemn religion than receive it: but he was assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due impressions of all those things, that, if i would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that my labour would not be lost upon her. accordingly i called her in, and placing myself as interpreter between my religious priest and the woman, i entreated him to begin with her. but sure such a sermon was never preached by a popish priest in these latter ages of the world: and, as i told him, i thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity of a christian, without the errors of a roman catholic; and that i took him to be such a clergyman as the roman bishops were before the church of rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the consciences of men. in a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the knowledge of christ, and of redemption by him, not with wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions of a god, but with joy and faith, with an affection, and a surprising degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, much less to be expressed; and at her own request she was baptized. when he was preparing to baptize her, i entreated him that he would perform that office with some caution, that the man might not perceive he was of the roman church, if possible; because of other ill consequences which might attend a difference among us in that very religion which we were instructing the other in. he told me, that as he had no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the office, i should see he would do it in a manner that i should not know by it that he was a roman catholic himself it i had not known it before, and so he did; for saying only some words over to himself in latin, which i could not understand, he poured a whole dishfull of water upon the woman's head, pronouncing in french very loud _mary_ (which was the name her husband desired me to give her, for i was her godfather,) _i baptize thee in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost_; so that none could know any thing by it what religion he was of: he gave the benediction afterwards in latin; but either will atkins did not know but it was in french, or else did not take notice of it at that time. as soon as this was over, he married them; and after the marriage was over, he turned himself to will atkins, and in a very affectionate manner exhorted him not only to persevere in that good disposition he was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a resolution to reform his life; told him it was in vain to say he repented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him, how god had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to the knowledge of the christian religion; and that he should be careful he did not dishonour the grace of god; and that if he did, he would see the heathen a better christian than himself; the savage converted, and the instrument cast away! he said a great many good things to them both, and then recommended them, in a few words, to god's goodness; gave them the benediction again, i repeating every thing to them in english: and thus ended the ceremony. i think it was the most pleasant, agreeable day to me that ever i passed in my whole life. but my clergyman had not done yet; his thoughts hung continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain he would have staid upon the island to have undertaken it; but i convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable in itself; and secondly, that, perhaps, i could put it into a way of being done, in his absence, to his satisfaction; of which by and by. having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass, i was preparing to go on board the ship when the young man, whom i had taken out of the famished ship's company, came to me, and told me, he understood i had a clergyman with me, and that i had caused the englishmen to be married to the savages whom they called wives; that he had a match too, which he desired might be finished before i went, between two christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me. i knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's servant, for there was no other christian woman on the island. so i began to persuade him not to do any thing of that kind rashly, or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. i represented that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good friends, as i understood by himself, and by his maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she being twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again, and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be disadvantageous to both. i was going to say more, but he interrupted me, smiling; and told me, with a great deal of modesty, that i mistook in my guesses; that he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts, his present circumstances being melancholy and disconsolate enough; and he was very glad to hear that i had some thoughts of putting them in a way to see their own country again; and that nothing should have set him upon staying there, but that the voyage i was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of me, but that i would settle him in some little property of the island where he was; give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would settle himself here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever i returned to england, i would redeem him, and hoped i would not be unmindful of him when i came to england; that he would give me some letters to his friends in london, to let them know how good i had been to him, and what part of the world, and what circumstances i had left him in; and he promised me, that whenever i redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be wholly mine. his discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth, and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the match was not for himself. i gave him all possible assurances, that, if i lived to come safe to england, i would deliver his letters, and do his business effectually, and that he might depend i would never forget the circumstances i left him in. but still i was impatient to know who was the person to be married; upon which he told me it was my jack of all trades and his maid susan. i was most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for indeed i had thought it very suitable. the character of that man i have given already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, and religious young woman; had a very good share of sense; was agreeable enough in her person; spoke very handsomely, and to the purpose; always with decency and good manners, and not backward to speak when any thing required it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not her business; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was before her; an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been governess to the whole island; she knew very well how to behave herself to all kind of folks she had about her, and to better if she had found any there. the match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same day: and as i was father at the altar, as i may say, and gave her away, so i gave her a portion, for i appointed her and her husband a handsome large space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and the proposal the young gentleman made to me, to give him a small property in the island, put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation. this sharing out the land to them i left to will atkins, who indeed was now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious, and as far as i may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, i verily believe was a true sincere penitent. he divided things so justly, and so much to every one's satisfaction, that they only desired one general writing under my hand for the whole, which i caused to be drawn up, and signed and sealed to them, setting out the bounds and situation of every man's plantation, and testifying that i gave them thereby, severally, a right to the whole possession and inheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them and their heirs; reserving all the rest of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for every particular plantation after eleven years, if i or any one from me, or in my name, came to demand it, producing an attested copy of the same writing. as to the government and laws among them, i told them, i was not capable of giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; only made them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood with one another: and so i prepared to leave them. one thing i must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in hand, it was but odd to have seven-and-thirty indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and indeed unemployed; for excepting the providing themselves food, which they had difficulty enough in doing sometimes, they had no manner of business or property to manage: i proposed therefore to the governor spaniard, that he should go to them with friday's father, and propose to them to remove, and either plant for themselves, or take them into their several families as servants, to be maintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves, for i would not admit them to make them slaves by force by any means, because they had their liberty given by capitulation, and as it were articles of surrender, which they ought not to break. they most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very cheerfully along with him; so we allotted them land and plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employed as servants in the several families we had settled; and thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: the spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their plantation all along the side of the brook which made the creek that i have so often described, as far as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always eastward. the english lived in the north-east part, where will atkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the spaniards; and every plantation had a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, so that they need not jostle one another for want of room. all the west end of the island was left uninhabited, that, if any of the savages should come on shore there, only for their usual customary barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody, nobody would disturb them; and no doubt but they were often ashore, and went away again, for i never heard that the planters were ever attacked and disturbed any more. it now came into my thoughts that i had hinted to my friend the clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction; and i told him, that now i thought it was put in a fair way, for the savages being thus divided among the christians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those which came under their hands, i hoped it might have a very good effect. he agreed presently in that; "if," said he, "they will do their part; but how," says he, "shall we obtain that of them?" i told him we would call them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it--he to speak to the spaniards, who were all papists, and i to the english, who were all protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of papist or protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true god, and of their saviour jesus christ; and they likewise promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes one with another about religion. when i came to will atkins's house, (i may call it so, for such a house, or such a piece of basket-work, i believe was not standing in the world again!) i say, when i came thither i found the young woman i have mentioned above, and william atkins's wife, were become intimates; and this prudent and religious young woman had perfected the work will atkins had begun; and though it was not above four days after what i have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman was made such a christian as i have seldom heard of any like her, in all my observation or conversation in the world. it came next into my mind in the morning, before i went to them, that among all the needful things i had to leave with them, i had not left a bible; in which i shewed myself less considering for them than my good friend the widow was for me, when she sent me the cargo of 100_l_. from lisbon, where she packed up three bibles and a prayer-book. however, the good woman's charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them than i had done. i took one of the bibles in my pocket; and when i came to william atkins's tent, or house, i found the young woman and atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together (for william atkins told it me with a great deal of joy.) i asked if they were together now? and he said yes; so i went into the house, and he with me, and we found them together, very earnest in discourse: "o sir," says william atkins, "when god has sinners to reconcile to himself, and aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger: my wife has got a new instructor--i knew i was unworthy, as i was incapable of that work--that young woman has been sent hither from heaven--she is enough to convert a whole island of savages." the young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but i desired her to sit still; i told her she had a good work upon her hands, and i hoped god would bless her in it. we talked a little, and i did not perceive they had any book among them, though i did not ask, but i put my hand in my pocket, and pulled out my bible. "here," said i to atkins, "i have brought you an assistant, that perhaps you had not before." the man was so confounded, that he was not able to speak for some time; but recovering himself, he takes it with both hands, and turning to his wife, "here, my dear," says he, "did not i tell you our god, though he lives above, could hear what we said? here is the book i prayed for when you and i kneeled down under the bush; now god has heard us, and sent it." when he had said thus, the man fell in such transports of a passionate joy, that between the joy of having it, and giving god thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a child that was crying. the woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed god had sent the book upon her husband's petition: it is true that providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent sense; but i believed it would have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that individual book; but it was too serious a matter to suffer any delusion to take place: so i turned to the young woman, and told her we did not desire to impose upon the convert in her first and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain to her that god may be very properly said to answer our petitions, when in the course of his providence such things are in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we do not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular manner; and that it is our mercy it is not so. this the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that there was, i assure you, no priestcraft used here; and i should have thought it one of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so: but the surprise of joy upon will atkins is really not to be expressed; and there we may be sure was no delusion. sure no man was ever more thankful in the world for any thing of its kind than he was for this bible; and i believe never any man was glad of a bible from a better principle; and though he had been a most profligate creature, desperate, headstrong, outrageous, furious, and wicked to a great degree, yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well instructing children, viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, or ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children be ever so obstinate, refractory, or to appearance insensible of instruction; for if ever god in his providence touches the consciences of such, the force of their education returns upon them, and the early instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit of it. thus it was with this poor man. however ignorant he was, or divested of religion and christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with now more ignorant than himself; and that the least part of the instruction of his good father that could now come to his mind was of use to him. among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to insist much upon the inexpressible value of the bible, the privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the written oracle for his assistance. the young woman was very glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship among the goods which were not yet brought on shore. and now, having said so many things of this young woman, i cannot omit telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in it very informing and remarkable. i have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and did die on board that unhappy ship we met at sea; and how the whole ship's company being reduced to the last extremity, the gentlewoman and her son, and this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and starved; that is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger. one day being discoursing with her upon the extremities they suffered, i asked her if she could describe by what she felt what it was to starve, and how it appeared? she told me she believed she could, and she told her tale very distinctly thus: "first, sir," said she, "we had for some days fared exceeding hard, and suffered very great hunger, but now at last we were wholly without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine, and a little water. the first day after i had received no food at all, i found myself, towards evening, first empty and sickish at my stomach, and nearer night mightily inclined to yawning, and sleepy; i lay down on a couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when i lay down. after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in the morning, i found myself empty, and my stomach sickish again, and lay down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus i continued all the second day with a strange variety--first hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit. the second night, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than a draught of fair water, and being asleep, i dreamed i was at barbadoes, and that the market was mightily stocked with provisions, that i bought some for my mistress, and went and dined very heartily. "i thought my stomach was full after this, as it would have been after or at a good dinner; but when i waked, i was exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of famine; the last glass of wine we had i drank, and put sugar into it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon, i found the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and i lay, as they told me, stupid and senseless as one drunk for some time. "the third day in the morning, after a night of strange and confused inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, i awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and i question, had not my understanding returned and conquered it, i say, i question whether, if i had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe or no. "this lasted about three hours, during which time i was twice raging mad as any creature in bedlam, as my young master told me, and as he can now inform you. "in one of these fits of lunacy or distraction, whether by the motion of the ship or some slip of my foot i know not, i fell down, and struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which my mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose, and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, i sat down and bled into it a great deal, and as the blood ran from me i came to myself, and the violence of the flame or the fever i was in abated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger. "then i grew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for i had nothing in my stomach to bring up. after i had bled some time i swooned, and they all believed i was dead; but i came to myself soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my stomach, not to be described, not like the colic, but a gnawing eager pain for food, and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food, something like, as i suppose, the longing of a woman with child. i took another draught of water with sugar in it, but my stomach loathed the sugar, and brought it all up again; then i took a draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me, and i laid me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would please god to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, i slumbered awhile; and then waking, thought myself dying, being light with vapours from an empty stomach: i recommended my soul to god, and earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the sea. "all this while my mistress lay by me just, as i thought, expiring, but bore it with much more patience than i, and gave the last bit of bread she had to her child, my young master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it, and i believe it saved his life. "towards the morning i slept again, and first when i awaked i fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger, so that i got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition. had my mistress been dead, so much as i loved her, i am certain i should have eaten a piece of her flesh with as much relish and as unconcerned as ever i did the flesh of any creature appointed for food; and once or twice i was going to bite my own arm. at last i saw the basin in which was the blood had bled at my nose the day before; i ran to it, and swallowed it with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if i had wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. "though after it was down the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and i drank a draught of fair water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours, after it. this was the fourth day; and thus i held it till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, i had all these several circumstances over again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick again, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour; and my strength wasted exceedingly. at night i laid me down, having no comfort but in the hope that i should die before morning. "all this night i had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned into a disease, and i had a terrible colic and griping, wind instead of food having found its way into my bowels; and in this condition i lay till morning, when i was surprised a little with the cries and lamentations of my young master, who called out to me that his mother was dead. i lifted myself up a little, for i had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life. "i had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some sustenance, that i cannot describe them, with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite that nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and this condition i was in when i heard the seamen above cry out 'a sail! a sail!' and halloo and jump about as if they were distracted. "i was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress much less; and my master was so sick that i thought he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabin-door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such a combustion; nor had we any conversation with the ship's company for two days, they having told us they had not a mouthful of any thing to eat in the ship; and they told us afterwards they thought we had been dead. "it was this dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us, sir, you know as well as i, and better too." this was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to death as i confess i never met with, and was exceeding entertaining to me: i am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a good part of it; though i must own not so distinct and so feelingly as his maid, and the rather because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, though her constitution being stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a weakly woman too, she might struggle harder with it; i say, the poor maid might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bits something longer than she parted with any to relieve the maid. no question, as the case is here related, if our ship, or some other, had not so providentially met them, a few days more would have ended all their lives, unless they had prevented it by eating one another; and even that, as their case stood, would have served them but a little while, they being five hundred leagues from any land, or any possibility of relief, other than in the miraculous manner it happened.--but this is by the way; i return to my disposition of things among the people. and first, it is to be observed here, that for many reasons i did not think fit to let them know any thing of the sloop i had framed, and which i thought of setting up among them; for i found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among them, that i saw it plainly, had i set up the sloop, and left it among them, they would, upon very light disgust, have separated, and gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people, as i intended it to be; nor did i leave the two pieces of brass cannon that i had on board, or the two quarter-deck guns, that my nephew took extraordinary, for the same reason: i thought they had enough to qualify them for a defensive war, against any that should invade them; but i was not to set them up for an offensive war, or to encourage them to go abroad to attack others, which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon themselves and all their undertakings: i reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as i shall observe in its place. i have now done with the island: i left them all in good circumstances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship again the fifth day of may, having been five and twenty days among them; and, as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till i came to remove them, i promised to send some further relief from the brasils, if i could possibly find an opportunity; and particularly i promised to send them some cattle; such as sheep, hogs, and cows; for as to the two cows and calves which i brought from england, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them. the next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set sail, and arrived at the bay of all saints, in the brasils, in about twenty-two days; meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this, that about three days after we sailed, being becalmed, and the current setting strong to the n.n.e. running, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out of our course; and once or twice our men cried land, to the westward; but whether it was the continent, or islands, we could not tell by any means. but the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and the weather calm, we saw the sea, as it were, covered towards the land, with something very black, not being able to discover what it was; but, after some time, our chief mate going up the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried out, it was an army. i could not imagine what he meant by an army, and spoke a little hastily, calling the fellow a fool, or some such word: "nay, sir," says he, "don't be angry, for it is an army, and a fleet too; for i believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle along, and they are coming towards us too apace, and full of men." i was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of it, but said two or three times, we should all be devoured. i must confess, considering we were becalmed, and the current set strong towards, the shore, i liked it the worse; however, i bade him not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor, as soon as we came so near as to know that we must engage them. the weather continued calm, and they came on apace towards us; so i gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our sails. as for the savages, i told them they had nothing to fear from them but fire; and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head, and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this i did, that the men in the boats might be ready, with sheet and buckets, to put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix upon the outside of the ship. in this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by christians; my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, i mean of a thousand canoes; the most we could make of them when they came up, being about 126; and a great many of them too; for some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, some more, and the least six or seven. when they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which they had, doubtless, never seen before; nor could they, at first, as we afterwards understood, know what to make of us. they came boldly up however, very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to let them come too near them. this very order brought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it; for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. however, i called to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if they should shoot again. about half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell their design; and i easily found they were some of my old friends, the same sort of savages that i had been used to engage with. in a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, i ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; but being so near as to be within hearing, i made friday go out upon the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what they meant. whether they understood him or not, that i knew not; but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the foremost or nearest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and stooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere contempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately friday cried out they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my inexpressible grief, killed poor friday, no other man being in their sight. the poor fellow was shot with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky marksmen they were! i was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and companion, that i immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as they had never heard in their lives before. they were not above half a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only. the ill manners of turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neither did i know for certain whether that which would pass for the greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not; therefore, in return, i had only resolved to have fired four or five guns at them with powder only, which i knew would frighten them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor friday, whom i so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it, i thought myself not only justifiable before god and man, but would have been very glad if i could have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one of them. i can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming: the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot; so i suppose that many of them were lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life; above an hour after they were all gone. our small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we never knew any thing how it went with them; for they fled so fast that, in three hours, or thereabouts, we could not see above three or four straggling canoes; nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set sail for the brasils. we had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen, that he would neither eat nor speak; and we all fancied he would starve himself to death; but i took a way to cure him; for i made them take him, and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak: nor would that do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him; and then he followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said. however, at last, they took him in again, and then he began to be more tractable; nor did i ever design they should drown him. we were now under sail again; but i was the most disconsolate creature alive, for want of my man friday, and would have been very glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be; so we went on. we had one prisoner, as i have said; and it was a long while before we could make him understand any thing; but in time, our men taught him some english, and he began to be a little tractable: afterwards we inquired what country he came from, but could make nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and spoken in the throat, in such a hollow and odd manner, that we could never form a word from him; and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language as well if they were gagged, as otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate; but formed their words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune, with an open throat: he told us, however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little english, that they were going, with their kings, to fight a great battle. when he said kings, we asked him, how many kings? he said, there were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural _s_,) and that they all joined to go against two nation. we asked him, what made them come up to us? he said, "to makee te great wonder look."--where it is to be observed, that all those natives, as also those of africa, when they learn english, they always add two _e_'s at the end of the words where we use one, and place the accent upon the last of them; as _makee, takee_, and the like; and we could not break them of it; nay, i could hardly make friday leave it off, though at last he did. and now i name the poor fellow once more, i must take my last leave of him; poor honest friday! we buried him with all decency and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing him into the sea; and i caused them to fire eleven guns for him: and so ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had. we now went away with a fair wind for brasil, and, in about twelve days time, we made land in the latitude of five degrees south of the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of america. we kept on s. by e. in sight of the shore four days, when we made the cape st. augustine, and in three days came to an anchor off the bay of all saints, the old place of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil fate. never did a ship come to this part that had less business than i had; and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least correspondence on shore. not my partner himself, who was alive, and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant trustees, nor the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain me that favour; but my partner remembering that i had given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the augustines, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was, to go to the governor, and beg leave for me presently, with the captain, and one more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this upon condition absolutely capitulated for, that we should not offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person away without licence. they were so strict with us, as to landing any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that i got on shore three bales of english goods, such as fine broad-cloths, stuffs, and some linen, which i had brought for a present to my partner. he was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though (like me) he came from little at first; and though he knew not that i had the least design of giving him any thing, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth above thirty moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals in gold. but i was even with him in my present, which, as i have said, consisted of fine broad-cloth, english stuffs, lace, and fine hollands. also, i delivered him about the value of 100_l_. sterling, in the same goods, for other uses: and i obliged him to set up the sloop which i had brought with me from england, as i have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the refreshments i intended to my plantation. accordingly he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few days, for she was already framed; and i gave the master of her such instruction as he could not miss the place; nor did he miss it, as i had an account from my partner afterwards. i got him soon loaded with the small cargo i had sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop, and settle there, upon my letter to the governor spaniard, to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation; and giving him some clothes, and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood, having been an old planter in maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain. i encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired; and, as an addition, i gave him the savage which we had taken prisoner of war, to be his slave, and ordered the governor spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted, with the rest. when we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me, there was a certain very honest fellow, a brasil planter of his acquaintance, who had fallen into he displeasure of the church: "i know not what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, i think he is a heretic in his heart; and he has been obliged to conceal himself for fear of the inquisition;" that he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two daughters; and if i would let them go to the island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small stock to begin with; for the officers of the inquisition had seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little household stuff, and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though i hate his principles, yet i would not have him fall into their hands, for he will assuredly be burnt alive if he does." i granted this presently, and joined my englishman with them; and we concealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, till the sloop put out to go to sea; and then (having put all their goods on board the sloop some time before) we put them on board the sloop, after she was got out of the bay. our seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and their stock, indeed, was much alike, rich in tools, and in preparations, for a farm; but nothing to begin with, but as above. however, they carried over with them (which was worth all the rest) some materials for planting sugar-canes, with some plants of canes; which he (i mean the portugal man) understood very well. among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the island, i sent them, by this sloop, three milch-cows and five calves, about twenty-two hogs, among them, three sows big with pig, two mares, and a stone-horse. for my spaniards, according to my promise, i engaged three portugal women to go; and recommended it to them to marry them, and use them kindly. i could have procured more women, but i remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and there were but five of the spaniards that wanted; the rest had wives of their own, though in another country. all this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now (with this addition) between sixty and seventy people, besides little children; of which there were a great many: i found letters at london from them all, by way of lisbon, when i came back to england, being sent back to the brasils by this sloop; of which i shall take some notice in its place. i have now done with my island, and all manner of discourse about it; and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums, would do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read only of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to beware of the like; not cooled by almost forty years misery and disappointments; not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation; not made cautious by affliction and distress beyond irritation. i had no more business to go to the east indies, than a man at full liberty, and having committed no crime, has to go to the turnkey at newgate, and desire him to lock him up among the prisoners there, and starve him. had i taken a small vessel from england, and gone directly to the island; had i loaded her, as i did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for the plantation, and for my people; took a patent from the government here, to have secured my property, in subjection only to that of england, which, to be sure, i might have obtained; had i carried over cannon and ammunition, servants, and people to plant, and, taking possession of the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name of england, and increased it with people, as i might easily have done; had i then settled myself there, and sent the ship back, loaded with good rice, as i might also have done in six months time, and ordered my friends to have fitted her out again for our supply; had i done this, and staid there myself, i had, at least, acted like a man of common sense; but i was possessed with a wandering spirit, scorned all advantages, pleased myself with being the patron of these people i had placed there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty majestic way, like an old patriarchal monarch; providing for them, as if i had been father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation: but i never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one nation more than another; nay, i never so much as gave the place a name; but left it as i found it, belonging to no man; and the people under no discipline or government but my own; who, though i had an influence over them as father and benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or other, farther than voluntary consent moved them to comply: yet even this, had i staid there, would have done well enough; but as i rambled from them, and came thither no more, the last letters i had from any of them, were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent another sloop to the place; and who sent me word, though i had not the letter till five years after it was written, that they went on but poorly, were malecontent with their long stay there; that will atkins was dead; that five of the spaniards were come away; and that though they had not been much molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with them; that they begged of him to write to me to think of the promise i had made to fetch them away, that they might see their own country again before they died. but i was gone a wild-goose chase indeed, and they who will have any more of me, must be content to follow me through a new variety of follies, hardships, and wild adventures; wherein the justice of providence may be duly observed, and we may see how easily heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes to be our affliction and punish us most severely with those very things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be allowed in. let no wise man flatter himself with the strength of his own judgment, as if he was able to choose any particular station of life for himself. man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him; and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst counsellors. i say this with respect to the impetuous desire i had from a youth to wander into the world, and how evident it now was that this principle was preserved in me for my punishment. how it came on, the manner, the circumstance, and the conclusion of it, it is easy to give you historically, and with its utmost variety of particulars. but the secret ends of divine providence, in thus permitting us to be hurried down the stream of our own desires, are only to be understood of those who can listen to the voice of providence, and draw religious consequences from god's justice and their own mistakes. be it had i business or no business, away i went. it is no time now to enlarge any farther upon the reason or absurdity of my own conduct; but to come to the history--i was embarked for the voyage, and the voyage i went. i shall only add here, that my honest and truly pious clergyman left me here; a ship being ready to go to lisbon, he asked me leave to go thither; being still as he observed, bound never to finish any voyage he began. how happy had it been for me if i had gone with him! but it was too late now; all things heaven appoints are best. had i gone with him, i had never had so many things to be thankful for, and you had never heard of the second part of the travels and adventures of robinson crusoe; so i must leave here the fruitless exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. from the brasils we made directly away over the atlantic sea to the cape de bonne esperance, or, as we call it, the cape of good hope; and had a tolerable good voyage, our course generally south-east; now and then a storm, and some contrary winds. but my disasters at sea were at an end; my future rubs and cross events were to befal me on shore; that it might appear the land was as well prepared to be our scourge as the sea, when heaven, who directs the circumstances of things, pleases to appoint it to be so. our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the cape; only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to. this was none of my business, neither did i meddle with it at all; my nephew the captain, and the supercargo, adjusting all those things between them as they thought fit. we made no stay at the cape longer than was needful to take in fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of coromandel; we were indeed informed that a french man of war of fifty guns and two large merchant-ships were gone for the indies; and as i knew we were at war with france, i had some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we heard no more of them. i shall not pester my account, or the reader, with descriptions of places, journals of our voyages, variations of the compass, latitudes, meridian distances, trade-winds, situation of ports, and the like; such as almost all the histories of long navigation are full of, and which make the reading tiresome enough, and are perfectly unprofitable to all that read, except only to those who are to go to those places themselves. it is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passing from one to another. we touched first at the island of madagascar, where, though the people are fierce and treacherous, and, in particular, very well armed with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well with them awhile; they treated us very civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c. they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, middling in size, but very good in flesh, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use. we were obliged to stay here for some time after we had furnished ourselves with provisions; and i that was always too curious to look into every nook of the world wherever i came, was for going on shore as often as i could. it was on the east side of the island that we went on shore one evening, and the people, who by the way are very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a distance; as we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the people we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a distance from us, which, it seems, is a mark in the country not only of truce and friendship, but when it is accepted, the other side set up three poles or boughs also, which is a signal that they accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards them, nor they come past your three poles or boughs towards you; so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market for free converse, traffic, and commerce. when you go thither you must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them, and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles and lay hold of their weapons, and then the truce is at an end. it happened one evening when we went on shore, that a greater number of their people came down than usual, but all was very friendly and civil. they brought with them several kinds of provisions, for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had; their women also brought us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut, of some boughs of trees, and lay on shore all that night. i know not what was the occasion, but i was not so well satisfied to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat lying at an anchor about a stone's cast from the land, with two men in her to take care of her, i made one of them come on shore, and getting some boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, i spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and lay on board, under the cover of the branches of the trees, all night. about two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men make a terrible noise on the shore, calling out for god's sake to bring the boat in, and come and help them, for they were all like to be murdered; at the same time i heard the firing of five muskets, which was the number of the guns they had, and that three times over; for, it seems, the natives here were not so easily frighted with guns as the savages were in america, where i had to do with them. all this while i knew not what was the matter; but rousing immediately from sleep with the noise, i caused the boat to be thrust in, and resolved, with three fusils we had on board, to land and assist our men. we got the boat soon to the shore; but our men were in too much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged into the water to get to the boat with all the expedition they could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men. our men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusils with them; the rest, indeed, had pistols and swords, but they were of small use to them. we took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too, three of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse was, that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows in upon us so thick, that we were fain to barricade the side of the boat up with the benches and two or three loose boards, which to our great satisfaction we had by mere accident, or providence rather, in the boat. and yet had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they would have been sure of us. we had, by the light of the moon, a little sight of them as they stood pelting us from the shore with darts and arrows, and having got ready our fire-arms, we gave them a volley, and we could hear by the cries of some of them, that we had wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, which we suppose was that they might see the better to take their aim at us. in this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a tree with small shot. we made signals of distress to the ship, which though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her to assist us; but we called to them not to come too near, telling them what condition we were in; however, they stood in nearer to us; and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made the line fast to the boat, upon which we slipt our little cable, and leaving our anchor behind, they towed us out of the reach of the arrows, we all the while lying close behind the barricade we had made. as soon as we were got from between the ship and the shore, that she could lay her side to the shore, we ran along just by them, and we poured in a broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a terrible havoc among them. when we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. at length it came out, viz. that an old woman, who had come to sell us some milk, had brought it within our poles, with a young woman with her, who also brought some roots or herbs; and while the old woman (whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness to the wench that was with her, at which the old woman made a great noise. however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried her out of the old woman's sight, among the trees, it being almost dark. the old woman went away without her, and, as we suppose, made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice, raised this great army upon us in three or four hours; and it was great odds but we had been all destroyed. one of our men was killed with a lance that was thrown at him, just at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent we had made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his black mistress, for we could not hear what became of him a great while. we lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind presented, and made signals for him; made our boat sail up shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the loss had been the less. i could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore once more, to try if i could learn any thing of him or them. it was the third night after the action that i had a great mind to learn, if i could by any means, what mischief he had done, and how the game stood on the indian side. i was careful to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again; but i ought indeed to have been sure that the men i went with had been under my command before i engaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous, as i was brought into it without my knowledge or desire. we took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides the supercargo and myself; and we landed two hours before midnight, at the same place where the indians stood drawn up the evening before. i landed here, because my design, as i have said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left any marks behind them, or of the mischief we had done them; and i thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man again by way of exchange. we landed without any noise, and divided our men into two companies, whereof the boatswain commanded one, and i the other. we neither could hear nor see any body stir when we landed; so we marched up, one body at a distance from the other, to the field of battle. at first we could see nothing, it being very dark; but by and by our boatswain, that led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. this made them halt there awhile; for knowing by the circumstances that they were at the place where the indians had stood, they waited for my coming up. here we concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which we knew would be in less than an hour, and then we could easily discern the havoc we had made among them. we told two-and-thirty bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead. some had an arm, and some a leg, shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded we supposed they had carried away. when we had made, as i thought, a full discovery of all we could come at the knowledge of, i was for going on board again; but the boatswain and his party often sent me word, that they were resolved to make a visit to the indian town, where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and desired me to go along with them, and if they could find them, as they still fancied they should, they did not doubt, they said, getting a good booty, and it might be they might find thomas jeffrys there, that was the man's name we had lost. had they sent to ask my leave to go, i knew well enough what answer to have given them; for i would have commanded them instantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run who had a ship and a ship's loading in our charge, and a voyage to make, which depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to go along with them, i positively refused it, and rose up (for i was sitting on the ground) in order to go to the boat. one or two of the men began to importune me to go, and when i still refused positively, began to grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go. "come, jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me? i will go for one." jack said he would; and another followed, and then another; and, in a word, they all left me but one, whom, with much difficulty too, i persuaded to stay; so the supercargo and i, with one man, went back to the boat, where, i told them, we would stay for them, and take care to take in as many of them as should be left; for i told them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of them would run the fate of thomas jeffrys. they told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come off again, and they would take care, &c. so away they went. i entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage; that their lives were not their own; and that they were entrusted with the voyage in some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be lost for want of their help; and that they could not answer it to god and man. i said a great deal more to them on that head, but i might as well have talked to the main-mast of the ship; they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good words, and begged i would not be angry; said they would be very cautious, and they did not doubt but they would be back again in about an hour at farthest; for the indian town, they said, was not above half a mile off; though they found it above two miles before they got to it. well, they all went away as above; and though the attempt was desperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them their due, they went about it warily as well as boldly. they were gallantly armed, that is true; for they had every man a fusil or musket, a bayonet, and every man a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of them hangers, and the boatswain and two more had pole-axes; besides all which they had among them thirteen hand-grenadoes. bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked work in the world. when they went out their chief design was plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance, which none of them were aware of, set them on fire with revenge, and made devils of them all. when they came to the few indian houses, which they thought had been the town, which were not above half a mile off, they were under a great disappointment; for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses; and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. they consulted therefore what to do, and were some time before they could resolve; for if they fell upon these they must cut all their throats, and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped he would run away, and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them. again, on the other hand, if they went away, and left those untouched (for the people were all asleep), they could not tell which way to look for the town. however, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to leave those houses, and look for the town as well as they could. they went on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree: this they presently concluded would be a good guide to them; for they said the cow certainly belonged to the town before them or the town behind them, and if they untied her they should see which way she went: if she went back they had nothing to say to her, but if she went forward they had nothing to do but to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went on before them. in a word, the cow led them directly to the town, which, as they reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts; and in some of these they found several families living together. here they found all silent; as profoundly secure as sleep and a country that had never seen an enemy of that kind could make them. upon this they called another council to consider what they had to do, and in a word they resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and to set three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them; if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then, and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder; but resolved to march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it was of, and consider if they might venture upon it or no. they did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them; but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them that were a little before the rest called out aloud, and told them they had found thomas jeffrys; they all ran up to the place; and so it was indeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. there was an indian house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal indians who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their number. the sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, that they swore to one another they would be revenged, and that not an indian who came into their hands should have quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as by the rage and fury they were in might be expected. their first care was to get something that would soon take fire; but after a little search they found that would be to no purpose, for most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags or rushes, of which the country is full: so they presently made some wildfire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms of their hands; and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five places, and particularly that house where the indians were not gone to bed. as soon as the fire began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt, and especially at the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his pole-axe; the house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for an hand-grenado, and threw it among them, which at first frighted them; but when it burst made such havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous manner. in short, most of the indians who were in the open part of the house, were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more, who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more kept with the bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and dispatched all who came that way. but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince, or king, or whatsoever he was, and several others, were; and they kept in till the house, which was by this time all of a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered or burnt together. all this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them, and their business was to follow the fire for the surer execution. as fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or frighted them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing to one another to remember thomas jeffrys. while this was doing i must confess i was very uneasy, and especially when i saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to be just by me. my nephew the captain, who was roused by his men too, seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger i was in; especially hearing the guns too, for by this time they began to use their fire-arms. a thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the supercargo, what should become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might be in, he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes on shore to me. he was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no more than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing, for the noise continued and the flame increased. i confess it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity of knowing what had happened, or their concern for the safety of the men. in a word, the captain told me he would go and help his men, let what would come. i argued with him, as i did before with the men, the safety of the ship, and the danger of the voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c. and told him i would go, and the two men, and only see if we could, at a distance, learn what was like to be the event, and come back and tell him. it was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want of help; he had rather, he said, lose the ship, the voyage, and his life, and all: and so away went he. nor was i any more able to stay behind now than i was to persuade them not to go before; so, in short, the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from the ship, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back six men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us, so that he left only sixteen men in the ship; for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the first quarrel which brought this mischief on. being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the ground we trod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but went directly to the place of the flame. if the noise of the guns were surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another nature, and filled us with horror. i must confess i never was at the sacking of a city, or at the taking of a town by storm; i have heard of oliver cromwell taking drogheda in ireland, and killing man, woman, and child; and i had read of count tilly sacking the city of magdebourg, and cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but i never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror which was upon our minds at hearing it. however, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. the first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as we thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. in short, these were such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of it, we thought that every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but this was not all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. we advanced a little way farther, and beheld to our astonishment three women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they had indeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of our english butchers (for i can call them no better) in the rear, who, when they could not overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot fell down in our sight: when the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies; and that we would murder them as well as those that pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women, and two of them fell down as if already dead with the fright. my very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, when i saw this; and i believe had the three english sailors that pursued them come on, i had made our men kill them all. however, we took some ways to let the poor flying creatures know that we would not hurt them, and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentations to us to save them, which we let them know we would do; where upon they kept all together in a huddle close behind us for protection. i left my men drawn up together, and charged them to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of our people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intended to do; and in a word to command them off, assuring them that if they staid till daylight they would have a hundred thousand men about their ears: i say, i left them and went among those flying people, taking only two of our men with me; and there was indeed a piteous spectacle among them: some of them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling and running through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women had fallen down in the fire, and was almost burnt to death before she could get out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot through the body, and died while i was there. i would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but i could not understand one word they said, though by signs i perceived that some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves. i was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that i could not stay there, but went back to my own men: i told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when in the very moment came four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, running over the heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo, and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us. as soon as the boatswain saw us he set up a halloo, like a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without bearing to hear me, "captain," says he, "noble captain, i am glad you are come; we have not half done yet: villains! hell-hound dogs! i will kill as many of them as poor tom has hairs upon his head. we have sworn to spare none of them; we will root out the very name of them from the earth." and thus he ran on, out of breath too with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word. at last, raising my voice, that i might silence him a little, "barbarous dog!" said i, "what are you doing? i won't have one creature touched more upon pain of death. i charge you upon your life to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute." "why, sir," says he, "do you know what you do, or what they have done? if you want a reason for what we have done, come hither;" and with that he shewed me the poor fellow hanging upon a tree, with his throat cut. i confess i was urged then myself, and at another time should have been forward enough; but i thought they had carried their rage too far, and thought of jacob's words to his sons simeon and levi, "cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel." but i had now a new task upon my hands; for when the men i carried with me saw the sight as i had done, i had as much to do to restrain them, as i should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; for, as to the people, he thought not one of them ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. upon these words away ran eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew to complete their bloody work; and i, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad, for i could not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands. i got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, and with these i walked back to the boats. it was a very great piece of folly in me, i confess, to venture back as it were alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and bows at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood mentioned before, but by accident i missed the place, and came directly to the sea-side; and by that time i got to the sea-side it was broad day: immediately i took the pinnace and went aboard, and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen. i observed that about the time i came to the boat-side the fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half an hour after i got on board i heard a volley of our men's fire-arms, and saw a great smoke; this, as i understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the forty men, who, as i said, stood at the few houses on the way; of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or children. by the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men began to appear; they came dropping in some and some, not in two bodies, and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps, straggling here and there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men might have cut them all off. but the dread of them was upon the whole country. the people were amazed and surprised, and so frighted that i believe a hundred of them would have fled at the sight of but five of our men. nor in all this terrible action was there a man who made any considerable defence; they were so surprised between the terror of the fire, and the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again by another; so that they were every where knocked down. nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except one who strained his foot, and another had one of his hands very much burnt. i was very angry with my nephew the captain, and indeed with all the men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having the charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than cooling the rage of his men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise: my nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not master of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship, but as he was a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it. as for the rest of the men, they were not subject to me at all, and they knew it well enough, so they took no notice of my dislike. the next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. our men differed in the account of the number they killed; some said one thing, some another; but according to the best of their accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about a hundred and fifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town. as for the poor fellow, thomas jeffrys, as he was quite dead, for his throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do him no service to bring him away; so they left him where they found him, only took him down from the tree where he was hanged by one hand. however just our men thought this action to be, i was against them in it, and i always after that time told them god would blast the voyage; for i looked upon the blood they shed that night to be murder in them: for though it is true that they killed thomas jeffrys, yet it was as true that jeffrys was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had violated or debauched a young woman of theirs, who came to our camp innocently, and on the faith of their capitulation. the boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on board. he said, it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but really had not, and that the war was begun the night before by the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poor man had taken liberty with a wench, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such a villanous manner; and that they did nothing but what was just, and that the laws of god allowed to be done to murderers. one would think this should have been enough to have warned us against going on shore among heathens and barbarians; but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own experience; and their experience seems to be always of most use to them when it is dearest bought. we were now bound to the gulf of persia, and from thence to the coast of coromandel, only to touch at surat; but the chief of the supercargo's design lay at the bay of bengal, where if he missed of the business outward-bound he was to go up to china, and return to the coast as he came home. the first disaster that befel us was in the gulf of persia, where five of our men venturing on shore on the arabian side of the gulf were surrounded by the arabs, and either all killed or carried away into slavery; the rest of the boat's crew were not able to rescue them, and had but just time to get off their boat. i began to upbraid them with the just retribution of heaven in this case; but the boatswain very warmly told me, he thought i went farther in my censures than i could show any warrant for in scripture, and referred to the thirteenth of st. luke, ver. 4, where our saviour intimates that those men on whom the tower of siloam fell, were not sinners above all the galileans; but that which indeed put me to silence in this case was, that none of these five men who were now lost were of the number of those who went on shore to the massacre of madagascar (so i always called it, though our men could not bear the word _massacre_ with any patience:) and indeed this last circumstance, as i have said, put me to silence for the present. but my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences than i expected; and the boatswain, who had been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found that i continually brought that affair upon the stage, that i made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and himself in particular; that as i was but a passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know but i might have some ill design in my head, and perhaps call them to an account for it when they came to england; and that therefore, unless i would resolve to have done with it, and also not to concern myself farther with him, or any of his affairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it was safe to sail with me among them. i heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him that i did confess i had all along opposed the massacre of madagascar, for such i would always call it; and that i had on all occasions spoken my mind freely about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as to my having no command in the ship, that was true, nor did i exercise any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things which publicly concerned us all: as to what concern i had in the voyage, that was none of his business; i was a considerable owner of the ship, and in that claim i conceived i had a right to speak, even farther than i had yet done, and would not be accountable to him or any one else; and began to be a little warm with him: he made but little reply to me at that time, and i thought that affair had been over. we were at this time in the road to bengal; and being willing to see the place, i went on shore with the supercargo, in the ship's boat, to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he would not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board. any one may guess what a surprise i was in at so insolent a message; and i asked the man who bade him deliver that errand to me? he told me, the coxswain. i said no more to the fellow, but bid him let them know he had delivered his message, and that i had given him no answer to it. i immediately went and round out the supercargo, and told him the story, adding, what i presently foresaw, viz. that there would certainly be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately on board the ship in an indian boat, and acquaint the captain of it: but i might have spared this intelligence, for before i had spoken to him on shore the matter was effected on board: the boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and, in a word, all the inferior officers, as soon as i was gone off in the boat, came up to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the captain; and there the boatswain making a long harangue, (for the fellow talked very well) and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain in a few words, that as i was now gone peaceably on shore, they were loath to use any violence with me; which if i had not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone. they therefore thought fit to tell him, that as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it faithfully; but if i would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no farther with him; and at that word all, he turned his face about towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, the signal agreed on between them, at which all the seamen being got together, they cried out, "one and all, one and all!" my nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence of mind; and though he was surprised, you may be sure, at the thing, yet he told them calmly he would consider of the matter, but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it: he used some arguments with them, to shew them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round, before his face, that they would go all on shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come on board the ship. this was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and did not know how i might take it; so he began to talk cavalierly to them; told them that i was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that in justice he could not put me out of my own house; that this was next door to serving me as the famous pirate kid had done, who made the mutiny in the ship, set the captain on shore in an uninhabited island, and ran away with the ship; that let them go into what ship they would, if ever they came to england again it would cost them dear; that the ship was mine, and that he would not put me out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much; so they might do as they pleased. however, he would go on shore, and talk with me there, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter with me. but they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have nothing to do with me any more, neither on board nor on shore; and if i came on board, they would go on shore. "well," said the captain, "if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore, and talk with him:" so away he came to me with this account, a little after the message had been brought to me from the coxswain. i was very glad to see my nephew i must confess, for i was not without apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set sail, and run away with the ship; and then i had been stripped naked, in a remote country, and nothing to help myself: in short, i had been in a worse case than when i was all alone in the island. but they had not come to that length, it seems, to my great satisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how they had sworn, and shook hands, that they would one and all leave the ship, if i was suffered to come on board, i told him he should not be concerned at it at all, for i would stay onshore; i only desired he would take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and i would find my way to england as well as i could. this was a heavy piece of news to my nephew; but there was no way to help it, but to comply with it. so, in short, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship. so the matter was over in a very few hours; the men returned to their duty, and i begun to consider what course i should steer. i was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as i think i may call it, for i was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off from england than i was at my island; only, it is true, i might travel here by land, over the great mogul's country to surat, might go from thence to bassora by sea, up the gulf of persia, and from thence might take the way of the caravans, over the deserts of arabia, to aleppo and scanderoon, and from thence by sea again to italy, and so overland into france; and this, put together, might be, at least, a full diameter of the globe; but, if it were to be measured, i suppose it would appear to be a great deal more. i had another way before me, which was to wait for some english ships, which were coming to bengal, from achin, on the island of sumatra, and get passage on board them for england: but as i came hither without any concern with the english east india company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of the captains of the ships, or of the company's factors; and to both i was an utter stranger. here i had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties, to see the ship set sail without me; a treatment, i think, a man in my circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates running away with a ship, and setting those that would not agree with their villany on shore: indeed this was the next door to it both ways. however, my nephew left me two servants, or rather, one companion and one servant: the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me; and the other was his own servant. i took me also a good lodging in the house of an english woman, where several merchants lodged, some french, two italians, or rather jews, and one englishman. here i was handsomely enough entertained; and that i might not be said to run rashly upon any thing, i stayed here above nine months, considering what course to take, and how to manage myself. i had some english goods with me of value, and a considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more, if i had occasion, that i might not be straitened, whatever might happen. i quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as i originally intended, i bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all other things, was the most proper for me, in my circumstances, because i might always carry my whole estate about me. after a long stay here, and many proposals made for my return to england, but none falling to my mind, the english merchant, who lodged with me, and with whom i had contracted an intimate acquaintance, came to me one morning: "countryman," says he, "i have a project to communicate to you, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for aught i know, suit with yours also, when you shall have thoroughly considered it. "here we are posted," says he, "you by accident, and i by my own choice, in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it is in a country where, by us who understand trade and business, a great deal of money is to be got: if you will put a thousand pounds to my thousand pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds; you shall be captain, i'll be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage to china; for what should we stand still for? the whole world is in motion, rolling round and round; all the creatures of god, heavenly bodies and earthly, are busy and vibrant: why should we be idle? there are no drones," says he, "living in the world but men: why should we be of that number?" i liked this proposal very well; and the more because it seemed to be expressed with so much good will, and in so friendly a manner. i will not say, but that i might, by my loose and unhinged circumstances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, and indeed for any thing else; or otherwise trade was none of my element; however, i might, perhaps, say with some truth, that if trade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeing any part of the world, which i had never seen before, could possibly come amiss to me. it was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our mind; and when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get english sailors; that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage, and manage the sailors which we should pick up there. after some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, english; a dutch carpenter, and three portuguese foremast-men: with these we found we could do well enough, having indian seamen, such as they are, to make up. there are so many travellers who have written the history of their voyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little diversion to any body, to give a long account of the places we went to, and the people who inhabit there: those things i leave to others, and refer the reader to those journals and travels of englishmen, many of which, i find, are published, and more promised every day. it is enough for me to tell you that we made the voyage to achin, in the island of sumatra, first; and from thence to siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium, and for some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price among the chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wanted there: in a word, we went up to susham; made a very great voyage; were eight months out; and returned to bengal: and i was very well satisfied with my adventure. i observe, that our people in england often admire how the officers, which the company send into india, and the merchants which generally stay there, get such very good estates as they do, and sometimes come home worth sixty, seventy, and a hundred thousand pounds at a time. but it is no wonder, or, at least, we shall see so much farther into it, when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a free commerce, that it will then be no wonder; and much less will it be so, when we consider, that at all those places and ports where the english ships come, there is so much, and such constant demand for the growth of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the return, as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out. in short, we made a very good voyage, and i got so much money by the first adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting more, that, had i been twenty years younger, i should have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther for making my fortune: but what was all this to a man on the wrong side of threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the world, than a covetous desire of getting in it? and indeed i think it is with great justice that i now call it a restless desire, for it was so: when i was at home, i was restless to go abroad; and now i was abroad, i was restless to be at home. i say, what was this gain to me? i was rich enough already; nor had i any uneasy desires about getting more money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage to me were things of no great force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther undertakings: hence i thought, that by this voyage i had made no progress at all; because i was come back, as i might call it, to the place from whence i came, as to a home; whereas my eye, which, like that which solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing, was still more desirous of wandering and seeing. i was come into a part of the world which i never was in before; and that part in particular which i had heard much of; and was resolved to see as much of it as i could; and then i thought i might say i had seen all the world that was worth seeing. but my fellow-traveller and i had different notions: i do not name this to insist upon my own, for i acknowledge his was most just, and the most suited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is abroad upon adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best thing for him, which he is like to get the most money by. my new friend kept himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to have gone, like a carrier's horse, always to the same inn, backward and forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: on the other hand, mine, as old as i was, was the notion of a mad rambling boy, that never cares to see a thing twice over. but this was not all: i had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable, which way to go. in the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the search for business, proposed another voyage to me, viz. among the spice islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the manillas, or thereabouts; places where, indeed, the dutch do trade, but the islands belong partly to the spaniards; though we went not so far, but to some other, where they have not the whole power as they have at batavia, ceylon, &c. we were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at last, nothing else offering, and finding that really stirring about and trading, the profit being so great, and, as i may say, certain, had more pleasure in it, and more satisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of life, i resolved on this voyage too: which we made very successfully, touching at borneo, and several islands, whose names i do not remember, and came home in about five months. we sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs, to the persian merchants, who carried them away for the gulf; and, making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money. my friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: "well now," said he, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent temper, "is not this better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorace of the pagans?"--"why truly," said i, "my friend, i think it is; and i begin to be a convert to the principles of merchandising. but i must tell you," said i, "by the way, you do not know what i am doing; for if once i conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, as old as i am, i shall harass you up and down the world till i tire you; for i shall pursue it so eagerly, i shall never let you lie still." but to be short with my speculations: a little while after this there came in a dutch ship from batavia; she was a coaster, not an european trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly, that the captain had not men enough to go to sea with, he lay by at bengal; and, as if having got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to go for europe, he gave public notice, that he would sell his ship; this came to my ears before my new partner heard of it; and i had a great mind to buy it. so i went home to him, and told him of it: he considered awhile, for he was no rash man neither; but musing some time, he replied, "she is a little too big; but, however, we will have her." accordingly we bought the ship; and, agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession; when we had done so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them with those we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a sudden, they not having received their wages, but their share of the money, as we afterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. we inquired much about them, and at length were told, that they were all gone together, by land, to agra, the great city of the mogul's residence; and from thence were to travel to surat, and so by sea to the gulf of persia. nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that i missed the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, i thought, and in such company as would both have guarded me and diverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design; and i should both have seen the world, and gone homewards too; but i was much better satisfied a few days after, when i came to know what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which they were attacked on shore by some of the malaccans, who had killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was killed, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with the ship, which they did; and had brought her in at the bay of bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom we shall hear farther. well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, i confess, examine into things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the seamen, who, if we had examined, would certainly have faltered in their accounts, contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or, one how or other, we should have seen reason to have suspected them: but the man shewed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one emanuel clostershoven, or some such name, (for i suppose it was all a forgery) and called himself by that name; and we could not contradict him; and being withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain. however, we picked up some english seamen here after this, and some dutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to the south-east, for cloves, &c. that is to say, among the philippine and malacca isles; and, in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what is yet to come is so remarkable, i spent, from first to last, six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with very good success; and was now the last year with my partner, going in the ship above-mentioned, on a voyage to china; but designing first to go to siam, to buy rice. in this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a great while in the straits of malacca, and among the islands, we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship had sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out where it was. this forced us to make for some port; and my partner, who knew the country better than i did, directed the captain to put into the river of cambodia; for i had made the english mate, one mr. thompson, captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself. this river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes up to siam. while we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there comes to me one day an englishman, and he was, it seems, a gunner's mate on board an english east india ship, which rode in the same river, up at or near the city of cambodia: what brought him hither we knew not; but he comes up to me, and, speaking english, "sir," says he, "you are a stranger to me, and i to you; but i have something to tell you, that very nearly concerns you." i looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first i had known him, but i did not. "if it very nearly concerns me," said i, "and not yourself, what moves you to tell it me?"--"i am moved," says he, "by the imminent danger you are in; and, for aught i see, you have no knowledge of it."--"i know no danger i am in," said i, "but that my ship is leaky, and i cannot find it out; but i propose to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if i can find it."--"but, sir," says he, "leaky or not leaky, find it or not find it, you will be wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you hear what i have to say to you. do you know, sir," said he, "the town of cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this river? and there are two large english ships about five leagues on this side, and three dutch."--"well," said i, "and what is that to me?"--"why, sir," says he, "is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are there, and whether he is able to deal with them? i suppose you do not think you are a match for them?" i was amused very much at his discourse, but not amazed at it; for i could not conceive what he meant; and i turned short upon him, and said, "sir, i wish you would explain yourself; i cannot imagine what reason i have to be afraid of any of the company's ships, or dutch ships; i am no interloper; what can they have to say to me?" he looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing awhile, but smiling, "well, sir," says he, "if you think yourself secure, you must take your chance; i am sorry your fate should blind you against good advice; but assure yourself if you do not put to sea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men; and, perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined into afterwards. i thought, sir," added he, "i should have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a piece of service of such importance."--"i can never be ungrateful," said i, "for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehension," said i, "what they should have such a design upon me for; however, since you say there is no time to be lost, and that there is some villanous design in hand against me, i will go on board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the leak, or if we can swim without stopping it: but, sir," said i, "shall i go away ignorant of the reason of all this? can you give me no farther light into it?" "i can tell you but part of the story, sir," says he; "but i have a dutch seaman here with me, and, i believe, i could persuade him to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the short of the story is this, the first part of which, i suppose, you know well enough, viz. that you were with this ship at sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the malaccans, with three of his men; and that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned pirates. this is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized as pirates, i can assure you, and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant-ships shew but little law to pirates, if they get them in their power." "now you speak plain english," said i, "and i thank you; and though i know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but i am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such work is a-doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, i will be upon my guard."--"nay, sir," says he, "do not talk of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of the danger: if you have any regard to your life, and the lives of all your men, put out to sea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high water; and as they have twenty miles to come, you'll get near two hours of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows." "well," said i, "you have been very kind in this: what shall i do for you to make you amends?"--"sir," says he, "you may not be so willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it: i will make an offer to you; i have nineteen months pay due to me on board the ship ----, which i came out of england in; and the dutchman, that is with me, has seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with you: if you find nothing more in it, we will desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have saved your life, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you." i consented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the two men with me. as soon as i came to the ship's side, my partner, who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a great deal of joy, "o ho! o ho! we have stopped the leak!"--"say you so?" said i; "thank god; but weigh the anchor then immediately."--"weigh!" says he; "what do you mean by that? what is the matter?" says he. "ask no questions," said i, "but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute." he was surprised: but, however, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite done, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; then i called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us up a great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin door, and calls out to us, that the captain made him tell us, we were chased. "chased!" said i; "by whom, and by what?"--"by five sloops, or boats," said the fellow, "full of men."--"very well," said i; "then it is apparent there is something in it." in the next place, i ordered all our men to be called up; and told them, that there was a design to seize the ship, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one another? the men answered, cheerfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us. then i asked the captain, what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist them i resolved we would, and that to the last drop. he said, readily, that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we could, and then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we should retire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us. the gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being five large long-boats following us, with all the sail they could make. two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were english, had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a head of them, and gained upon us considerably; so that we found they would come up with us: upon which we fired a gun without a shot, to intimate that they should bring to; and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but they kept crowding after us, till they came within shot: upon this we took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it; hung out the red flag, and fired at them with shot; notwithstanding this, they came on till they were near enough to call to them with a speaking, trumpet, which we had on board; so we called to them, and bade them keep off at their peril. it was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come under our stern, so to board us on our quarter: upon which, seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that followed them, i ordered to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon our broadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them; one of them had been levelled so true, as to carry away the stern of the hindermost boat, and bring them to the necessity of taking down their sail, and running all to the head of the boat to keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost boat still crowd on after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular. while this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind, being forwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her take out the men: we called again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce to parley again, and to know what was her business with us; but had no answer: only she crowded close under our stern. upon this our gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow, run out his two chase-guns, and fired at her; but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on; but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a second time; one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see had done a great deal of mischief among them; but we, taking no notice of that, weared the ship again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them; and, firing three guns more, we found the boat was split almost to pieces; in particular, her rudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot quite away; so they handed their sail immediately, and were in great disorder; but, to complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some of the men already in the water. upon this i immediately manned out our pinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders to pick up some of the men, if they could, and save them from drowning, and immediately to come on board with them; because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. our men in the pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men; one of which was just drowning, and it was a good while before we could recover him. as soon as they were on board, we crowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we found, that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they gave over their chase. being thus delivered from a danger, which though i knew not the reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than i apprehended, i took care that we should change our course, and not let any one imagine whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of all european ships, whether they were bound to china, or any where else within the commerce of the european nations. when we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two seamen, and inquire first, what the meaning of all this should be? the dutchman let us into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the fellow that sold us the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief that had run away with her. then he told us how the captain, whose name too he mentioned, though i do not remember it now, was treacherously murdered by the natives on the coast of malacca, with three of his men; and that he, this dutchman, and four more, got into the woods, where they wandered about a great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculous manner, made his escape, and swam off to a dutch ship, which sailing near the shore, in its way from china, had sent their boat on shore for fresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the shore where the boat was, but made shift in the night to take in the water farther off, and swimming a great while, at last the ship's boat took him up. he then told us, that he went to batavia, where two of the seamen belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in their travels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had run away with the ship, sold her at bengal to a set of pirates, which were gone a-cruising in her; and that they had already taken an english ship, and two dutch ships, very richly laden. this latter part we found to concern us directly; and though we knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we had fallen into their hands, and they had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any good quarters at their hands; especially considering that our accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and ungoverned passion have executed; and therefore it was his opinion, we should go directly back to bengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever; because there we could give an account of ourselves, and could prove where we were when the ship put in, whom we bought her of, and the like; and, which was more than all the rest, if we were put to the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice; and not be hanged first, and judged afterwards. i was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more serious thinking, i told him, i thought it was a very great hazard for us to attempt returning to bengal, for that we were on the wrong side of the straits of malacca; and that if the alarm was given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side, as well by the dutch of batavia, as the english elsewhere; that if we should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. i also asked the english sailor's opinion, who said, he was of my mind, and that we should certainly be taken. this danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's company; and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of tonquin, and so on to china; and from thence pursuing the first design, as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels of the country, such as we could get. this was approved of as the best method for our security; and accordingly we steered away n.n.e. keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward. this, however, put us to some inconvenience; for first the winds when we came to that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade as we call it, from the e. and e.n.e.; so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and, which was still worse, there was some danger that those english and dutch ships, whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, might be got in before us; and if not, some other ship bound to china might have information of us from them, and pursue us with the same vigour. i must confess i was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including the last escape from the long boats, to have been in the most dangerous condition that ever i was in through all my past life; for whatever ill circumstances i had been in, i was never pursued for a thief before; nor had i ever done any thing that merited the name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. i had chiefly been mine own enemy; or, as i may rightly say, i had been nobody's enemy but my own. but now i was embarrassed in the worst condition imaginable; for though i was perfectly innocent, i was in no condition to make that innocence appear: and if i had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt of the worst kind; at least a crime esteemed so among the people i had to do with. this made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it i knew not; or what port or place we should go to. my partner, seeing me thus dejected, though he was the most concerned at first, began to encourage me; and describing to me the several ports of the coast, told me, he would put in on the coast of cochinchina, or the bay of tonquin; intending to go afterwards to macao, a town once in the possession or the portuguese, and where still a great many european families resided, and particularly the missionary priests usually went thither, in order to their going forward to china. hither we then resolved to go; and accordingly, though after a tedious and irregular course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon reflection upon the past circumstances we were in, and the danger, if we had not escaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland or by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port thereabouts. this happy step was, indeed, our deliverance; for though we did not immediately see any european ships in the bay of tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two dutch ships; and a third without any colours; spread out, but which we believed to be a dutchman, passed by at about two leagues distance, steering for the coast of china; and in the afternoon went by two english ships, steering the same course; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies, both one way and the other. the place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by occupation or profession; and though, it is true, we had not much to seek of them, and except getting a few provisions, cared not how little we had to do with them; yet it was with much difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways. we were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-east to the point of land which opens to the great bay of tonquin: and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered as above, that, in a word, we were surrounded with enemies. the people we were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; having no correspondence with any other nation, and dealing only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities; and it may be particularly seen that they are, as i said, the most barbarous of any of the inhabitants, viz. that among other customs they have this one, that if any vessel had the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they presently make the men all prisoners; that is to say, slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of their kindness this way, on the occasion following: i have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that we could not find it out: and however it happened, that, as i have said, it was stopped unexpectedly, in the happy minute of our being to be seized by the dutch and english ships, near the bay of siam; yet, as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved, while we were in this place, to lay her on shore, take out what heavy things we had on board, which were not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, and if possible to find out where the leaks were. accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns, and other moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we might come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, we did not care to lay her dry aground, neither could we find out a proper place for it. the inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a sight, came wondering down to the shore to look at us; and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages, and with their boats, on the off side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay so very fast on the ground. on this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours time, with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plunder the ship; and if they had found us there, to have carried us away for slaves to their king, or whatever they call him, for we knew not who was their governor. when they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they discovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship's bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring man knows how. they stood for awhile gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work to defend themselves with, if there should be occasion; and it was no more than need; for in less than a quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck; that we were all at work endeavouring to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the boats, they concluded by that motion that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. upon this they took it for granted they all belonged to them, and away they came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line of battle. our men seeing so many of them began to be frighted, for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what they should do? i immediately called to the men who worked upon the stages, to slip them down and get up the side into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board; and those few of us who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights; but, however, neither the men upon the stage, nor those in the boats, could do as they were ordered, before the cochinchinese were upon them, and with two of their boats boarded our long-boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners. the first man they laid hold of was an english seaman, a stout, strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool as i thought. but he understood his business better than i could teach him; for he grappled the pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their own boat into ours; where taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against the boat's gunnel, that the fellow died instantly in his hands; and in the mean time a dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the but-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attempted to enter the boat. but this was little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who fearless, because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the long-boat, where we had but five men to defend it. but one accident gave our men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather than any thing else, and that was this:-our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat; one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights used for that work; and the man that tended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with that hot stuff: two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the fore-sheets; he immediately sainted them with a ladleful of the stuff, boiling hot, which so burnt and scalded them, being half naked, that they roared out like two bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. the carpenter saw it, and cried out, "well done, jack, give them some more of it;" when stepping forward himself, he takes one of their mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully, that, in short, of all the men in three boats, there was not one that was not scalded and burnt with it in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and made such a howling and crying, that i never heard a worse noise, and, indeed, nothing like it; for it was worth observing, that though pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every nation have a particular way of exclamation, and make noises as different from one another as their speech. i cannot give the noise these creatures made a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to the tone of it; for i never heard any thing more like the noise of the wolves, which, as i have said, i heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of languedoc. i was never pleased with a victory better in my life; not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent before; but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the fellow killed with his naked hands, and which i was very much concerned at; for i was sick of killing such poor savage wretches, even though it was in my own defence, knowing they came on errands which they thought just, and knew no better; and that though it may be a just thing, because necessary, for there is no necessary wickedness in nature; yet i thought it was a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, i think so still; and i would, even now, suffer a great deal, rather than i would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me. i believe also, all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it. but to return to my story. all the while this was doing, my partner and i, who managed the rest of the men on board, had, with great dexterity, brought the ship almost to rights; and, having gotten the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among them. i called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; but bade him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on board, took care of. but the enemy was so terrified with what they met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them that were farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we supposed, to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected. thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having gotten some rice, and some roots and bread, with about sixteen good big hogs on board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us. we therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail. in the meantime, lying at an anchor some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a lighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. the next day, having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. we would have gone into the bay of tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on n.e. towards the isle of formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a dutch or english merchant-ship, as a dutch or english merchant-ship in the mediterranean is of an algerine man of war. when we were thus got to sea, we kept on n.e. as if we would go to the manillas or the philippine islands, and this we did, that we might not fall into the way of any of the european ships; and then we steered north again, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 20 minutes, by which means we made the island of formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous and civil in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains, which is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of christianity, which was once planted here by a dutch mission of protestants, and is a testimony of what i have often observed, viz. that the christian religion always civilizes the people and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or not. from hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of china at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of china where our european ships usually come: but being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined; nay, so great was my fear in particular, as to my being taken by them, that i believe firmly i would much rather have chosen to fall into the hands of the spanish inquisition. being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at, and standing in for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an european ship, came to offer his service, which indeed we were very glad of, and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back. i thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that i began to talk with him about carrying us to the gulf of nanquin, which is the most northern part of the coast of china. the old man said he knew the gulf of nanquin very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there? i told him we would sell our cargo, and purchase china wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c. and so would return by the same course we came. he told us our best port had been to have put in at macao, where we could not fail of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might, for our money, have purchased all sorts of china goods as cheap as we could at nanquin. not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very opinionated, or conceited, i told him we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of china. "why then," says the old man, "you should go to ningpo, where, by the river that runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal. this canal is a navigable made stream, which goes through the heart of all that vast empire of china, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues." "well," said i, "seignior portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city of nanquin, from whence we can travel to pekin afterwards?" yes, he said, he could do so very well, and there was a great dutch ship gone up that way just before. this gave me a little shock; a dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if he had not come in too frightful a figure; we depended upon it that a dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with in those parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we were. the old man found me a little confused, and under some concern, when he named a dutch ship: and said to me, "sir, you need be under no apprehension of the dutch; i suppose they are not now at war with your nation."--"no," said i, "that's true; but i know not what liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws of their country."--"why," said he, "you are no pirates, what need you fear? they will not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure." if i had any blood in my body that did not fly up into my face at that word, it was hindered by some stop in the vessels appointed by nature to circulate it; for it put me into the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but that the old man easily perceived it. "sir," said he, "i find you are in some disorder in your thoughts at my talk; pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and depend upon it i'll do you all the service i can."--"why, seignior," said i, "it is true, i am a little unsettled in my resolution at this time, whither to go in particular; and i am something more so for what you said about pirates. i hope there are no pirates in these seas; we are but in an ill condition to meet with them; for you see we have but a small force, and but very weakly manned." "o sir," said he, "do not be concerned; i do not know that there have been any pirates in these seas these fifteen years, except one, which was seen, as i hear, in the bay of siam, about a month since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor was she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work; she was not built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate crew that were on board, after the captain and some of his men had been murdered by the malaccans, at or near the island of sumatra." "what!" said i, seeming to know nothing of the matter, "did they murder the captain?"--"no," said he, "i do not understand that they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the ship, it is generally believed they betrayed him into the hands of the malaccans, who did murder him; and, perhaps, they procured them to do it."--"why then," said i, "they deserved death, as much as if they had done it themselves."--"nay," said the old man, "they do deserve it, and they will certainly have it if they light upon any english or dutch ship; for they have all agreed together that if they meet that rogue they will give him no quarter." "but," said i to him, "you say the pirate is gone out of these seas; how can they meet with him then?"--"why, that is true," said he, "they do say so; but he was, as i tell you, in the bay of siam, in the river cambodia, and was discovered there by some dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who were left on shore when they ran away with her; and some english and dutch traders being in the river, they were within a little of taking him. nay," said he, "if the foremost boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had certainly taken him; but he finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked about, and fired at these two, and disabled them before the others came up; and then standing off to sea, the others were not able to follow him, and so he got away. but they have all so exact a description of the ship, that they will be sure to know him; and where-ever they find him, they have vowed to give no quarter to either the captain or the seamen, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm." "what!" said i, "will they execute them, right or wrong; hang them first, and judge them afterwards?"--"o sir!" said the old pilot, "there is no need to make a formal business of it with such rogues as those; let them tie them back to back, and set them a-diving; it is no more than they rightly deserve." i knew i had my old man fast aboard, and that he could do me no harm; so i turned short upon him. "well, seignior," said i, "and this is the very reason why i would have you carry us to nanquin, and not to put back to macao, or to any other part of the country where the english or dutch ships came; for be it known to you, seignior, those captains of the english and dutch ships are a parcel of rash, proud, insolent fellows, that neither know what belongs to justice, or how to behave themselves as the laws of god and nature direct; but being proud of their offices, and not understanding their power, they would get the murderers to punish robbers; would take upon them to insult men falsely accused, and determine them guilty without due inquiry; and perhaps i may live to call some of them to an account of it, where they may be taught how justice is to be executed; and that no man ought to be treated as a criminal till some evidence may be had of the crime, and that he is the man." with this i told him, that this was the very ship they had attacked; and gave him a full account of the skirmish we had with their boats, and how foolishly and coward-like they had behaved. i told him all the story of our buying the ship, and how the dutchmen served us. i told him the reasons i had to believe that this story of killing the master by the malaccans was not true; as also the running away with the ship; but that it was all a fiction of their own, to suggest that the men were turned pirates; and they ought to have been sure it was so, before they had ventured to attack us by surprise, and oblige us so resist them; adding, that they would have the blood of those men who were killed there, in our just defence, to answer for. the old man was amazed at this relation; and told us, we were very much in the right to go away to the north; and that if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in china, which we might very well do, and buy or build another in the country; "and," said he, "though you will not get so good a ship, yet you may get one able enough to carry you and all your goods back again to bengal, or any where else." i told him i would take his advice when i came to any port where i could find a ship for my turn, or get any customer to buy this. he replied, i should meet with customers enough for the ship at nanquin, and that a chinese junk would serve me very well to go back again; and that he would procure me people both to buy one and sell the other. "well, but, seignior," says i, "as you say they know the ship so well, i may, perhaps, if i follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some honest innocent men into a terrible broil, and, perhaps, be murdered in cold blood; for wherever they find the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men by proving this was the ship, and so innocent men may probably be overpowered and murdered."--"why," said the old man, "i'll find out a way to prevent that also; for as i know all those commanders you speak of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, i will be sure to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates; and that in particular those were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; and i am persuaded they will so far believe me, as, at least, to act more cautiously for the time to come."--"well," said i, "and will you deliver one message to them from me?"--"yes, i will," says he, "if you will give it under your hand in writing, that i may be able to prove it came from you, and not out of my own head." i answered, that i would readily give it him under my hand. so i took a pen and ink, and paper, and wrote at large the story of assaulting me with the long-boats, &c. the pretended reason of it, and the unjust, cruel design of it; and concluded to the commanders that they had done what they not only should have been ashamed or, but also, that if ever they came to england, and i lived to see them there, they should all pay dearly for it, if the laws of my country were not grown out of use before i arrived there. my old pilot read this over and over again, and asked me several times if i would stand to it. i answered, i would stand to it as long as i had any thing left in the world; being sensible that i should, one time or other, find an opportunity to put it home to them. but we had no occasion ever to let the pilot carry this letter, for he never went back again. while those things were passing between us, by way of discourse, we went forward directly for nanquin, and, in about thirteen days sail, came to anchor at the south-west point of the great gulf of nanquin; where, by the way, i came by accident to understand, that the two dutch ships were gone that length before me, and that i should certainly fall into their hands. i consulted my partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as i was, and would very gladly have been safe on shore almost any where. however, i was not in such perplexity neither, but i asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour, which i might put into, and pursue my business with the chinese privately, and be in no danger of the enemy. he told me if i would sail to the southward about two-and-forty leagues, there was a little port called quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from macao, on their progress to teach the christian religion to the chinese, and where no european ships ever put in: and, if i thought proper to put in there, i might consider what farther course to take when i was on shore. he confessed, he said, it was not a place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants from japan came over thither to buy the chinese merchandises. we all agreed to go back to this place: the name of the port, as he called it, i may, perhaps, spell wrong, for i do not particularly remember it, having lost this, together with the names of many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was spoiled by the water, on an accident which i shall relate in its order; but this i remember, that the chinese or japanese merchants we correspond with call it by a different name from that which our portuguese pilot gave it, and pronounced it as above, quinchang. as we were unanimous in our resolutions to go to this place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore, where we were to get fresh water; on both which occasions the people of the country were very civil to us, and brought us abundance of things to sell to us; i mean of provisions, plants, roots, tea, rice, and some fowls; but nothing without money. we came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not till five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and i was joyful, and i may say thankful, when i set my foot safe on shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, though not every way to our satisfaction, we would never set one foot on board that unhappy vessel again: and indeed i must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that ever i had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in constant fear. well does the scripture say, "the fear of man brings a snare;" it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely suppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief; the animal spirits sink, and all the vigour of nature, which usually supports men under other afflictions, and is present to them in the greatest exigencies, fails them here. nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heightening every danger; representing the english and dutch captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or distinguishing between honest men and rogues; or between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, and design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable creature that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board, the course we steered, our frankly shewing ourselves, and entering into such and such ports; even our very manner, the force we had, the number of men, the few arms, little ammunition, and short provisions; all these would have served to convince any man that we were no pirates. the opium, and other goods we had on board, would make it appear the ship had been at bengal; the dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of english, portuguese, and indians, and but two dutchmen on board. these, and many other particular circumstances, might have made it evident to the understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates. but fear, that blind useless passion, worked another way, and threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set the imagination at work, to form a thousand terrible things, that, perhaps, might never happen. we first supposed, as indeed every body had related to us, that the seamen on board the english and dutch ships, but especially the dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats, and escaping, that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we were pirates or no; but would execute us off-hand, as we call it, without giving us any room for a defence. we reflected that there was really so much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire after any more: as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the river cambodia, that they were coming down to examine us, we fought their boats, and fled: so that we made no doubt but they were as fully satisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied of the contrary; and i often said, i knew not but i should have been apt to have taken the like circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and my case was theirs; and have made no scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their defence. but let that be how it will, those were our apprehensions; and both my partner and i too scarce slept a night without dreaming of halters and yard-arms; that is to say, gibbets; of fighting, and being taken; of killing, and being killed; and one night i was in such a fury in my dream, fancying the dutchmen had boarded us, and i was knocking one of their seamen down, that i struck my double fist against the side of the cabin i lay in, with such a force as wounded my hand most gievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, so that it not only waked me out of my sleep, but i was once afraid i should have lost two of my fingers. another apprehension i had, was, of the cruel usage we should meet with from them, if we fell into their hands: then the story of amboyna came into my head, and how the dutch might, perhaps, torture us, as they did our countrymen there; and make some of our men, by extremity of torture, confess those crimes they never were guilty of; own themselves, and all of us, to be pirates; and so they would put us to death, with a formal appearance of justice; and that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and cargo, which was worth four or five thousand pounds, put all together. these things tormented me, and my partner too, night and day; nor did we consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act thus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it when they came into their own country. this, i say, gave me no satisfaction; for, if they will act thus with us, what advantage would it be to us that they would be called to an account for it? or, if we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to have them punished when they came home? i cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections i now had upon the past variety of my particular circumstances; how hard i thought it was, that i, who had spent forty years in a life of continued difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, at the port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows, by my own unhappy choice; and that i, who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged, in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime i was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of; and in a place and circumstance, where innocence was not like to be any protection at all to me. after these thoughts, something of religion would come in; and i would be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate providence; and i ought to look upon it, and submit to it as such: that although i was innocent as to men, i was far from being innocent as to my maker; and i ought to look in, and examine what other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and that i ought to submit to this, just as i would to a shipwreck, if it had pleased god to have brought such a disaster upon me. in its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its place; and then i would be talking myself up to vigorous resolution, that i would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of merciless wretches in cold blood; that it was much better to have fallen into the hands of the savages, who were men-eaters, and who, i was sure, would feast upon me, when they had taken me, than by those who would perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and barbarities: that, in the case of the savages, i always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp; and why should i not do so now, seeing it was much more dreadful, to me at least, to think of falling into these men's hands, than ever it was to think of being eaten by men? for the savages, give them their due, would not eat a man till he was dead; and killed him first, as we do a bullock; but that these men had many arts beyond the cruelty of death. whenever these thoughts prevailed i was sure to put myself into a kind of fever, with the agitations of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle, as if i was engaged; and i always resolved that i would take no quarter at their hands; but even at last, if i could resist no longer, i would blow up the ship, and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to boast of. but by how much the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of those things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, by so much the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to stand long under it; but the portuguese pilot came, and took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him shewing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; we were all like men who had a load taken off their backs. for my part, i had a weight taken off from my heart, that i was not able any longer to bear; and, as i said above, we resolved to go no more to sea in that ship. when we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, and a warehouse for our goods, which, by the way, was much the same: it was a little house, or hut, with a large house joining to it, all built with canes, and palisadoed round with large canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of which it seems there were not a few in the country. however, the magistrates allowed us all a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of halbert, or half-pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice, and a little piece of money, about the value of three-pence, per day: so that our goods were kept very safe. the fair or mart usually kept in this place had been over some time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two japanners, i mean ships from japan, with goods which they had bought in china, and were not gone away, having japanese merchants on shore. the first thing our old portuguese pilot did for us was to bring us acquainted with three missionary romish priests, who were in the town, and who had been there some time, converting the people to christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and made them but sorry christians when they had done. however, that was not our business. one of these was a frenchman, whom they called father simon; he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very free in his conversation, not seeming so serious and grave as the other two did, one of whom was a portuguese, and the other a genoese: but father simon was courteous, easy in his manner, and very agreeable company; the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with, and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants wherever they had opportunity. we often ate and drank with those men; and though i must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the chinese to christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to bring heathen people to the faith of christ, that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the name of christ, say some prayers to the virgin mary and her son, in a tongue which they understand not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that these religious, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that these people should be saved, and that they are the instrument of it; and, on this account, they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself, with the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work: and it would be a great want of charity in us, whatever opinion we have of the work itself, and the manner of their doing it, if we should not have a good opinion of their zeal, who undertake it with so many hazards, and who have no prospect of the least temporal advantage to themselves. but to return to my story: this french priest, father simon, was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go up to pekin, the royal seat of the chinese emperor; and waited only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from macao, to go along with him; and we scarce ever met together but he was inviting me to go that journey with him, telling me, how he would shew me all the glorious things of that mighty empire; and among the rest the greatest city in the world; "a city," said he, "that your london and our paris put together cannot be equal to." this was the city of pekin, which, i confess, is very great, and infinitely full of people; but as i looked on those things with different eyes from other men, so i shall give my opinion of them in few words when i come in the course of my travels to speak more particularly of them. but first i come to my friar or missionary: dining with him one day, and being very merry together, i showed some little inclination to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very hard, and with a great many persuasions, to consent. "why, father simon," says my partner, "why should you desire our company so much? you know we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor can keep us company with any pleasure."--"o!" says he, "you may, perhaps, be good catholics in time; my business here is to convert heathens, and who knows but i may convert you too?"--"very well, father," said i, "so you will preach to us all the way."--"i won't be troublesome to you," said he; "our religion does not divest us of good manners; besides," said he, "we are all here like countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place we are in; and if you are hugonots, and i a catholic, we may be all christians at last; at least," said he, "we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so, without being uneasy to one another." i liked that part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that i had left in the brasils; but this father simon did not come up to his character by a great deal; for though father simon had no appearance of a criminal levity in him neither, yet he had not that fund of christian zeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion, that my other good ecclesiastic had, of whom i have said so much. but to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor soliciting us to go with him, but we had something else before us at that time; for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of; and we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in a place of very little business; and once i was about to venture to sail for the river of kilam, and the city of nanquin: but providence seemed now more visibly, as i thought, than ever, to concern itself in our affairs; and i was encouraged from this very time to think i should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance, and be brought home to my own country again, though i had not the least view of the manner; and when i began sometimes to think of it, could not imagine by what method it was to be done. providence, i say, began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our old portuguese pilot brought a japan merchant to us, who began to inquire what goods we had; and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten or eleven ounces each. while we were dealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might, perhaps, deal with us for the ship too; and i ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. he shrunk up his shoulders at it, when it was first proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me, and that was this: he had bought a great quantity of goods of us when he had no thoughts (or proposals made to him) of buying the ship, and that, therefore, he had not money enough to pay for the ship; but if i would let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to japan, and would send them from thence to the philippine islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from japan; and that, at their return, he would buy the ship. i began to listen to this proposal; and so eager did my head still run upon rambling, that i could not but begin to entertain a notion myself of going with him, and so to sail from the philippine islands away to the south seas; and accordingly i asked the japanese merchant if he would not hire us to the philippine islands, and discharge us there. he said, no, he could not do that, for then he could not have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in japan, he said, at the ship's return. well, still i was for taking him at that proposal, and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas, as of the japanese, who are a false, cruel, treacherous people; and then of the spaniards at the philippines, more false, more cruel, more treacherous than they. but, to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion, the first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the ship, and with the men, and know if they were willing to go to japan; and, while i was doing this, the young man whom, as i said, my nephew had left with me as my companion for my travels, came to me and told me that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if i undertook it; but that if i would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a merchant, or how i pleased to order him; and if ever he came to england, and i was there, and alive, he would render me a faithful account of his success, and it should be as much mine as i pleased. i was really loath to part with him; but considering the prospect of advantage, which was really considerable, and that he was a young fellow as likely to do well in it as any i knew, i inclined to let him go; but first i told him, i would consult my partner, and give him an answer the next day. my partner and i discoursed about it, and my partner made a most generous offer: he told me, "you know it has been an unlucky ship, and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again; if your steward (so he called my man) will venture the voyage, i'll leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best of it; and if we live to meet in england, and he meets with success abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's freight to us, the other shall be his own." if my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him such an offer, i could do no less than offer him the same; and all the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made over half the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging him to account for the other; and away he went to japan. the japan merchant proved a very punctual honest man to him, protected him at japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the europeans in general have not lately obtained, paid him his freight very punctually, sent him to the philippines, loaded him with japan and china wares, and a supercargo of their own, who trafficking with the spaniards, brought back european goods again, and a great quantity of cloves and other spice; and there he was not only paid his freight very well, and at a very good price, but being not willing to sell the ship then, the merchant furnished him with goods on his own account; that for some money and some spices of his own, which he brought with him, he went back to the manillas, to the spaniards, where he sold his cargo very well. here, having gotten a good acquaintance at manilla, he got his ship made a free ship; and the governor of manilla hired him to go to acapulco in america, on the coast of mexico; and gave him a licence to land there, and travel to mexico; and to pass in any spanish ship to europe, with all his men. he made the voyage to acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship; and having there also obtained allowance to travel by land to porto bello, he found means, some how or other, to go to jamaica with all his treasure; and about eight years after came to england, exceeding rich; of which i shall take notice in its place; in the mean time, i return to our particular affairs. being now to part with the ship and ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the design against us in the river of cambodia. the truth was, they had done us a considerable service, and deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple of rogues too: for, as they believed the story of our being pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pirates; and one of them confessed afterwards, that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing brought him to do it. however, the service they did us was not the less; and therefore, as i had promised to be grateful to them, i first ordered the money to be paid to them, which they said was due to them on board their respective ships; that is to say, the englishman nineteen months pay, and to the dutchman seven; and, over and above that, i gave each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them very well: then i made the englishman gunner of the ship, the gunner being now made second mate and purser; the dutchman i made boatswain: so they were both very well pleased, and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows. we were now on shore in china. if i thought myself banished, and remote from my own country at bengal, where i had many ways to get home for my money, what could i think of myself now, when i was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and perfectly destitute of all manner of prospect of return! all we had for it was this, that in about four months time there was to be another fair at that place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase all sorts of the manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some chinese junks or vessels from nanquin, that would be to be sold, and would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. this i liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any english or dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in india nearer home. upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journies into the country; first, we went ten days journey to see the city of nanquin, a city well worth seeing indeed: they say it has a million of people in it; which, however, i do not believe: it is regularly built, the streets all exactly straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advantage. but when i came to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours; their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, (as some call it) i must confess, i do not so much as think it worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to read. it is very observable, that we wonder at the grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the commerce, and the conduct of these people; not that they are to be wondered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regarded; but because, having first a notion of the barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there, we do not expect to find any such things so far off. otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings of europe? what their trade to the universal commerce of england, holland, france, and spain? what their cities to ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an infinite variety? what are their ports, supplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchants' fleets, our large and powerful navies? our city of london has more trade than all their mighty empire. one english, or dutch, or french man of war of eighty guns, would fight with and destroy all the shipping of china. but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of their government, and strength of their armies are surprising to us, because, as i have said, considering them as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such things among them; and this, indeed, is the advantage with which all their greatness and power is represented to us: otherwise, it is in itself nothing at all; for, as i have said of their ships, so it may be said of their armies and troops; all the forces of their empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves. if they were to besiege a strong town in flanders, or to fight a disciplined army, one line of german cuirassiers, or of french cavalry, would overthrow all the horse of china; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number: nay, i do not boast if i say, that 30,000 german or english foot, and 10,000 french horse, would fairly beat all the forces of china. and so of our fortified towns, and of the art of our engineers, in assaulting and defending towns; there is not a fortified town in china could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an european army; and at the same time, all the armies of china could never take such a town as dunkirk, provided it was not starved; no, not in ten years siege. they have fire-arms, it is true, but they are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off; they have powder, but it is of no strength; they have neither discipline in the field, exercise in their arms, skill to attack, nor temper to retreat. and therefore i must confess it seemed strange to me when i came home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power, riches, glory, magnificence, and trade of the chinese, because i saw and knew that they were a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people; and, in a word, for i am now launched quite beside my design, i say, in a word, were not its distance inconceivably great from muscovy, and were not the muscovite empire almost as rude, impotent, and ill-governed a crowd of slaves as they, the czar of muscovy might, with much ease, drive them all out of their country, and conquer them in one campaign; and had the czar, who i since hear is a growing prince, and begins to appear formidable in the world, fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike swedes, in which attempt none of the powers of europe would have envied or interrupted him; he might, by this time, have been emperor of china, instead of being beaten by the king of sweden at narva, when the latter was not one to six in number. as their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation, commerce, and husbandry, are imperfect and impotent, compared to the same things in europe. also, in their knowledge, their learning, their skill in the sciences; they have globes and spheres, and a smatch of the knowledge of the mathematics; but when you come to inquire into their knowledge, how short-sighted are the wisest of their students! they know nothing of the motion of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly, absurdly ignorant, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think it is a great dragon has assaulted and run away with it; and they fall a-cluttering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees. as this is the only excursion of this kind which i have made in all the account i have given of my travels, so i shall make no more descriptions of countries and people: it is none of my business, or any part of my design; but giving an account of my own adventures, through a life of infinite wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, few have heard the like of, i shall say nothing of the mighty places, desert countries, and numerous people, i have yet to pass through, more than relates to my own story, and which my concern among them will make necessary. i was now, as near as i can compute, in the heart of china, about the latitude of thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from nanquin; i had indeed a mind to see the city of pekin, which i had heard so much of, and father simon importuned me daily to do it. at length his time of going away being set, and the other missionary, who was to go with him, being arrived from macao, it was necessary that we should resolve either to go, or not to go; so i referred him to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice; who at length resolved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our journey. we set out with very good advantage, as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal magistrate, in the province where they reside, and who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and with great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, because all the countries they pass through are obliged to furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. that which i particularly observed, as to our travelling with his baggage, was this; that though we received sufficient provisions, both for ourselves and our horses, from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after the market-price of the country, and the mandarin's steward, or commissary of the provisions, collected it duly from us; so that our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a very great kindness to us, was not such a mighty favour in him, but was, indeed, a great advantage to him, considering there were about thirty other people travelling in the same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue, or, as we may call it, under his convoy. this, i say, was a great advantage to him; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing, and he took all our money for them. we were five-and-twenty days travelling to pekin, through a country infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated; the husbandry, economy, and the way of living, all very miserable, though they boast so much of the industry of the people: i say miserable; and so it is; if we, who understand how to live, were to endure it, or to compare it with our own; but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other. the pride of these people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their poverty, which adds to that which i call their misery. i must needs think the naked savages of america live much more happy, because, as they have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and insolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and drudges; their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly shewed in their clothes and buildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants or slaves, and, which is to the last degree ridiculous, their contempt of all the world but themselves. i must confess, i travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the deserts and vast wildernesses of grand tartary, than here; and yet the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers: but nothing was more awkward to me, than to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance; for all their famed ingenuity is no more. my friend father simon, and i, used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see the beggarly pride of those people. for example, coming by the house of a country-gentleman, as father simon called him, about ten leagues off from the city of nanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride with the master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect don quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty. the habit of this greasy don was very proper for a scaramouch, or merry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings of a fool's coat, such as hanging sleeves, taffety, and cuts and slashes almost on every side: it covered a rich taffety vest, as greasy as a butcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs be a most exquisite sloven. his horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as in england might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had two slaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along: he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us with about ten or twelve servants; and we were told he was going from the city to his country-seat, about half a league before us. we travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country-seat of this great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating his repast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given to understand, that the more we looked on him, the better he would be pleased. he sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but under the tree also was placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough: he sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulent man, and his meat being brought him by two women-slaves: he had two more, whose office, i think, few gentlemen in europe would accept of their service in, viz. one fed the squire with a spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taffety vest, with the other; while the great fat brute thought it below him to employ his own hands in any of those familiar offices, which kings and monarchs would rather do than be troubled with the clumsy fingers of their servants. i took this time to think what pain men's pride puts them to, and how troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must be to a man of common sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him, as if we admired his pomp, whereas we really pitied and contemned him, we pursued our journey: only father simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the country justice had to feed on, in all his state; which he said he had the honour to taste of, and which was, i think, a dose that an english hound would scarce have eaten, if it had been offered him, viz. a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlick in it, and a little bag filled with green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something like our ginger, but smelling like musk and tasting like mustard: all this was put together, and a small lump or piece of lean mutton boiled in it; and this was his worship's repast, four or five servants more attending at a distance. if he fed them meaner than he was fed himself, the spice excepted, they must fare very coarsely indeed. as for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected like a king; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that i saw little of him but at a distance; but this i observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue, but that our carriers' pack-horses in england seem to me to look much better; but they were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, and such-like trumpery, that you cannot see whether they are fat or lean. in a word, we could scarce see any thing but their feet and their heads. i was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that i had given an account of being over, i had no anxious thoughts about me; which made this journey much the pleasanter to me; nor had i any ill accident attended me, only in the passing or fording a small river, my horse fell, and made me free of the country, as they call it; that is to say, threw me in: the place was not deep, but it wetted me all over: i mention it, because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein i had set down the names of several people and places which i had occasion to remember, and which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never after to be read, to my great loss, as to the names of some places which i touched at in this voyage. at length we arrived at pekin; i had nobody with me but the youth, whom my nephew the captain had given me to attend me as a servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. as for the portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we gave him his passage, that is to say, bore his charges for his company; and to use him as an interpreter, for he understood the language of the country, and spoke good french and a little english; and, indeed, this old man was a most useful implement to us every where; for we had not been above a week at pekin, when he came laughing: "ah, seignior inglese," said he, "i have something to tell you, will make your heart glad."--"my heart glad," said i; "what can that be? i don't know any thing in this country can either give me joy or grief, to any great degree."--"yes, yes," said the old man, in broken english, "make you glad, me sorrow;" sorry, he would have said. this made me more inquisitive. "why," said i, "will it make you sorry?"--"because," said he, "you have brought me here twenty-five days journey, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall i get to my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, without pecune?" so he called money; being his broken latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with. in short, he told us there was a great caravan of muscovy and polish merchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set out on their journey, by land, to muscovy, within four or five weeks, and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind to go back alone. i confess i was surprised with this news: a secret joy spread itself over my whole soul, which i cannot describe, and never felt before or since; and i had no power, for a good while, to speak a word to the old man; but at last i turned to him: "how do you know this?" said i: "are you sure it is true?"--"yes," he said, "i met this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an armenian, or one you call a grecian, who is among them; he came last from astracan, and was designing to go to tonquin; where i formerly knew him, but has altered his mind, and is now resolved to go back with the caravan to moscow, and so down the river of wolga to astracan."--"well, seignior," said i, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this be a method for my return to england, it shall be your fault if you go back to macao at all." we then went to consult together what was to be done, and i asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news, and whether it would suit with his affairs: he told me he would do just as i would; for he had settled all his affairs so well at bengal, and left his effects in such good hands, that as we made a good voyage here, if he could vest it in china silks, wrought and raw, such as might be worth the carriage, he would be content to go to england, and then make his voyage back to bengal by the company's ships. having resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our portuguese pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to moscow, or to england, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-generous in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him farther; for the service he had done us was really worth all that, and more; for he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been also like a broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us the japan merchant was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets. so we consulted together about it; and, being willing to gratify him, which was, indeed, but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as i compute it, came to about one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling between us, and to bear his charges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry his goods. having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him know what we had resolved: i told him, he had complained of our being like to let him go back alone, and i was now to tell him we were resolved he should not go back at all: that as we had resolved to go to europe with the caravan, we resolved also he should go with us, and that we called him to know his mind. he shook his head, and said it was a long journey, and he had no pecune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself when he came thither. we told him, we believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do something for him, that would let him see how sensible we were of the service he had done us; and also how agreeable he was to us; and then i told him what we had resolved to give him here, which he might lay out as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go with us, we would set him safe ashore (life and casualties excepted), either in muscovy or in england, which he would, at our own charge, except only the carriage of his goods. he received the proposal like a man transported, and told us, he would go with us over the whole world; and so, in short, we all prepared ourselves for the journey. however, as it was with us, so it was with the other merchants, they had many things to do; and instead of being ready in five weeks, it was four months and some odd days before all things were got together. it was the beginning of february, our style, when we set out from pekin. my partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which he had left there; and i, with a chinese merchant, whom i had some knowledge of at nanquin, and who came to pekin on his own affairs, went to nanquin, where i bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of other very fine silks, of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to pekin against my partner's return: besides this, we bought a very large quantity of raw silk, and some other goods; our cargo amounting, in these goods only, to about three thousand five hundred pounds sterling, which, together with tea, and some fine calicoes, and three camel-loads of nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, besides those we rode upon; which, with two or three spare horses, and two horses loaded with provisions, made us, in short, twenty-six camels and horses in our retinue. the company was very great, and, as near as i can remember, made between three and four hundred horses and camels, and upward of a hundred and twenty men, very well armed, and provided for all events. for, as the eastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the arabs, so are these by the tartars; but they are not altogether so dangerous as the arabs, nor so barbarous when they prevail. the company consisted of people of several nations, such as muscovites chiefly; for there were about sixty of them who were merchants or inhabitants of moscow, though of them some were livonians; and to our particular satisfaction, five of them were scots, who appeared also to be men of great experience in business, and very good substance. when we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were five in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants, that is to say, all the passengers, except the servants, to a great council, as they termed it. at this great council every one deposited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on the way where it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses, and the like. and here they constituted the journey, as they called it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up and give the command in case of an attack; and give every one their turn of command. nor was this forming us into order any more than what we found needful upon the way, as shall be observed in its place. the road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is full of potters and earth makers; that is to say, people that tempered the earth for the china ware; and, as i was going along, our portuguese pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, came sneering to me, and told me, he would shew the greatest rarity in all the country; and that i should have this to say of china, after all the ill humoured things i had said of it, that i had seen one thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside. i was very importunate to know what it was; at last he told me, it was a gentleman's house, built all with china ware. "well," said i, "are not the materials of their building the product of their own country; and so it is all china ware, is it not?"--"no, no," says he, "i mean, it is a house all made of china ware, such as you call so in england; or, as it is called in our country, porcelain."--"well," said i, "such a thing may be: how big is it? can we carry it in a box upon a camel? if we can, we will buy it."--"upon a camel!" said the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is a family of thirty people lives in it." i was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when i came to see it, it was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, as we call it in england, with lath and plaster, but all the plastering was really china ware, that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that makes china ware. the outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as the large china ware in england is painted, and hard, as if it had been burnt. as to the inside, all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened and painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call gally tiles in england, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially with mortar, being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see where the tiles met. the floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of england, especially lincolnshire, nottinghamshire, leicestershire, &c. as hard as stone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile: the ceilings, and, in a word, all the plastering work in the whole house, were of the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of a deep shining black. this was a china warehouse indeed, truly and lite rally to be called so; and had i not been upon the journey, i could have staid some days to see and examine the particulars of it. they told me there were fountains and fish-ponds in the garden, all paved at the bottom and sides with the same, and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth, and burnt whole. as this is one of the singularities of china, so they may be allowed to excel in it; but i am very sure they _excel_ in their accounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their performance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that i care not to relate, as knowing it could not be true.--one told me, in particular, of a workman that made a ship, with all its tackle, and masts, and sails, in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. if he had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to japan in it, i might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, i knew the whole story, which was, in short, asking pardon for the word, that the fellow lied; so i smiled, and said nothing to it. this odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which the leader of it for the day fined me about the value of three shillings; and told me, if it had been three days journey without the wall, as it was three days within, he must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardon the next council-day: so i promised to be more orderly; for, indeed, i found afterwards the orders made for keeping all together were absolutely necessary for our common safety. in two days more we passed the great china wall, made for a fortification against the tartars; and a very great work it is, going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter, or, indeed, climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder them. they tell us, its length is near a thousand english miles, but that the country is five hundred, in a straight measured line, which the wall bounds, without measuring the windings and turnings it takes: 'tis about four fathom high, and as many thick in some places. i stood still an hour, or thereabouts, without trespassing on our orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; i say, i stood still an hour to look at it, on every side, near and far off; i mean, what was within my view; and the guide of our caravan, who had been extolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it. i told him it was a most excellent thing to keep off the tartars, which he happened not to understand as i meant it, and so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed: "o, seignior inglese," said he, "you speak in colours."--"in colours!" said i; "what do you mean by that?"--"why, you speak what looks white this way, and black that way; gay one way, and dull another way: you tell him it is a good wall to keep out tartars; you tell me, by that, it is good for nothing but to keep out tartars; or, will keep out none but tartars. i understand you, seignior inglese, i understand you," said he, joking; "but seignior chinese understand you his own way." "well," said i, "seignior, do you think it would stand out an army of our country-people, with a good train of artillery; or our engineers, with two companies of miners? would they not batter it down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia, or blow it up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign of it left?"--"ay, ay," said he, "i know that." the chinese wanted mightily to know what i said, and i gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for we were then almost out of their country, and he was to leave us in a little time afterwards; but when he knew what i had said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no more of his fine story of the chinese power and greatness while he staid. after we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something like the picts wall, so famous in northumberland, and built by the romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people rather confined to live in fortified towns and cities, as being subject to the inroads and depredations of the tartars, who rob in great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of an open country. and here i began to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan, as we travelled; for we saw several troops of tartars roving about; but when i came to see them distinctly, i wondered how that the chinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows; for they are a mere herd or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order, and understanding no discipline, or manner of fight. their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing, and are fit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which was after we entered the wilder part of the country. our leader for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they call it; and what was this but hunting of sheep! however, it may be called hunting too; for the creatures are the wildest, and swiftest of foot, that ever i saw of their kind; only they will not run a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the chase; for they appear generally by thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together when they fly. in pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with about forty tartars: whether they were hunting mutton as we were, or whether they looked for another kind of prey, i know not; but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn very loud, but with a barbarous sound that i had never heard before, and, by the way, never care to hear again. we all supposed this was to call their friends about them; and so it was; for in less than half a quarter of an hour, a troop of forty or fifty more appeared at about a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it happened. one of the scots merchants of moscow happened to be amongst us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us, in short, that we had nothing to do but to charge them immediately, without loss of time; and, drawing us up in a line, he asked, if we were resolved? we told him, we were ready to follow him: so he rode directly up to them. they stood gazing at us, like a mere crowd, drawn up in no order, nor shewing the face of any order at all; but as soon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows; which, however, missed us very happily: it seems they mistook not their aim, but their distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but with so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer, we must have had several men wounded, if not killed. immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance, we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our shot full gallop, resolving to fall in among them sword in hand; for so our bold scot that led us, directed. he was, indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with that vigour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such a cool courage too, that i never saw any man in action fitter for command. as soon as we came up to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable; the only stand any of them made was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging at their backs. our brave commander, without asking any body to follow him, galloped up close to them, and with his fusil knocked one of them off his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, viz. that all our mutton that we had in chase got away. we had not a man killed or hurt; but, as for the tartars, there were about five of them killed; how many were wounded, we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party was so frighted with the noise of our guns, that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us. we were all this while in the chinese dominions, and therefore the tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days we entered a vast great wild desert, which held us three days and nights march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leather bottles, and to encamp all night, just as i have heard they do in the deserts of arabia. i asked our guides, whose dominion this was in? and they told me this was a kind of border that might be called no man's land; being part of the great karakathy, or grand tartary; but that, however, it was reckoned to china; that there was no care taken here to preserve it from the inroads of thieves; and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert in the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger. in passing this wilderness, which, i confess, was at the first view very frightful to me, we saw two or three times little parties of the tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them; we let them go. once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and gaze at us; whether it was to consider what they should do, viz. to attack us, or not attack us, we knew not; but when we were passed at some distance by them, we made a rear guard of forty men, and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile, or thereabouts, before us. after a while they marched off, only we found they assaulted us with five arrows at their parting; one of which wounded a horse, so that it disabled him; and we left him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. we suppose they might shoot more arrows, which might fall short of us; but we saw no more arrows, or tartars, at that time. we travelled near a month after this, the ways being not so good as at first, though still in the dominions of the emperor of china; but lay, for the most part, in villages, some of which were fortified, because of the incursions of the tartars. when we came to one of these towns, (it was about two days and a half's journey before we were to come to the city of naum) i wanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and of horses also, such as they are, because so many caravans coming that way, they are very often wanted. the person that i spoke to to get me a camel, would have gone and fetched it for me; but i, like a fool, must be officious, and go myself along with him. the place was about two miles out of the village, where, it seems, they kept the camels and horses feeding under a guard. i walked it on foot, with my old pilot in company, and a chinese, being desirous, forsooth, of a little variety. when we came to this place, it was a low marshy ground, walled round with a stone wall, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a park, with a little guard of chinese soldiers at the doors. having bought a camel, and agreed for the price, i came away; and the chinese man, that went with me, led the camel, when on a sudden came up five tartars on horseback: two of them seized the fellow, and took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to me and my old pilot; seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for i had no weapon about me but my sword, which could but ill defend me against three horsemen. the first that came up stopped short upon my drawing my sword; (for they are arrant cowards) but a second coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, which i never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when i came to myself, what was the matter with me, and where i was, for he laid me flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the portuguese (so providence, unlooked for, directs deliverances from dangers, which to us are unforeseen,) had a pistol in his pocket, which i knew nothing of nor the tartars neither; if they had, i suppose they would not have attacked us; but cowards are always boldest when there is no danger. the old man, seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him with the other, he shot him into the head, and laid him dead on the spot; he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as i said, and before he could come forward again (for it was all done as it were in a moment) made a blow at him with a scimitar, which he always wore, but, missing the man, cut his horse into the side of his head, cut one of his ears off by the root, and a great slice down the side of his face. the poor beast, enraged with the wounds, was no more to be governed by his rider, though the fellow sat well enough too; but away he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and, at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down the tartar, and fell upon him. in this interval the poor chinese came in, who had lost the camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the tartar down, and his horse fallen upon him, he runs to him, and seizing upon an ugly ill-favoured weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, but not a pole-axe either, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his tartarian brains out with it. but my old man had the third tartar to deal with still; and, seeing he did not fly as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still, the old man stood still too, and falls to work with his tackle to charge his pistol again: but as soon as the tartar saw the pistol, whether he supposed it to be the same or another, i know not; but away he scoured, and left my pilot, my champion i called him afterwards, a complete victory. by this time i was a little awake; for i thought, when i first began to awake, that i had been in a sweet sleep; but as i said above, i wondered where i was, how i came upon the ground, and what was the matter: in a word, a few minutes after, as sense returned, i felt pain, though i did not know where; i clapped my hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then i felt my head ache, and then, in another moment, memory returned, and every thing was present to me again. i jumped up upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword, but no enemies in view. i found a tartar lie dead, and his horse standing very quietly by him; and looking farther, i saw my champion and deliverer, who had been to see what the chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in his hand. the old man, seeing me on my feet, came running to me, and embraced me with a great deal of joy, being afraid before that i had been killed; and seeing me bloody, would see how i was hurt; but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did i afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, other than the place which was hurt, and which was well again in two or three days. we made no great gain, however, by this victory; for we lost a camel, and gained a horse: but that which was remarkable, when we came back to the village, the man demanded to be paid for the camel; i disputed it, and it was brought to a hearing before the chinese judge of the place; that is to say, in english, we went before a justice of the peace. give him his due, he acted with a great deal of prudence and impartiality; and having heard both sides, he gravely asked the chinese man that went with me to buy the camel, whose servant he was? "i am no servant," said he, "but went with the stranger."--"at whose request?" said the justice. "at the stranger's request," said he. "why then," said the justice, "you were the stranger's servant for the time; and the camel being delivered to his servant, it was delivered to him, and he must pay for it." i confess the thing was so clear, that i had not a word to say; but admiring to see such just reasoning upon the consequence, and so accurate stating the case, i paid willingly for the camel, and sent for another; but you may observe, _i sent_ for it; i did not go to fetch it myself any more; i had had enough of that. the city of naum is a frontier of the chinese empire: they call it fortified, and so it is, as fortifications go there; for this i will venture to affirm, that all the tartars in karakathy, which, i believe, are some millions, could not batter down the walls with their bows and arrows; but to call it strong, if it were attacked with cannon, would be to make those who understand it laugh at you. we wanted, as i have said, about two days journey of this city, when messengers were sent express to every part of the road, to tell all travellers and caravans to halt, till they had a guard sent to them; for that an unusual body of tartars, making ten thousand in all, had appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city. this was very bad news to travellers; however, it was carefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have a guard. accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of the chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the city of naum, and with those we advanced boldly: the three hundred soldiers from naum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our camels with our baggage, and the whole caravan in the centre. in this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand mogul tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quite another thing. it was early in the morning, when marching from a little well-situated town, called changu, we had a river to pass, where we were obliged to ferry; and had the tartars had any intelligence, then had been the time to have attacked us, when, the caravan being over, the rear-guard was behind: but they did not appear there. about three hours after, when we were entered upon, a desert of about fifteen or sixteen miles over, behold, by a cloud of dust they raised, we saw an enemy was at hand; and they were at hand indeed, for they came on upon the spur. the chinese, our guard on the front, who had talked so big the day before, began to stagger, and the soldiers frequently looked behind them; which is a certain sign in a soldier, that he is just ready to run away. my old pilot was of my mind; and being near me, he called out: "seignior inglese," said he, "those fellows must be encouraged, or they will ruin us all; for if the tartars come on, they will never stand it."--"i am of your mind," said i: "but what course must be done?"--"done?" said he; "let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each wing, and encourage them, and they will fight like brave fellows in brave company: but without it, they will every man turn his back." immediately i rode up to our leader, and told him, who was exactly of our mind; and accordingly fifty of us marched to the right wing, and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line of reserve; for so we marched, leaving the last two hundred men to make another body to themselves, and to guard the camels; only that, if need were, they should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty. in a word, the tartars came on, and an innumerable company they were; how many, we could not tell, but ten thousand we thought was the least. a party of them came on first, and viewed our posture, traversing the ground in the front of our line; and as we found them within gun-shot, our leader ordered the two wings to advance swiftly, and give them a _salvo_ on each wing with their shot, which was done; but they went off, and i suppose went back to give an account of the reception they were like to meet with; and, indeed, that salute clogged their stomachs; for they immediately halted, stood awhile to consider of it, and, wheeling off to the left, they gave over the design, and said no more to us for that time; which was very agreeable to our circumstances, which were but very indifferent for a battle with such a number. two days after this we came to the city of naum, or naunm. we thanked the governor for his care for us, and collected to the value of one hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers sent to guard us; and here we rested one day. this is a garrison indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers kept here; but the reason of it was, that formerly the muscovite frontiers lay nearer to them than they do now, the muscovites having abandoned that part of the country (which lies from the city west, for about two hundred miles) as desolate and unfit for use; and more especially, being so very remote, and so difficult to send troops hither for its defence; for we had yet above two thousand miles to muscovy, properly so called. after this we passed several great rivers, and two dreadful deserts, one of which we were sixteen days passing over, and which, as i said, was to be called no man's land; and on the 13th of april we came to the frontiers of the muscovite dominions. i think the first city, or town, or fortress, whatever it might be called, that belonged to the czar of muscovy, was called argun, being on the west side of the river argun. i could not but discover an infinite satisfaction; that i was now arrived in, as i called it, a christian country; or, at least, in a country governed by christians: for though the muscovites do, in my opinion, but just deserve the name of christians (yet such they pretend to be, and are very devout in their way:) it would certainly occur to any man who travels the world as i have done, and who had any power of reflection; i say, it would occur to him, to reflect, what a blessing it is to be brought into the world where the name of god, and of a redeemer, is known, worshipped, and adored--and not where the people, given up by heaven to strong delusions, worship the devil, and prostrate themselves to stocks and stones; worship monsters, elements, horrible-shaped animals, and statues, or images of monsters. not a town or city we passed through but had their pagods, their idols, and their temples; and ignorant people worshipping even the works of their own hands! now we came where, at least, a face of the christian worship appeared, where the knee was bowed to jesus; and whether ignorantly or not, yet the christian religion was owned, and the name of the true god was called upon and adored; and it made the very recesses of my soul rejoice to see it. i saluted the brave scotch merchant i mentioned above, with my first acknowledgment of this; and, taking him by the hand, i said to him, "blessed be god, we are once again come among christians!" he smiled, and answered, "do not rejoice too soon, countryman; these muscovites are but an odd sort of christians; and but for the name of it, you may see very little of the substance for some months farther of our journey." "well," said i, "but still it is better than paganism, and worshipping of devils."--"why, i'll tell you," said he; "except the russian soldiers in garrisons, and a few of the inhabitants of the cities upon the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thousand miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most ignorant of pagans." and so indeed we found it. we were now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth, if i understand any thing of the surface of the globe, that is to be found in any part of the world: we had at least twelve hundred miles to the sea, eastward; we had at least two thousand to the bottom of the baltic sea, westward; and almost three thousand miles, if we left that sea, and went on west to the british and french channels; we had full five thousand miles to the indian or persian sea, south; and about eight hundred miles to the frozen sea, north; nay, if some people may be believed, there might be no sea north-east till we came round the pole, and consequently into the north-west, and so had a continent of land into america, no mortal knows where; though i could give some reasons why i believe that to be a mistake too. as we entered into the muscovite dominions, a good while before we came to any considerable town, we had nothing to observe there but this: first, that all the rivers run to the east. as i understood by the charts which some of our caravans had with them, it was plain that all those rivers ran into the great river yamour, or gammour. this river, by the natural course of it, must run into the east sea, or chinese ocean. the story they tell us, that the mouth of this river is choked up with bulrushes of a monstrous growth, viz. three feet about, and twenty or thirty feet high, i must be allowed to say i believe nothing of; but as its navigation is of no use, because there is no trade that way, the tartars, to whom alone it belongs, dealing in nothing but cattle; so nobody that ever i heard or, has been curious enough either to go down to the mouth of it in boats, or to come up from the mouth of it in ships; but this is certain, that this river running due east, in the latitude of sixty degrees, carries a vast concourse of rivers along with it, and finds an ocean to empty itself in that latitude; so we are sure of sea there. some leagues to the north of this river there are several considerable rivers, whose streams run as due north as the yamour runs east; and these are all found to join their waters with the great river tartarus, named so from the northernmost nations of the mogul tartars, who, the chinese say, were the first tartars in the world; and who, as our geographers allege, are the gog and magog mentioned in sacred story. these rivers running all northward, as well as all the other rivers i am yet to speak of, made it evident that the northern ocean bounds the land also on that side; so that it does not seem rational in the least to think that the land can extend itself to join with america on that side, or that there is not a communication between the northern and the eastern ocean; but of this i shall say no more; it was my observation at that time, and therefore i take notice of it in this place. we now advanced from the river arguna by easy and moderate journies, and were very visibly obliged to the care the czar of muscovy has taken to have cities and towns built in as many places as are possible to place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, something, like the stationary soldiers placed by the romans in the remotest countries of their empire, some of which i had read were particularly placed in britain for the security of commerce, and for the lodging of travellers; and thus it was here; though wherever we came at these towns and stations the garrisons and governor were russians and professed mere pagans, sacrificing to idols, and worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans that ever i met with, the most barbarous, except only that they did not eat man's flesh, as our savages of america did. some instances of this we met with in the country between arguna, where we enter the muscovite dominions, and a city of tartars and russians together, called nertzinskay; in which space is a continued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over it. in a village near the last of those places, i had the curiosity to go and see their way of living; which is most brutish and unsufferable: they had, i suppose, a great sacrifice that day; for there stood out upon an old stump of a tree, an idol made of wood, frightful as the devil; at least as any thing we can think of to represent the devil that can be made. it had a head certainly not so much as resembling any creature that the world ever saw; ears as big as goats' horns, and as high; eyes as big as a crown-piece; and a nose like a crooked ram's horn, and a mouth extended four-cornered, like that of a lion, with horrible teeth, hooked like a parrot's under bill. it was dressed up in the filthiest manner that you can suppose; its upper garment was of sheep-skins, with the wool outward; a great tartar bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it: it was about eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, or any other proportion of parts. this scarecrow was set up at the outside of the village; and when i came near to it, there were sixteen or seventeen creatures, whether men or women i could not tell, for they make no distinction by their habits, either of body or head; these lay all flat on the ground, round this formidable block of shapeless wood. i saw no motion among them any more than if they had been logs of wood, like their idol; at first i really thought they had been so; but when i came a little nearer, they started up upon their feet, and raised a howling cry, as if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, and walked away as if they were displeased at our disturbing them. a little way off from this monster, and at the door of a tent or hut, made all of sheep-skins and cow-skins, dried, stood three butchers: i thought they were such; for when i came nearer to them, i found they had long knives in their hands, and in the middle of the tent appeared three sheep killed, and one young bullock, or steer. these, it seems, were sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol; and these three men priests belonging to it; and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who brought the offering, and were making their prayers to that stock. i confess i was more moved at their stupidity, and this brutish worship of a hobgoblin, than ever i was at any thing in my life: to see god's most glorious and best creature, to whom he had granted so many advantages, even by creation, above the rest of the works of his hands, vested with a reasonable soul, and that soul adorned with faculties and capacities adapted both to honour his maker and be honoured by him; i say, to see it sunk and degenerated to a degree so more than stupid, as to prostrate itself to a frightful nothing, a mere imaginary object dressed up by themselves, and made terrible to themselves by their own contrivance, adorned only with clouts and rags; and that this should be the effect of mere ignorance, wrought up into hellish devotion by the devil himself; who, envying his maker the homage and adoration of his creatures, had deluded them into such gross, surfeiting, sordid, and brutish things, as one would think should shock nature itself. but what signified all the astonishment and reflection of thoughts? thus it was, and i saw it before my eyes; and there was no room to wonder at it, or think it impossible. all my admiration turned to rage; and i rode up to the image or monster, call it what you will, and with my sword cut the bonnet that was on its head in two in the middle, so that it hung down by one of the horns; and one of our men that was with me, took hold of the sheep skin that covered it, and pulled at it, when, behold, a most hideous outcry and howling ran through the village, and two or three hundred people came about my ears, so that i was glad to scour for it; for we saw some had bows and arrows; but i resolved from that moment to visit them again. our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was about four miles off, in order to provide some horses, which they wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the badness of the way, and our long march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to put my design in execution. i communicated my project to the scots merchant, of moscow, of whose courage i had had a sufficient testimony, as above. i told him what i had seen, and with what indignation i had since thought that human nature could be so degenerate. i told him, i was resolved, if i could get but four or five men well armed to go with me, to go and destroy that vile, abominable idol; to let them see, that it had no power to help itself, and consequently could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed to, much less help them that offered sacrifices to it. he laughed at me: said he, "your zeal may be good; but what do you propose to yourself by it?"--"propose!" said i: "to vindicate the honour of god, which is insulted by this devil-worship."--"but how will it vindicate the honour of god," said he, "while the people will not be able to know what you mean by it, unless you could speak to them too, and tell them so? and then they will fight you too, i will assure you, for they are desperate fellows, and that especially in defence of their idolatry."--"can we not," said i, "do it in the night, and then leave them the reasons in writing, in their own language?"--"writing!" said he; "why, there is not in five nations of them one man that knows any thing of a letter, or how to read a word in any language, or in their own."--"wretched ignorance!" said i to him: "however, i have a great mind to do it; perhaps nature may draw inferences from it to them, to let them see how brutish they are to worship such horrid things."--"look you, sir," said he; "if your zeal prompts you to it so warmly, you must do it; but in the next place, i would have you consider these wild nations of people are subjected by force to the czar of muscovy's dominion; and if you do this, it is ten to one but they will come by thousands to the governor of nertzinskay, and complain, and demand satisfaction; and if he cannot give them satisfaction, it is ten to one but they revolt; and it will occasion a new war with all the tartars in the country." this, i confess, put new thoughts into my head for a while; but i harped upon the same string still; and all that day i was uneasy to put my project in execution. towards the evening the scots merchant met me by accident in our walk about the town, and desired to speak with me: "i believe," said he, "i have put you off your good design; i have been a little concerned about it since; for i abhor the idol and idolatry as much as you can do."--"truly," said i, "you have put it off a little, as to the execution of it, but you have not put it all out of my thoughts; and, i believe, i shall do it still before i quit this place, though i were to be delivered up to them for satisfaction."--"no, no," said he, "god forbid they should deliver you up to such a crew of monsters! they shall not do that neither; that would be murdering you indeed."--"why," said i, "how would they use me?"--"use you!" said he: "i'll tell you how they served a poor russian, who affronted them in their worship just as you did, and whom they took prisoner, after they had lamed him with an arrow, that he could not run away: they took him and stripped him stark naked, and set him upon the top of the idol monster, and stood all round him, and shot as many arrows into him as would stick over his whole body; and then they burnt him, and all the arrows sticking in him, as a sacrifice to the idol."--"and was this the same idol:" said i.--"yes," said he, "the very same."--"well," said i, "i will tell you a story." so i related the story of our men at madagascar, and how they burnt and sacked the village there, and killed man, woman, and child, for their murdering one of our men, just as it is related before; and when i had done, i added, that i thought we ought to do so to this village. he listened very attentively to the story; but when i talked of doing so to that village, said he, "you mistake very much; it was not this village, it was almost a hundred miles from this place; but it was the same idol, for they carry him about in procession all over the country."--"well," said i, "then that idol ought to be punished for it; and it shall," said i, "if i live this night out." in a word, finding me resolute, he liked the design, and told me, i should not go alone, but he would go with me; but he would go first, and bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also with us; "and one," said he, "as famous for his zeal as you can desire any one to be against such devilish things as these." in a word, he brought me his comrade a scotsman, whom he called captain richardson; and i gave him a full account of what i had seen, and also what i intended; and he told me readily, he would go with me, if it cost him his life. so we agreed to go, only we three. i had, indeed, proposed it to my partner, but he declined it. he said, he was ready to assist me to the utmost, and upon all occasions, for my defence; but that this was an adventure quite out of his way: so, i say, we resolved upon our work, only we three, and my man-servant, and to put it in execution that night about midnight, with all the secresy imaginable. however, upon second thoughts, we were willing to delay it till the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the morning, we supposed the governor could not pretend to give them any satisfaction upon us when we were out of his power. the scots merchant, as steady in his resolution to enterprise it as bold in executing, brought me a tartar's robe or gown of sheep-skins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the same for himself and his countryman, that the people, if they saw us, should not be able to determine who we were. all the first night we spent in mixing up some combustible matter with aqua-vitae, gunpowder, and such other materials as we could get; and, having a good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour after night we set out upon our expedition. we came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and found that the people had not the least jealousy of danger attending their idol. the night was cloudy; yet the moon gave us light enough to see that the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before. the people seemed to be all at their rest; only, that in the great hut, or tent as we called it, where we saw the three priests, whom we mistook for butchers, we saw a light, and going up close to the door, we heard people talking, as if there were five or six of them; we concluded, therefore, that if we set wildfire to the idol, these men would come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from the destruction that we intended for it; and what to do with them we knew not. once we thought of carrying it away, and setting fire to it at a distance, but when we came to handle it we found it too bulky for our carriage; so we were at a loss again. the second scotsman was for setting fire to the tent or hut, and knocking the creatures that were there on the head, when they came out; but i could not join with that; i was against killing them, if it was possible to be avoided. "well then," said the scots merchant, "i will tell you what we will do; we will try to make them prisoners, tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol destroyed." as it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which we used to tie our fire-works together with; so we resolved to attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could. the first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol, where we gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feet also together, and left him on the ground. two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would come out to see what the matter was; but we waited so long till the third man came back to us; and then nobody coming out, we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more, and we served them just in the same manner, but were obliged to go all with them, and lay them down by the idol some distance from one another; when going back we found two more were come out to the door, and a third stood behind them within the door. we seized the two, and immediately tied them, when the third stepping back, and crying out, my scots merchant went in after him, and taking out a composition we had made, that would only smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it in among them: by that time the other scotsman and my man taking charge of the two men already bound, and tied together also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there, to see if their idol would relieve them, making haste back to us. when the furze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much smoke that they were almost suffocated, we then threw in a small leather bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle, and following it in, we found there were but four people left, who, it seems, were two men and two women, and, as we supposed, had been about some of their diabolic sacrifices. they appeared, in short, frighted to death, at least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to speak neither, for the smoke. in a word, we took them, bound them as we had the other, and all without any noise, i should have said, we brought them out of the house, or hut, first; for, indeed, we were not able to bear the smoke any; more than they were. when we had done this, we carried them all together to the idol: when we came there we fell to work with him; and first we daubed him all over, and his robes also, with tar, and such other stuff as we had, which was tallow mixed with brimstone; then we stopped his eyes, and ears, and, mouth full of gunpowder; then we wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet; and then sticking all the combustibles we had brought with us upon; him, we looked about to see if we could find any thing else to help to burn him; when my scotsman remembered that by the tent, or hut, where the men were, there lay a heap of dry forage, whether straw or rushes i do not remember: away he and the other scotsman ran, and fetched their arms full of that. when we had done this, we took all our prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and ungagged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them all before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole. we stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, til the powder in the eyes, and mouth, and ears of the idol blew up, and, as we could perceive, had split and deformed the shape of it; and, in a word, till we saw it burnt into a mere block or log of wood; and then igniting the dry forage to it, we found it would be soon quite consumed; so we began to think of going away; but the scotsman said, "no, we must not go, for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn themselves with the idol." so we resolved to stay till the forage was burnt down too, and then we came away and left them. in the morning we appeared among our fellow-travellers, exceeding busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any man suggest that we had been any where but in our beds, as travellers might be supposed to be, to fit themselves for the fatigues of that day's journey. but it did not end so; for the next day came a great multitude of the country people, not only of this village, but of a hundred more, for aught i know, to the town-gates; and in a most outrageous manner demanded satisfaction of the russian governor, for the insulting their priests, and burning their great cham-chi-thaungu; such a hard name they gave the monstrous creature they worshipped. the people of nertzinskay were at first in a great consternation; for they said the tartars were no less than thirty thousand, and that in a few days more they would be one hundred thousand stronger. the russian governor sent out messengers to appease them, and gave them all the good words imaginable. he assured them he knew nothing of it, and that there had not a soul of his garrison been abroad; that it could not be from any body there; and if they would let him know who it was, he should be exemplarily punished. they returned haughtily, that all the country reverenced the great cham-chi-thaungu, who dwelt in the son, and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image, but some christian miscreant; so they called them, it seems; and they therefore denounced war against him, and all the russians, who, they said, were miscreants and christians. the governor, still patient, and unwilling to make a breach, or to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him, the czar having straitly charged him to treat the conquered country with gentleness and civility, gave them still all the good words he could; at last he told them, there was a caravan gone towards russia that morning, and perhaps it was some of them who had done them this injury; and that, if they would be satisfied with that, he would send after them, to inquire into it. this seemed to appease them a little; and accordingly the governor sent after us, and gave us a particular account how the thing was, intimating withal, that if any in our caravan had done it, they should make their escape; but that whether they had done it or no, we should make all the haste forward that was possible; and that in the meantime he would keep them in play as long as he could. this was very friendly in the governor. however, when it came to the caravan, there was nobody knew any thing of the matter; and, as for us that were guilty, we were the least of all suspected; none so much as asked us the question; however, the captain of the caravan, for the time, took the hint that the governor gave us, and we marched or travelled two days and two nights without any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called plothus; nor did we make any long stop here, but hastened on towards jarawena, another of the czar of muscovy's colonies, and where we expected we should be safe; but it is to be observed, that here we began, for two or three days march, to enter upon a vast nameless desert, of which i shall say more in its place; and which if we had now been upon it, it is more than probable we had been all destroyed. it was the second day's march from plothus that by the clouds of dust behind us at a great distance, some of our people began to be sensible we were pursued; we had entered the desert, and had passed by a great lake, called schanks osier, when we perceived a very great body of horse appear on the other side of the lake to the north, we travelling west. we observed they went away west, as we did; but had supposed we should have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very happily took the south side: and in two days more we saw them not, for they, believing we were still before them, pushed on, till they came to the river udda: this is a very great river when it passes farther north, but when we came to it, we found it narrow and fordable. the third day they either found their mistake, or had intelligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards the dusk of the evening. we had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a place for our camp, which was very convenient for the night; for as we were upon a desert, though but at the beginning of it, that was above five hundred miles over, we had no towns to lodge at, and, indeed, expected none but the city of jarawena, which we had yet two days march to; the desert, however, had some few woods in it on this side, and little river, which ran all into the great river udda. it was in a narrow strait, between two small but very thick woods, that we pitched our little camp for that night, expecting to be attacked in the night. nobody knew but ourselves what we were pursued for; but as it was usual for the mogul tartars to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them, as against armies of robbers; and it was therefore no new thing to be pursued. but we had this night, of all the nights of our travels, a most advantageous camp; for we lay between two woods, with a little rivulet running just before our front; so that we could not be surrounded or attacked any way, but in our front or rear: we took care also to make our front as strong as we could, by placing our packs, with our camels and horses, all in a line on the side of the river, and we felled some trees in our rear. in this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was upon us before we had finished our situation: they did not come on us like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to be delivered to them, that had abused their priests, and burnt their god cham-chi-thaungu, that they might burn them with fire; and, upon this, they said, they would go away, and do us no farther harm, otherwise they would burn us all with fire. our men looked very blank at this message, and began to stare at one another, to see who looked with most guilt in their faces, but, _nobody_ was the word, nobody did it. the leader of the caravan sent word, he was well assured it was not done, by any of our camp; that we were peaceable merchants, travelling on our business; that we had done no harm to them, or to any one else; and therefore they must look farther for their enemies, who had injured them, for we were not the people; so desired them not to disturb us; for, if they did, we should defend ourselves. they were far from being satisfied with this for an answer, and a great crowd of them came down in the morning, by break of day, to our camp; but, seeing us in such an advantageous situation, they durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they stood, and shewed us such a number, as, indeed, terrified us very much; for those that spoke least of them, spoke of ten thousand. here they stood, and looked at us awhile, and then setting up a great howl, they let fly a cloud of arrows among us; but we were well enough fortified for that, for we were sheltered under our baggage; and i do not remember that one man of us was hurt. some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and expected them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, a cossack, as they call them, of jarawena, in the pay of the muscovites, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, "i will send all these people away to sibeilka." this was a city four or five days journey at least to the south, and rather behind us. so he takes his bow and arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were, back to nertzinskay; after this, he takes a great circuit about, and comes to the army of the tartars, as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people who had burnt their cham-chi-thaungu were gone to sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them; that is to say, christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god seal isarg, belonging to the tonguses. as this fellow was a mere tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so well, that they all took it from him, and away they drove, in a most violent hurry, to sibeilka, which, it seems, was five days journey to the south; and in less than three hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor ever knew whether they went to that other place called sibeilka or no. so we passed safely on to the city of jarawena, where there was a garrison of muscovites; and there we rested five days, the caravan being exceedingly fatigued with the last day's march, and with want of rest in the night. from this city we had a frightful desert, which held us three-and-twenty days march. we furnished ourselves with some tents here, for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen carriages, or waggons, of the country, for carrying our water and provisions; and these carriages were our defence every night round our little camp; so that had the tartars appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us. we may well be supposed to want rest again after this long journey; for in this desert we saw neither house or tree, or scarce a bush: we saw, indeed, abundance of the sable-hunters, as they called them. these are all tartars of the mogul tartary, of which this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans; but we saw no numbers of them together. i was curious to see the sable skins they catched; but i could never speak with any of them; for they durst not come near us; neither durst we straggle from our company to go near them. after we had passed this desert, we came into a country pretty well inhabited; that is to say, we found towns and castles settled by the czar of muscovy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to protect the caravans, and defend the country against the tartars, who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans and merchants, that if there are any tartars heard of in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to see travellers safe from station to station. and thus the governor of adinskoy, whom i had an opportunity to make a visit to, by means of the scots merchant, who was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought there was any danger, to the next station. i thought long before this, that as we came nearer to europe we should find the country better peopled, and the people more civilized; but i found myself mistaken in both, for we had yet the nation of the tonguses to pass through; where we saw the same tokens of paganism and barbarity, or worse, than before; only as they were conquered by the muscovites, and entirely reduced, they were not so dangerous; but for the rudeness of manners, idolatry, and polytheism, no people in the world ever went beyond them. they are clothed all in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same. you know not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their countenances, or their clothes; and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they live under ground, in houses like vaults, which have cavities or caves going from one to another. if the tartars had their cham-chi-thaungu for a whole village, or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides, they worship the stars, the sun, the water, the snow; and, in a word, every thing that they do not understand, and they understand but very little; so that almost every element, every uncommon thing, sets them a-sacrificing. but i am no more to describe people than countries, any farther than my own story comes to be concerned in them. i met with nothing peculiar to myself in all this country, which i reckon was, from the desert which i spoke of last, at least four hundred miles, half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days severe travelling, without house, tree, or bush; but we were obliged again to carry our own provisions, as well water as bread. after we were out of this desert, and had travelled two days, we came to janezay, a muscovite city or station, on the great river janezay. this river, they told us, parted europe from asia, though our map-makers, as i am told, do not agree to it; however, it is certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient siberia, which now makes a province only of the vast muscovite empire, but is itself equal in bigness to the whole empire of germany. and yet here i observed ignorance and paganism, still prevailed, except in the muscovite garrisons. all the country between the river oby and the river janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the tartars; nay, as any nation, for aught i know, in asia or america. i also found, which i observed to the muscovite governors, whom i had opportunity to converse with, that the pagans are not much the wiser, or the nearer christianity, for being under the muscovite government; which they acknowledged was true enough, but, they said, it was none of their business; that if the czar expected to convert his siberian, or tonguese, or tartar subjects, it should be done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with more sincerity than i expected, that they found it was not so much the concern of their monarch to make the people christians, as it was to make them subjects. from this river to the great river oby, we crossed a wild uncultivated country; i cannot say 'tis a barbarous soil; 'tis only barren of people, and wants good management; otherwise it is in itself a most pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country. what inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from russia; for this is the country, i mean on both sides the river oby, whither the muscovite criminals, that are not put to death, are banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever come away. i have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till i came to tobolski, the capital of siberia, where i continued some time on the following occasion:-we had been now almost seven months on our journey, and winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and i called a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, considering that we were bound for england, and not for moscow, to consider how to dispose of ourselves. they told us of sledges and rein-deer to carry us over the snow in the winter-time; and, indeed, they have such things, as it would be incredible to relate the particulars of, by which means the russians travel more in the winter than they can in summer; because in these sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow being frozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, the vales, the rivers, the lakes, are all smooth, and hard as a stone; and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath. but i had no occasion to push at a winter journey of this kind; i was bound to england, not to moscow, and my route lay two ways: either i must go on as the caravan went, till i came to jarislaw, and then go off west for narva, and the gulf of finland, and so either by sea or land to dantzic, where i might possibly sell my china cargo to good advantage; or i must leave the caravan at a little town on the dwina, from whence i had but six days by water to archangel, and from thence might be sure of shipping, either to england, holland, or hamburgh. now to go any of these journies in the winter would have been preposterous; for as to dantzic, the baltic would be frozen up, and i could not get passage; and to go by land in those countries, was far less safe than among the mogul tartars; likewise to archangel, in october all the ships would be gone from thence, and even the merchants, who dwell there in summer, retire south to moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that i should have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity of provisions, and must lie there in an empty town all the winter: so that, upon the whole, i thought it much my better way to let the caravan go, and to make provision to winter where i was, viz. at tobolski, in siberia, in the latitude of sixty degrees, where i was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz. plenty of provisions, such as the country afforded, a warm house, with fuel enough, and excellent company; of all which i shall give a full account in its place. i was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island, where i never felt cold, except when i had my ague; on the contrary, i had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and never made any fire but without doors, for my necessity, in dressing my food, &c. now i made me three good vests, with large robes or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrists, and all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently warm. as to a warm house, i must confess, i greatly dislike our way in england, of making fires in every room in the house, in open chimnies, which, when the fire was out, always kept the air in the room cold as the climate. but taking an apartment in a good house in the town, i ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace, in the centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the funnel to carry the smoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen; like as they heat the bagnios in england. by this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved; and how cold soever it was without, it was always warm within; and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with any smoke. the most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible to meet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as that of the most northerly part of europe, near the frozen ocean, and within but a very few degrees of nova zembla. but this being the country where the state criminals of muscovy, as i observed before, are all banished; this city was full of noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees of the nobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of muscovy. here were the famous prince galilfken, or galoffken, and his son; the old general robostisky, and several other persons of note, and some ladies. by means of my scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, i parted with here, i made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen, and some of them of the first rank; and from these, in the long winter nights, in which i staid here, i received several agreeable visits. it was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished ministers of state belonging to the czar of muscovy, that my talk of my particular case began. he had been telling me abundance of fine things, of the greatness, the magnificence, and dominions, and the absolute power of the emperor of the russians. i interrupted him, and told him, i was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the czar of muscovy was, though my dominions were not so large, or my people so many. the russian grandee looked a little surprised, and fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what i meant. i told him his wonder would cease when i had explained myself. first, i told him, i had the absolute disposal of the lives and fortunes of all my subjects: that notwithstanding my absolute power, i had not one person disaffected to my government or to my person, in all my dominions. he shook his head at that, and said, there, indeed, i outdid the czar of muscovy. i told him, that all the lands in my kingdom were my own, and all my subjects were not only my tenants, but tenants at will; that they would all fight for me to the last drop; and that never tyrant, for such i acknowledged myself to be, was ever so universally beloved, and yet so horribly feared, by his subjects. after amusing them with these riddles in government for awhile, i opened the case, and told them the story at large of my living in the island, and how i managed both myself and the people there that were under me, just as i have since minuted it down. they were exceedingly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told me with a sigh, that the true greatness of life was to be master of ourselves; that he would not have changed such a state of life as mine, to have been czar of muscovy, and that he found more felicity in the retirement he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his master the czar: that the height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm, without. when he came first hither, he said, he used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and consideration had made him look into himself, as well as round himself, to things without: that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for warmth, and liberty for exercise, in order to health, completed, in his opinion, all that the world could do for us: and though the greatness, the authority, the riches, and the pleasures, which some enjoyed in the world, and which he had enjoyed his share of, had much in them that was agreeable to us, yet he observed, that all those things chiefly gratified the coarsest of our affections; such as our ambition, our particular pride, our avarice, our vanity, and our sensuality; all which were, indeed, the mere product of the worst part of man, were in themselves crimes, and had in them the seeds of all manner of crimes; but neither were related to, or concerned with, any of those virtues that constituted us wise men, or of those graces which distinguished us as christians; that being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of all those vices, he said, he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced, that virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment, than all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power that they (the banished) had left behind them. "nor, sir," said he, "do i bring my mind to this politically, by the necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable; but if i know any thing of myself, i would not go back, no not though my master, the czar, should call me, and offer to reinstate me in all my former grandeur; i say, i would no more go back to it, than i believe my soul, when it shall be delivered from this prison of the body, and has had a taste of the glorious state beyond life, would come back to the gaol of flesh and blood it is now enclosed in, and leave heaven to deal in the dirt and grime of human affairs." he spake this with so much warmth in his temper, so much earnestness and motion of his spirits, which were apparent in his countenance, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul; and indeed there was no room to doubt his sincerity. i told him, i once thought myself a kind of a monarch in my old station, of which i had given him an account, but that i thought he was not a monarch only, but a great conqueror; for that he that has got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and has the absolute dominion over himself, and whose reason entirely governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city. "but, my lord," said i, "shall i take the liberty to ask you a question?"--"with all my heart," said he. "if the door of your liberty was opened," said i, "would not you take hold of it to deliver yourself from this exile?" "hold," said he, "your question is subtle, and requires some serious just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; and i'll give it you from the bottom of my heart. nothing that i know of in this world would move me to deliver myself from the state of banishment, except these two: first, the enjoyment of my relations; and secondly, a little warmer climate. but i protest to you, that to go back to the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the hurry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the pleasures, that is to say, follies of a courtier; if my master should send me word this moment, that he restores me to all he banished me from, i protest, if i know myself at all, i would not leave this wilderness, these deserts, and these frozen lakes, for the palace of moscow." "but, my lord," said i, "perhaps you not only are banished from the pleasures of the court, and from the power, and authority, and wealth, you enjoyed before, but you may be absent too from some of the conveniencies of life; your estate, perhaps, confiscated, and your effects plundered; and the supplies left you here may not be suitable to the ordinary demands of life." "ay," said he, "that is, as you suppose me to be a lord, or a prince, &c. so indeed i am; but you are now to consider me only as a man, a human creature, not at all distinguished from another; and so i can suffer no want, unless i should be visited with sickness and distempers. however, to put the question out of dispute; you see our manner; we are in this place five persons of rank; we live perfectly retired; as suited to a state of banishment; we have something rescued from the shipwreck of our fortunes, which keeps us from the mere necessity of hunting for our food; but the poor soldiers who are here, without that help, live in as much plenty as we. they go into the woods, and catch sables and foxes; the labour of a month will maintain them a year; and as the way of living is not expensive, so it is not hard to get sufficient to ourselves: so that objection is out of doors." i have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable conversation i had with this truly great man; in all which he shewed, that his mind was so inspired with a superior knowledge of things, so supported by religion, as well as by a vast share of wisdom, that his contempt of the world was really as much as he had expressed, and that he was always the same to the last, as will appear in the story i am going to tell. i had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter i thought it to be. the cold was so intense, that i could not so much as look abroad without being wrapt in furs, and a mask of fur before my face, or rather a hood, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight. the little daylight we had, as we reckoned, for three months, not above five hours a day, or six at most; only that the snow lying on the ground continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark. our horses were kept (or rather starved) under ground; and as for our servants, (for we hired servants here to look after our horses and ourselves) we had every now and then their fingers and toes to thaw, and take care of, lest they should mortify and fall off. it is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all double. our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; good bread enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good beef. all the stores of provision for the winter are laid up in the summer, and well cured. our drink was water mixed with aqua vitae instead of brandy; and, for a treat, mead instead of wine; which, however, they have excellent good. the hunters, who ventured abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fresh venison, very fat and good; and sometimes bear's flesh, but we did not much care for the last. we had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends as above; and, in a word, we lived very cheerfully and well, all things considered. it was now march, and the days grown considerably longer, and the weather at least tolerable; so other travellers began to prepare sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be going; but my measures being fixed, as i have said, for archangel, and not for muscovy or the baltic, i made no motion, knowing very well, that the ships from the south do not set out for that part of the world till may or june; and that if i was there at the beginning of august, it would be as soon as any ships would be ready to go away; and therefore, i say, i made no haste to be gone, as others did; in a word, i saw a great many people, nay, all the travellers, go away before me. it seems, every year they go from thence to moscow for trade; viz. to carry furs, and buy necessaries with them, which they bring back to furnish their shops; also others went on the same errand to archangel; but then they also, being to come back again above eight hundred miles, went all out before me. in short, about the latter end of may i began to make all ready to pack up; and as i was doing this, it occurred to me, that seeing all these people were banished by the czar of muscovy to siberia, and yet, when they came there, were at liberty to go whither they would; why did they not then go away to any part of the world wherever they thought fit? and i began to examine what should hinder them from making such an attempt. but my wonder was over, when i entreated upon that subject with the person i have mentioned, who answered me thus: "consider, first," said he, "the place where we are; and, secondly, the condition we are in; especially," said he, "the generality of the people who are banished hither. we are surrounded," said he, "with stronger things than bars and bolts: on the north side is an unnavigable ocean, where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; neither, if we had both, could we know whither to go with them. every other way," said he, "we have above a thousand miles to pass through the czar's own dominions, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made by the government, and through the towns garrisoned by its troops; so that we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, or subsist any other way: so that it is in vain to attempt it." i was silenced indeed, at once, and found that they were in a prison, every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle of moscow; however, it came into my thoughts, that i might certainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent person, and that it was very easy for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the country; and as i was not going to moscow, but to archangel, and that i went in the nature of a caravan, by which i was not obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the desert, but could encamp every night where i would, might easily pass uninterrupted to archangel, where i could immediately secure him on board an english or dutch ship, and carry him off safe along with me; and as to his subsistence, and other particulars, that should be my care, till he should better supply himself. he heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the while i spoke; nay, i could see in his very face, that what i said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately answer me when i had done, and, as it were, expected what he would say to it; and after he had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, "how unhappy are we! unguided creatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares to us, and we are made tempters of one another! my dear friend," said he, "your offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is so disinterested in itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, that i must have very little knowledge of the world, if i did not both wonder at it, and acknowledge the obligation i have upon me to you for it: but did you believe i was sincere in what i have so often said to you of my contempt of the world? did you believe i spoke my very soul to you, and that i had really maintained that degree of felicity here, that had placed me above all that the world could give me, or do for me? did you believe i was sincere, when i told you i would not go back, if i was recalled even to be all that once i was in the court, and with the favour of the czar my master? did you believe me, my friend, to be an honest man, or did you think me to be a boasting hypocrite?" here he stopped, as if he would hear what i would say; but, indeed, i soon after perceived, that he stopped because his spirits were in motion: his heart was full of struggles, and he could not go on. i was, i confess, astonished at the thing, as well as at the man, and i used some arguments with him to urge him to set himself free; that he ought to look upon this as a door opened by heaven for his deliverance, and a summons by providence, who has the care and good disposition of all events, to do himself good, and to render himself useful in the world. he had by this time recovered himself. "how do you know, sir," said he, warmly, "but that, instead of a summons from heaven, it may be a feint of another instrument, representing, in all the alluring colours to me, the show of felicity as a deliverance, which may in itself be my snare, and tend directly to my ruin? here i am free from the temptation of returning to my former miserable greatness; there i am not sure, but that all the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which i know remain in my nature, may revive and take root, and, in a word, again overwhelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now master of his soul's liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his own senses, in the full possession of all personal liberty. dear sir, let me remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the expense of the future happiness which now i have in my view, but shall then, i fear, quickly lose sight of; for i am but flesh, a man, a mere man, have passions and affections as likely to possess and overthrow me as any man: o be not my friend and my tempter both together!" if i was surprised before, i was quite dumb now, and stood silent, looking at him; and, indeed, admired what i saw. the struggle in his soul was so great, that, though the weather was extremely cold, it put him into a most violent sweat, and i found he wanted to give vent to his mind; so i said a word or two, that i would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again; and then i withdrew to my own apartment. about two hours after, i heard somebody at or near the door of the room, and i was going to open the door; but he had opened it, and come in: "my dear friend," said he, "you had almost overset me, but i am recovered: do not take it ill that i do not close with your offer; i assure you, it is not for want of a sense of the kindness of it in you; and i come to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it to you; but, i hope, i have got the victory over myself." "my lord," said i, "i hope you are fully satisfied, that you did not resist the call of heaven."--"sir," said he, "if it had been from heaven, the same power would have influenced me to accept it; but i hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from heaven that i decline it; and i have an infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man." i had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make profession to him of my having no end in it, but a sincere desire to serve him. he embraced me very passionately, and assured me, he was sensible of that, and should always acknowledge it: and with that he offered me a very fine present of sables, too much indeed for me to accept from a man in his circumstances; and i would have avoided them, but he would not be refused. the next morning i sent my servant to his lordship, with a small present of tea, two pieces of china damask, and four little wedges of japan gold, which, did not all weigh above six ounces, or thereabouts; but were far short of the value of his sables, which indeed, when i came to england, i found worth near two hundred pounds. he accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the japan coinage, which i found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take any more; and sent word by my servant, that he desired to speak with me. when i came to him, he told me, i knew what had passed between us, and hoped i would not move him any more in that affair; but that, since i made such a generous offer to him, he asked me, if i had kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he would name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern. i told him, that i could not say i inclined to do so much for any one but himself, for whom i had a particular value, and should have been glad to have been the instrument of his deliverance: however, if he would please to name the person to me, i would give him my answer, and hoped he would not be displeased with me, if he was with my answer. he told me, it was only his son, who, though i had not seen, yet was in the same condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other side the oby; but that, if i consented, he would send for him. i made no hesitation, but told him i would do it. i made some ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account; and that seeing i could not prevail on him, i would shew my respect to him by my concern for his son: but these things are too tedious to repeat here. he sent away the next day for his son, and in about twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven horses loaded with very rich furs, and which, in the whole, amounted to a very great value. his servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young lord at a distance till night, when he came _incognito_ into our apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we concerted there the manner of our travelling, and every thing proper for the journey. i had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, fine ermines, and such other furs that are very rich; i say, i had bought them in that city for exchange for some of the goods brought from china; in particular, for the cloves and nutmegs, of which i sold the greatest part here; and the rest afterwards at archangel, for a much better price than i could have done at louden; and my partner, who was sensible of the profit, and whose business, more particularly than mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our stay, on account of the traffic we made here. it was in the beginning of june when i left this remote place, a city, i believe, little heard of in the world; and, indeed, it is so far out of the road of commerce, that i know not how it should be much talked of. we were now come to a very small caravan, being only thirty-two horses and camels in all, and all of them passed for mine, though my new guest was proprietor of eleven of them. it was most natural also, that i should take more servants with me than i had before, and the young lord passed for my steward; what great man i passed for myself i know not, neither did it concern me to inquire. we had here the worst and the largest desert to pass over that we met with in all the journey; indeed i call it the worst, because the way was very deep in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had to say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of tartars and robbers to fear, and that they never came on this side the river oby, or at least but very seldom; but we found it otherwise. my young lord had with him a faithful muscovite servant, or rather a siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the country; and who led us by private roads, that we avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon the great road, such as tumen, soloy kamaskoy, and several others; because the muscovite garrisons, which are kept there, are very curious and strict in their observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the banished persons of note should make their escape that way into muscovy; but by this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so our whole journey was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents, when we might have had good accommodation in the cities on the way: this the young lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie abroad, when we came to several cities on the way; but lay abroad himself, with his servant, in the woods, and met us always at the appointed places. we were just entered europe, having passed the river kama, which, in these parts, is the boundary between europe and asia; and the first city on the european side was called soloy kamaskoy, which is as much as to say, the great city on the river kama; and here we thought to have seen some evident alteration in the people, their manners, their habit, their religion, and their business; but we were mistaken; for as we had a vast desert to pass, which, by relation, is near seven hundred miles long in some places, but not above two hundred miles over where we passed it; so, till we came past that horrible place, we found very little difference between that country and the mogul tartary; the people mostly pagans, and little better than the savages of america; their houses and towns full of idols, and their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities as above, and the villages near them; where they are christians, as they call themselves, of the greek church; but even these have their religion mingled with so many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known in some places from mere sorcery and witchcraft. in passing this forest, i thought indeed we must, after all our dangers were, in our imagination, escaped, as before, have been plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves: of what country they were; whether the roving bands of the ostiachi, a kind of tartars, or wild people on the banks of the oby, had ranged thus far; or whether they were the sable-hunters of siberia, i am yet at a loss to know; but they were all on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and were at first about five-and-forty in number. they came so near to us as within about two musket shot; and, asking no questions, they surrounded us with their horses, and looked very earnestly upon us twice. at length they placed themselves just in our way; upon which we drew up in a little line before our camels, being not above sixteen men in all; and being drawn up thus, we halted, and sent out the siberian servant who attended his lord, to see who they were: his master was the more willing to let him go, because he was not a little apprehensive that they were a siberian troop sent out after him. the man came up near them with a flag of truce, and called to them; but though he spoke several of their languages, or dialects of languages rather, he could not understand a word they said: however, after some signs to him not to come nearer to them at his peril, so he said he understood them to mean, offering to shoot at him if he advanced, the fellow came back no wiser than he went, only that by their dress, he said, he believed them to be some tartars of kalmuck, or of the circassian hordes; and that there must be more of them on the great desert, though he never heard that ever any of them were seen so far north before. this was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy: there was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile's distance, a little grove or clump of trees, which stood close together, and very near the road; i immediately resolved we should advance to those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there; for, first, i considered that the trees would in a great measure cover us from their arrows; and in the next place, they could not come to charge us in a body: it was, indeed, my old portuguese pilot who proposed it; and who had this excellency attending him, namely, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct and encourage us in cases of the most danger. we advanced immediately with what speed we could, and gained that little wood, the tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. when we came thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy, springy piece of ground, and, on the other side, a great spring of water, which, running out in a little rill or brook, was a little farther joined by another of the like bigness; and was, in short, the head or source of a considerable river, called afterwards the wirtska. the trees which grew about this spring were not in all above two hundred, but were very large, and stood pretty thick; so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy, unless they alighted and attacked us on foot. but to make this more difficult, our portuguese, with indefatigable application, cut down great arms of the trees, and laid them hanging, not cut quite off, from one tree to another; so that he made a continued fence almost round us. we staid here, waiting the motion of the enemy some hours, without perceiving they made any offer to stir; when about two hours before night, they came down directly upon us; and, though we had not perceived it, we found they had been joined by some more of the same, so that they were near fourscore horse, whereof, however, we fancied some were women. they came in till they were within half a shot of our little wood, when we fired one musket without ball, and called to them in the russian tongue, to know what they wanted, and bid them keep off; but, as if they knew nothing of what we said, they came on with a double fury directly to the wood-side, not imagining we were so barricaded, that they could not break in. our old pilot was our captain, as well as he had been our engineer; and desired of us, not to fire upon them till they came within pistol shot, that we might be sure to kill; and that, when we did fire, we should be sure to take good aim. we bade him give the word of command; which he delayed so long, that they were, some of them, within two pikes length of us when we fired. we aimed so true, (or providence directed our shot so sure) that we killed fourteen of them at the first volley, and wounded several others, as also several of their horses; for we had all of us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apiece at least. they were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated immediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we loaded our pieces again, and, seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out, and caught four or five of their horses, whose riders, we supposed, were killed; and coming up to the dead, we could easily perceive they were tartars, but knew not from what country, or how they came to make an excursion such an unusual length. about an hour after, they made a motion to attack us again, and rode round our little wood, to see where else they might break in; but finding us always ready to face them, they went off again, and we resolved not to stir from the place for that night. we slept but little, you may be sure; but spent the most part of the night in strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the wood; and, keeping a strict watch, we waited for daylight, and, when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed: for the enemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception they had met with, were now increased to no less than three hundred, and had set up eleven or twelve huts and tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and this little camp they had pitched, was upon the open plain, at about three quarters of a mile from us. we were indeed surprised at this discovery; and now, i confess, i gave myself over for lost, and all that i had. the loss of my effects did not lie so near me (though they were very considerable) as the thoughts of falling into the hands of such barbarians, at the latter end of my journey, after so many difficulties and hazards as i had gone through; and even in sight of our port, where we expected safety and deliverance. as for my partner, he was raging: he declared, that to lose his goods would be his ruin; and he would rather die than be starved; and he was for fighting to the last drop. the young lord, as gallant as ever flesh shewed itself, was for fighting to the last also; and my old pilot was of the opinion we were able to resist them all, in the situation we then were in: and thus we spent the day in debates of what we should do; but towards evening, we found that the number of our enemies still increased: perhaps, as they were abroad in several parties for prey, the first had sent out scouts to call for help, and to acquaint them of their booty; and we did not know but by the morning they might still be a greater number; so i began to inquire of those people we had brought from tobolski, if there were no other, or more private ways, by which we might avoid them in the night, and perhaps either retreat to some town, or get help to guard us over the desert. the siberian, who was servant to the young lord, told us, if we designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off in the night to a way that went north towards the river petraz, by which he made no doubt but we might get away, and the tartars never the wiser; but he said, his lord had told him he would not return, but would rather choose to fight. i told him, he mistook his lord; for that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the sake of it; that i knew his lord was brave enough by what he had shewed already; but that his lord knew better than to desire to have seventeen or eighteen men fight five hundred, unless an unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he thought it possible for us to escape in the night, we had nothing else to do but to attempt it. he answered, if his lord gave him such order, he would lose his life if he did not perform it. we soon brought his lord to give that order, though privately, and we immediately prepared for the putting it in practice. and first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in our little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to make it burn all night, that the tartars might conclude we were still there; but, as soon as it was dark, that is to say, so as we could see the stars, (for our guide would not stir before) having all our horses and camels ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who, i soon found, steered himself by the pole or north star, all the country being level for a long way. after we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to be lighter still; not that it was quite dark all night, but the moon; began to rise; so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; but by six o'clock next morning we were gotten near forty miles, though the truth is, we almost spoiled our horses. here we found a russian village, named kirmazinskoy, where we rested, and heard, nothing of the kalmuck tartars that day. about two hours before night we set out again, and travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite so hastily as before; and about seven o'clock we passed a little river, called kirtza, and came to a good large town inhabited by russians, and very populous, called ozomya. there we heard, that several troops or herds of kalmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were now completely out of danger of them, which was to our great satisfaction, you may be sure. here we were obliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest, we staid five days; and my partner and i agreed to give the honest siberian, who brought us hither, the value of ten pistoles for his conducting us. in five days more we came to veussima, upon the river witzogda, which running into the river dwina, we were there very happily near the end of our travels by land, that river being navigable in seven days passage to archangel. from hence we came to lawrenskoy, where the river joins, the third of july; and provided ourselves with two luggage-boats, and a barge, for our convenience. we embarked the seventh, and arrived all safe at archangel the eighteenth, having been a year, five months, and three days on the journey, including our stay of eight months and odd days at tobolski. we were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a hamburgher come in above a month sooner than any of the english ships; when after some consideration, that the city of hamburgh might happen to be as good a market for our goods as london, we all took freight with him; and having put our goods on board, it was most natural for me to put my steward, on board to take care of them; by which means my young lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore again in all the time we staid there; and this he did, that he might not be seen in the city, where some of the moscow merchants would certainly have seen and discovered him. we sailed from archangel the twentieth of august the same year; and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived in the elbe the thirteenth of september. here my partner and i found a very good sale for our goods, as well those of china, as the sables, &c. of siberia; and dividing the produce of our effects my share amounted to 3475_l_. 17_s_. 3_d_. notwithstanding so many losses we had sustained, and charges we had been at; only remembering that i had included, in this, about 600_l_. worth of diamonds, which i had purchased at bengal. here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up to the elbe, in order to go to the court of vienna, where he resolved to seek protection, and where he could correspond with those of his father's friends who were left alive. he did not part without all the testimonies he could give of gratitude for the service i had done him, and his sense of my kindness to the prince his father. to conclude: having staid near four mouths in hamburgh, i came from thence over land to the hague, where i embarked in the packet, and arrived in london the tenth of january 1705, having been gone from england ten years and nine months. and here, resolving to harass myself no more, i am preparing for a longer journey than all these, having lived seventy-two years a life of infinite variety, and learnt sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in peace. 