The
Life And Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe
I was born in the Year
I had two elder
Brothers, one of which was Lieutenant Collonel to an English Regiment
of Foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Coll. Lockhart,
and was killed at the
Being the third Son of
the Family, and not bred to any Trade, my Head began to be fill'd very early
with rambling Thoughts: My Father, who was very ancient, had given me competent
Share of Learning, as far as House-Education, and a Country Free-School
generally goes, and design'd for the Law; but I would be satisfied with nothing
but go 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 Perswasions
of my Mother and other Friends, that there seem'd to be something fatal in
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 excellent Counsel against what he foresaw was my
Design. He call'd me one Morning into his Chamber, where he confined by the
Gout, and expostulated very warmly me upon this Subject: He ask'd me what
Reasons more a meer wandring inclination I had for leaving my Father House and
my native Country, where I might be well introduced, and had a Prospect of
raising my Fortunes 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
Enterprize, 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 mechanick Part of
Mankind, and not embarass'd 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'd they had been placed in
the Middle of the two Extremes, between Mean and the Great; that the wise Man
gave his Testimony to this as the just Standard of true Felicity, when he pray
to have neither Poverty or Riches.
He bid me observe it,
and I should always find, that the Calamitles of Life were shared among the
upper and lower Part of Mankind; but that the middle Station had the fewest
Disasters, and was not expos'd to so many Vicisitudes as the higher or lower
Part of Mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many Distempers and
Uneasiness either of Body or Mind, as those were who, by vicious Living, Luxury
and Extravagancies 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 Vertues and all kinds of
Enjoyments; that Peace and Plenty were the Hand-maids 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 thro' the World, and
comfortably out of it, not embarass'd with the Labours of the Hands or of the
Head, not sold to the Life of Slavery for daily Bread, or harrast with
perplex'd Circumstances, which rob the Soul of Peace, and the Body of Rest; not
enrag'd with the Passion of Envy, or secret burning Lust of Ambition for great
things; but in easy Circumstances sliding gently thro' 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 press'd
me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young Man, not
to precipitate my self into Miseries which Nature and the Station of Life I was
born in, seem'd 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 meer, Fate or
Fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for,
having thus discharg'd 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 Perswasions 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 kill'd; and tho' 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 Prophetick, tho' 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 kill'd;
and that when he spoke of my having Leisure to repent, and none to assist me,
he was so mov'd,0that 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 resolv'd 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 resolv'd 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 but 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 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 us'd to
me; and that in short, if I would ruine my self 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.
Tho' 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 miserablest 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, tho' 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
determin'd 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, nor
so much as sent them Word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might,
without asking God's Blessing, or my Father's, without any Consideration of
Circumstances or Consequences, and in an ill Hour, God knows. On the first of September
1651 I went on Board a Ship bound for
All this while the Storm
encreas'd, and the Sea, which I had never been upon before, went very high,
tho' 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 liv'd; that I would take his Advice, and never run my self 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
liv'd all his Days, and never had been expos'd to Tempests at Sea, or Troubles
on Shore; and I resolv'd 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 inur'd to it: However I was very grave for all that Day, being also
a little Sea sick still; but towards Night the Weather clear'd up, the Wind was
quite over, and a charming fine Evening follow'd; 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 chearful, 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 least my good Resolutions
should continue, my Companion, who had indeed entic'd me away, comes to me, Well
Bob, says he, clapping me on the Shoulder, How do you do after it? I
warrant you were frighted, wa'n't you, last Night, when it blew but a Cap full
of Wind? A Cap full d'you call it? said I, 'twas a
terrible Storm: A Storm, you Fool you, replies he, do you call that a
Storm, why it was nothing at all; give us but a good Ship and Sea Room, and we
think nothing of such a Squal of Wind as that; but you're but a fresh Water
Sailor, Bob; come let us make a Bowl of Punch and we'll forget all
that, d'ye see what charming Weather 'tis 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 swallow'd up by the Sea being
forgotten, and the Current of my former Desires return'd, 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 rouz'd my self from them as it were from a
Distemper, and applying my self to Drink and Company, Soon master'd the Return
of those Fits, for so I call'd them, and I had in five or six Days got as
compleat a Victory over Conscience as any young Fellow that resolv'd 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, resolv'd 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
harden'd 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 an Anchor, and here we lay, the Wind continuing
contrary, viz. at South-west, for seven or eight Days, during which
time a great many Ships from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as
the common 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 rid Forecastle in, shipp'd
several Seas, and we thought once or twice our Anchor had come home; upon which
our Master order'd out the Sheet Anchor; so that we rode with two Anchors
a-Head, and the Cables vered 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, tho' vigilant to the Business of
preserving the Ship, yet as he went in and out of his Cabbin 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 Cabbin, 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 harden'd my self
against: I thought the Bitterness of Death had been past, and that this would
be nothing too like the first. But when the Master himself came by me as I said
just now, and said we should be all lost, I dreadfully frighted: I got up out
of my Cabbin, and look'd 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
cry'd 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 was 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 Boat-Swain begg'd the Master of our Ship to let them cut away the Foremast,
which he was very unwilling to: But the Boat-Swain protesting to him, that if
he did not, the Ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away
the Foremast, 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 his; who was but a young Sailor, and who had been
in such 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 it self; and
these added to the Terror of the Storm, put me into such a Condition, that I
can by no Words describe it. But the worst was not come yet, the Storm
continued with such Fury, that the Seamen themselves acknowledged they had
never 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 enquir'd. However, the Storm was so violent, that I saw what is
not often seen, the Master, the Boat-Swain, and some others more sensible than
the rest, at their Prayers, and 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
Cabbin. 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 stirr'd up, and
went to the Pump and work'd very heartily. While this was doing, the Master
seeing some light Colliers, who not able to ride out the Storm, were oblig'd 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 had
happen'd. 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, no body minded me, or
what was become of me; but another Man stept up the Pump, and thrusting me
aside with his Foot, let me lye, thinking I had been dead; and it was a great
while before I came to my self.
We work'd on, but the
Water encreasing in the Hold, it was apparent that the Ship would founder, and
tho' 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 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 vered
it out a great Length, which they after great Labour and Hazard took hold of
and we hall'd them close under our Stern and got all into their Boat. It was to
no Purpose for or us after we were in the Boat to think of reaching to 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 stav'd
upon Shore he would make it good to their Master, so partly rowing and partly
driving our Boat went away to the Norward sloaping wards the Shore almost as
far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more
than a quarter of an Hour out four 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 he Seamen told me she was
sinking; for from that Moment hey 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 the Oar to bring the Boat near the Shore, we
could see, hen 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 tho' not without much Difficulty
got all safe on Shore and walk'd afterwards on Foot to Yarmouth,
where, as unfortunate Men, we were used with great Humanity as well by the
Magistrates of the Town, who assign'd 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 kill'd the
fatted Calf for me; for hearing the Ship I went away in was cast away in
Yarmouth Road, it was a great while before he had any Assurance that I was not
drown'd.
But my ill Fate push'd
me on now with an Obstinacy that nothing could resist;
and tho' 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 tho' 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 push'd me forward against the calm Reasonings and
Perswasions of my most retired Thoughts, and against two such visible
Instructions as I had met with in my first Attempt.
My Comrade, who had
help'd 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 appear'd his Tone was alter'd,
and looking very melancholy and shaking his Head, ask'd 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
concern'd Tone, Young Man, says he, you ought never to go to Sea any
more, you ought to take his 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 talk'd very gravely to me, exhorted me to go back to my
Father, and not tempt Providence to my Ruine; 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, where-ever 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
As to going Home, Shame
opposed the best Motions that offered to my Thoughts; and it immediately
occurr'd to me how I should be laugh'd at among the Neighbours, and should be
asham'd 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 asham'd to sin, and yet are
asham'd to repent; not asham'd of the Action for which they ought justly to be
esteem'd Fools, but are asham'd of the returning, which only can make them be
esteem'd wise Men.
In this of Life however
I remained some time, uncertain what Measures to take, and what Course of Life
to lead. An irresistible Reluctance continu'd to going Home; and as I stay'd 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 lay'd aside the Thoughts of it, and lookt out for a
Voyage.
That evil Influence
which carryed me first away from my Father's House, that hurried me into the
wild and indigested Notion of raising my Fortune; and that imprest those
Conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good Advice, and to the
Entreaties and even 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 my self as a Sailor;
whereby, tho' I might indeed have work'd a little harder than ordinary, yet at
the same time I had learn'd the Duty and Office of a Fore-mast Man; and in
might have qualified my self for a Mate or Lieutenant, ifs 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 Cloaths upon my Back, I would always go on board in the
Habit of a Gentleman; and so I neither had any Business Ship, or learn'd 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 as
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 wou'd go the, Voyage with him I should be at no Expence; I should
be his Mess-mate 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 embrac'd the Offer,
and entring 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
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 Mathematicks and the Rules of Navigation, learn'd
how to keep an Account of the Ship's Course, take an Observation; and in short,
to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a Sailor: For,
as he took Delight to introduce me, I took Delight to learn; and, in a word,
this Voyage made me both a Sailor and a Merchant: for I brought Home L.
5.
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 it self.
I was now set up for a Guiney
Trader; and my Friend, to my great Misfortune, dying soon after his Arrival, I
resolved to go the same Voyage again, and I embark'd 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 tho' I did not
carry quite
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 is 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
look'd back upon my Father's prophetick Disourse to me, that I should be
miserable, and have none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually
brought pass, that it 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 thro', 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 hen he went to Sea again, believing that it would some time or other
be his Fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal an of War;
and that then I should be set at Liberty. But his Hope of mine was soon taken
away; for when he went to Sea, he left me on Shoar 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 order'd me to lye in the Cabbin 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 no Body to communicate it to, that would embark with me;
no Fellow-Slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman there
but my self; so that for two Years, tho' I often pleased my self with the Imaginaion,
yet I never had the least encouraging Prospect of putting it in Practice.
After about two Years an
odd Circumstance presented it self 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 oftner, 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 prov'd 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 call'd him, to catch a Dish of Fish for him.
It happen'd one time,
that going a fishing in a stark calm Morning, a Fog rose so thick, that tho' we
were not half a League from the Shoar we lost Sight of it; and rowing we knew
not whither or which way, we labour'd all Day and all the next Night, and when
the Morning came we found we had pull'd off to Sea instead of pulling in for
the Shoar; and that we were at least two Leagues from the Shoar: However we got
well in again, tho' 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 warn'd 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 we 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 sail'd with
that we call a Shoulder of Mutton Sail; and the Boom gib'd over the Top of the
Cabbin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it Room for him to lye, 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 in; particularly his Bread,
Rice and Coffee.
We went frequently out
with this Boat a fishing, and as I was most dextrous to catch fish for him, he
never went without me: It happen'd 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 order'd me to get ready three Fuzees with Powder and
Shot, which were on board his Ship; for that they design'd 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 Antient and Pendants out, and every thing to accomodate his Guests; when by
and by my Patroon came on board alone, and told me his Guests had put off
going, upon some Business that fell out, and order'd 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 had got some
Fish I should bring it home to his House; all which I prepar'd 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 prepar'd to
furnish my self, not for a fishing Business but for a Voyage; tho' 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 Subsistance
on board; for I told him we must not presume to eat of our Patroon's Bread, he
said that was true; so he brought a large Basket of Rusk or Bisket of their
kind, and three Jarrs with fresh Water into the Boat; I knew where my Patroon's
Case of Bottles stood, which it was evident by the make were taken out of some English
Prize; and I convey'd them into the Boat while the Moor was on Shoar,
as if they had been there before, for our Master: I convey'd 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
try'd upon him, which he innocently came into also; his Name was Ismael,
who they call Muly or Moely, so I call'd to him, Moely
said I, our Patroon'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 Curlieus)
for our selves, for I know he keeps the Gunners 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 half of Powder, or rather more; and another with
Shot, that had five or six Pound, 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 Cabbin,
with which I fill'd 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 sail'd 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 hal'd in our Sail, and set us down to fish: The
Wind blew from the N.NE. which was contrary to my
Desire; for had it blown southerly I had been sure to have made the Coast of
After we had fisht some
time and catcht 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 serv'd, 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 she Boat out near a League farther, and then brought her too as if I
would fish; when giving the Boy the Helm, I stept forward to where the Moor
was, and making as if I stoopt for something behind him, I took him by Surprize
with my Arm under his Twist, and tost him clear over-board into the Sea; he
rise immediately, for he swam like a Cork, and call'd to me, begg'd to be taken
in, told me he would go all over the World with me; he swam so strong after the
oat that he would have reacht me very quickly, there being but little Wind;
upon which I stept into the Cabbin 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
Shoar, and the Sea is calm, make the est of your Way to Shoar and I will do you
no harm, but if you come near the Boat I'll shoot you thro' the Head; for I'm
resolved to have my Liberty; so he turn'd himself about and swam for the Shoar,
and I make no doubt but he reacht it with Ease, for he was an Excellent
Swimmer.
I could ha' been content
to ha' taken this Moor with me, and ha' drown'd the Boy, but there was
no venturing to trust him: When he was gone I turn'd to the Boy, who they
call'd 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 stroak our Face to be true
to me, that is, swear by Mahomet and is Father's Beard, I
must throw you into the Sea too; the boy smil'd in my Face and spoke so
innocently that I could 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 ha' been supposed to do),
or who would ha' suppos'd we were sail'd on to the southward to the truly Barbarian
Coast, where whole Nations of Negroes were sure to surround us with their
Canoes, and destroy us; where we could ne'er once go on shoar but we should be
devour'd by savage Beasts, or more merciless Savages of humane kind.
But as soon as it grew
dusk in the Evening, I chang'd my Course, and steer'd directly South and by
East, bending my Course a little toward the East, that I might keep in with the
Shoar; 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 a Clock in the Afternoon,
when I first made the Land, I could not be less than
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 Shoar, or come to an
Anchor; the Wind continuing fair, 'till I had sail'd 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 ventur'd
to make to the Coast, and came to an Anchor in the Mouth of a little River, I knew
not what, or where; neither what Latitude, what Country, what Nations, or what
River: I neither saw, or desir'd to see any People, the principal thing I
wanted was fresh Water: We came into this Creek in the Evening, resolving to
swim on shoar 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 beg'd of me not to go on shoar 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 Lyons; then me 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 Patroon's Case of Bottles) to chear him up: After
all, Xury's Advice was good, and I took it, we dropt 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-shoar 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 Lyon, and it might be so for ought I know;
but poor Xury cryed 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 perceiv'd the
Creature (whatever it was) within Two Oars Length, which something surprized
me; however I immediately stept to the Cabbin-door, and taking up my un fir'd
at him, upon which he immediately turn'd about and swam towards the Shoar
again.
But it is impossible to
describe the horrible Noises, and hideous Cryes and Howlings, that were raised
as well upon the Edge of the Shoar, 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 Convinc'd me that there was no going on
Shoar for us in the Night upon that Coast, and how to venture on Shoar 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 Lyons and Tygers;
at least we were equally apprehensive of the Danger of it.
Be that as it would, we
were oblig'd to go on Shoar somewhere or other for Water, for we had not a Pint
left in the Boat; when or where to get to it was the Point: Xury said,
if I would let him go on Shoar with one of the Jarrs, he would find if there
was any Water and bring some to me. I ask'd him why he would go?
Why I should not go and he stay in the Boat? The Boy
answer'd 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 Patroon's Case of Bottles which I
mentioned before; and we hal'd the Boat in as near the Shoar as we thought was
proper, and so waded on Shoar, carrying nothing but our Arms and two Jarrs 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 flowed but
a little way up; so we filled our Jarrs and feasted on the Hare we had killed,
and prepared to go on our Way, having seen no Foot-steps of any humane 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
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 Negro's,
lies wast and uninhabited, except by wild Beasts; the Negroes having
abandon'd 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 Tygers, Lyons, 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 wast 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
Shoar.
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 Shoar; for, bays he, look yonder lies a dreadful Monster on the side of
that Hillock fast asleep: I look'd where he pointed, and saw a dreadful Monster
indeed, for it was a terrible great Lyon that lay on the Side of the Shoar,
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 Shoar and kill him; Xury look'd frighted, and
said, Me kill! he eat me at one Mouth;
one Mouthful he meant; however, I said no more to the Boy, but bad him lye
still, and I took our biggest Gun, which was almost Musquet-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 rais'd 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 suppriz'd that I had not hit him on the Head; however I
took up the second Piece immediately, and tho' he began to move off fir'd
again, and shot him into the Head, and had the Pleasure to see him drop, and
make but little Noise, but lay struggling for Life, Then Xury took
Heart, and would have me let him go on Shoar: Well, go said I, so the Boy
jump'd into the Water, and taking a little Gin in one Hand swam to Shoar 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 dispatch'd 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 ask'd 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 my self
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
Cabbin, the Sun effectually dried it in two Days time, and it afterwards serv'd
me to lye 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 oftner into the
Shoar than we were oblig'd to for fresh Water; my Design in this was to make
the River Gambia or Sennegall, that is to say, any where
about the Cape de Yerd, 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 out
for the Islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I knew
that all the Ships from Europe, which sail'd either to the Coast of Guiney,
or to Brasil, or to the East-Indies, made this Cape
or those Islands; and in a word, I put the whole of 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 Shoar to look at us, we could also perceive they were quite Black and
Stark-naked. I was once inclin'd to ha' gone on Shoar to them; but Xury
was my better Councellor, and said to me, no go, no go; however I
hal'd in nearer the Shoar that I might talk to them, and I found they run along
the Shoar by me a good way; I observ'd they had no Weapons in their Hands,
except one who had a slender Stick, which Xury said was a Lance, and
that could throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but
talk'd with them by Signs as well as I could particularly made Signs for some
thing to Eat, they to me to stop my Boat, and that they would Meat; upon this I
lower'd the top of my Sail, and lay two of them run up into the Country, and in
less 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
the other ever we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it next
Dispute, for I was not for venturing on Shore to and they were as much affraid
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 fetch'd 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 offer'd
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 plung'd 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 bad Xury load both the other; as soon as he
came fairly within my reach, I fir'd, 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 dyed just before he reach'd 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 dye 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 flung round him and
gave the Negroes to hawl, they drag'd 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 kill'd 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 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 tho' they had no Knife, yet with a sharpen'd Piece
of Wood they-took off his Skin as readily, and much more readily than we cou'd
have done with a Knife; they offer'd 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 tho'
I did not understand, yet I accepted; then I made Signs to them for some Water,
and held out one of my Jarrs to them, turning it bottom upward, to shew that it
was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They call'd 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 Jarrs, and filled than 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 Days more without offering to go near the hoar, 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 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,
call'd 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 or other.
In this Dilemma, as I
was very pensive, I stept into the Cabbin and Sat me down, Xury having
the Helm, when on a suddain the Boy cry'd 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 their reach. I jump'd out of the Cabbin, 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 observ'd the Course she steer'd, I was soon convinc'd they were
bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the Shoar; upon
which I stretch'd out to Sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with them
if possible.
With all the Sail I
could make, 1 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 some European Boat, which as
they supposed must belong to some Ship that was lost, so they shortned Sail to
let a come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my Patroon's Antient on
Board, I made a Waft of it to them for a Signal of Distress, and fir'd a Gun,
both which they saw, for they told me they saw the Smoke, tho' they did not
hear the Gun; upon these Signals they very kindly brought too, and lay by for
me, and in about three Hours time I came up with them.
They ask'd 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, call'd to me, and I answer'd him, and told him I was an Englishman,
that I had made my escape out of Slavery from the Moors at Sallee;
then they bad me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my Goods.
It was an inexpressible
Joy to me, that any one will believe, that was thus deliver'd, as I esteem'd
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 deliver'd safe to me when I came to the Brasils,
for says he, I have sav'd your Life on no other Terms than I would be glad
to be saved my self 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 may from your own Country, if I should take from you what you have,
you mill be starved there, and then I only take away that Life I have given.
No, no, Seignor Inglese, says he, Mr. Englishman, I mill
carry you thither in Charity, and those things mill help you to buy your
Subsistance 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 Jarrs.
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 ask'd 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 his Hand to pay me 80 Pieces of Eight for it at Brasil, and
when it came there, if any one offer'd to give more he would make it up; he
offer'd me also 60 Pieces of Eight more for my Boy Xury, which I was
loath to take, not that I was not willing to let the Captain have him, but I
was very loath to sell poor Boy's Liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully
procuring my own. However when I let him know my reason, he own'd it to be
just, and offer'd me this Medium, that he would give the Boy an obligation to
set him free in ten Years, if he turn'd Christian; upon this, and Xury
saying he was willing to go him, I let the Captain have him.
We had a very good
Voyage to the Brasils, and arriv'd in the Bay de Todos los
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
Lyon's Skin which I had in my Boat, and caused every thing I had in the Ship to
be punctually deliver'd 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 220 Pieces of Eight of
all my Cargo, and with this Stock I went on Shoar 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 Ingenio as they call it; that is, a
I had a Neighbour, a Portugueze
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
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 thro' 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 ha' staid at Home, and never
have fatigu'd my self in the World as I had done; and I used often to say to my
self, I could ha' done this as well in England among my Friends, as
ha' gone
In this manner I used to
look upon my Condition with the utmost Regret. I had no body to converse with
but now and then Neighbour; no Work to be done, but by the Labour of my Hands;
and I used to say, I liv'd just like a Man cast some desolate Island, that had
no body there 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 convinc'd 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 meer Desolation should be my Lot, who had so of
unjustly compar'd it with the Life which I then led, 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 tool: 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, Seignior Inglese says he,
for so he always called me, if you will give me Letters, band 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 Sterl.
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 wholesom
Advice, and look'd so friendly, that I could not but be convinc'd it was the
best Course I could take; so I accordingly prepared Letters to the Gentle-woman
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 in 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
handsom Present for his Humanity and Charity to me.
The Merchant in London
vesting this Hundred Pounds in English Goods, such as the Captain had
writ for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all
safe to me to the Brasils, among which, without my Direction (for I
was too young in my Business to think of them) he had taken Care to have all
Sorts of Tools, Iron-Work, and Utensils necessary for my Plantation, and which
were of great Use to me.
When this Cargo arrived,
I thought my Fortunes made, for I was surprised with the Joy of it; and my good
Steward the Captain had laid out the Five Pounds which my Friend had sent him
for a Present for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a Servant under Bond
for six Years Service, and would not accept of any Consideration, except a
little Tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own Produce.
Neither was this all;
but my Goods being all English Manufactures, such as Cloath, Stuffs,
Bays, 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 an European Servant also; I mean
another besides that which the Captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abus'd 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
100 Wt. were well cur'd 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 Ruine 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 describ'd the middle Station of Life to be full of;
but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful Agent of all my
own Miseries; and particularly to encrease my Fault and double the Reflections
upon my self, which in my future Sorrows I should have leisure to make; all
these Miscarriages were pro by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish
inclination of wandring abroad and pursuing that Inclination, in contradiction
to the clearest Views of doing my self good in a fair and plain pursuit of
those Prospects and those measures of Life, which Nature and Providence
concurred to present me with, and to make my Duty.
As I had once done thus
in my breaking away from my Parents, so I could not be content now, but I must
go and leave the happy View I had of being a rich and thriving Man in my new
Plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate Desire of rising faster than
the Nature of the Thing admitted; and thus I cast my self down again into the
deepest Gulph of human Misery that ever Man fell into, or perhaps could be
consistent with Life and a State of Health in the World.
To come then by the just
Degrees, to the Particulars of this Part of my Story; you may suppose, that
having now lived almost four Years in the Brasils, and beginning to
thrive and prosper very well upon my Plantation; I had not only learn'd 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 Discourses among them, I had frequently given them an
Account of my two Voyages to the Coast of Guinea, the manner of
Trading with the Negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon
the Coast, for Trifles, such as Beads, Toys, Knives, Scissars, Hatchets, bits
of Glass, and the like; not only Gold Dust, Guinea Grains, Elephants
Teeth, &c. but Negroes for the Service of the Brasils,
in great Numbers.
They listened always
very attentively to my Discourses on these Heads, but especially to that Part
which related to the buying Negroes, which was a Trade at that time
not only not far entred into, but as far as it was, had been carried on by the
Assiento's, or Permission of the Kings of Spain and Portugal,
and engross'd in the Publick, so that few Negroes were brought, and
those excessive dear.
It happen'd, 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 urn what I had discoursed with them of,
the last Night, and they came to make a secret Proposal to me; and after
enjoining me Secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a Ship to
go to Guinea, that they had all Plantations as well as I, and were
straiten'd for nothing so much as Servants; that as it was a Trade that could
not be carried on, because they could not publickly sell the Negroes
when they came home, so they desired to make but one Voyage, to bring the Negroes
on Shoar privately, and divide them among their own Plantations; and in a Word,
the Question was, whether I would go their Super-Cargo in the Ship to manage
the Trading Part upon the Coast of Guinea? And they offer'd 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 confess'd, had it been made to one that had not had a Settlement and
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
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 look'd into my own Intrest, 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 my self.
But I was hurried on,
and obey'd 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 [first] of [September], [1659], being the same Day eight Year that I went
from my Father and Mother at Hull, in order to act the Rebel to their
Authority, and the Fool to my own Interest.
Our Ship was about 120
Tun Burthen, carried 6 Guns, and 14 Men, besides the Master, his Boy, and my
self; 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 came the Height of Cape St. Augustino,
from whence keeping farther off at Sea we lost Sight of Land, and steer'd as if
we was bound for the Isle Fernand de Horonha holding our Course N.E.
by N. and leaving those Isles on the East; in this Course we past the
Line in about 12 Days time, and were by our last Observation in 7 Degrees 22
Min. Northern Latitude, when a violent Tournado or Hurricane took us quite out
of our Knowledge: it began from the South-East, came about to the North-West,
and en 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 aced 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 dyed of the Calenture, and one
Man and the Boy wash'd over board; about the 12th 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 Amozones, toward that of the River Oronoque,
commonly call'd the Great River, and began to consult with me what
Course he should take, for the Ship 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 the Sea-Coast of America with him,
we concluded the as no inhabited Country for us to had recourse to, till we
came within the Circle of the Carribbe- Islands, and therefore resolved to
stand away for Barbadoes, which by keeping off at Sea, to avoid the
Indraft of the Bay or Gulph of Mexico, we night easily perform, as we
hoped, in about fifteen Day Sail; whereas we could not possibly make our Voyage
to the Coast of Africa without some Assistance, both to our Ship and
to our selves.
With this Design we
chang'd our Course and steer'd 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 Deg. 18 Min. a
second Storm came upon us, which carry'd us away with the same Impetuosity
Westward, and drove us so out of the very Way of all humane 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, cry'd
out, Land; and we had no sooner run out of the Cabbin to look out in hopes of
seeing where abouts in the World we were; but the Ship struck upon a Sand, and
in a moment her Motion being so stopp'd, the Sea broke over her in such a
manner, that we expected we should all have perish'd immediately, and we were
immediately driven into our close Quarters to shelter us the very Foam and
Sprye 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, tho
rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the Ship hold
many Minutes without breaking in Pieces, unless the Winds by a kind of Miracle
should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon one another, and
expecting Death every Moment, and every Man acting accordingly, as preparing
for another World, for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this;
that which was our present Comfort, and all the Comfort we had, was, that
contrary to our Expectation the Ship did not break yet, and that the Master
said the Wind began to abate.
Now tho' 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 stav'd 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 fancy'd 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 flung over the Ship's-side, and getting all into her, let go,
and committed our selves being Eleven in Number, to God's Merry, and the wild
Sea; for tho' the Storm was abated considerably, yet the Sea went dreadful high
upon the Shore, and might well be call'd, Den mild 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 baking
Sail, we had none, nor, if we had, could we ha' done any thing with it; so we
work'd at the Oar towards the Land, tho' with heavy Hearts, like Men going to
Execution; for we all knew, that when the Boat came nearer the Shore, she would
be dash'd 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 Gulph, 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 look'd more frightful than the Sea.
After we had row'd, or
rather driven about a League and Half, as we reckon'd it, a raging Wave,
Mountain- like, came rowling a-stern of us, and plainly bad 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 tho' I swam
very well, yet I could not deliver my self 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 it self, 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 my self 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 my self upon the
Water, if I could; and so by swimming to preserve my Breathing, and Pilot my
self 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 20 or
The last Time of these
two had well near been fatal to me; the Sea having hurried me along as before,
landed me, rather dash'd me against a Piece of a Rock, and that with such
Force, as it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as my own Deliverance; for
the Blow taking my Side and east, beat the Breath as it were quite out of my
Body; and it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled in the
Water; but I recover'd a little before the turn of the Waves, and seeing I
should be cover'd again with the Water, I resolv'd to hold fast by a Piece of
the Rock, and so to hold my Breath, if possible, till the Wave went back; now
as the Waves were not so high as at first, being nearer Land, I held my Hold
till the Wave abated, and then fetch'd another Run, which brought me so near
the Shore, that the next Wave, tho' 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 clamber'd 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 sav'd 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 Extasies and Transports of the Soul are, when it is so sav'd, as I may say,
out of the very Grave; and I do not wonder now at that
Custom, vis. That when a Malefactor who has the Halter about his Neck, is tyed
up, and just going to be turn'd 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 walk'd 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 Comerades that were drown'd, and that
there should not be one Soul sav'd but my self; 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 solac'd 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 devour'd 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 my self 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 run about like
a Mad-man; 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
offer'd to my Thoughts at that Time, was, to get up into a thick bushy Tree
like a Firr, but thorny, which grew near me, and where I resolv'd to set all
Night, and consider the next Day what Death I should dye, for as yet I saw no
Prospect of Life; I walk'd 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, endeavour'd to place my self 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 fatigu'd, I fell
fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in my
Condition, and found my self the cost refresh'd with it, that I think I ever
was on such an Occasion.
When I wak'd 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 surpris'd me most, was, that the Ship
was lifted off in the Night from the Sand where she lay, by the Swelling of the
Tyde, and was driven up almost as far as the Rock which I first mention'd,
where I had been so bruis'd 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 wish'd my self on board, that, at least, I might save some necessary
things for my use.
When I came down from my
Appartment in the Tree, I look'd about me again, and the first thing I found
was the Boat, which lay as the Wind and the Sea had toss'd her up upon the
Land, about two Miles on my right Hand. I walk'd 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 hop'd to find something for my
present Subsistence.
A little after Noon I
found the Sea very calm, and the Tyde ebb'd 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
forc'd Tears from my Eyes again, but as there was little Relief in that, I
resolv'd, if possible, to get to the Ship, so I pull'd 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 a
ground, 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 spy'd a small Piece of a
Rope, which I wonder'd 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
bulg'd, 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 spoil'd and what was free; and first I
found that all the Ship's Provisions were dry and untouch'd by the Water, and
being very well dispos'd to eat, I went to the Bread-room and fill'd my Pockets
with Bisket, and eat it as I went about other things, for I had no time to
lose; I also found some Rum in the great Cabbin, 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 my self with many things which I forsaw
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 rouz'd my
Application; we had several spare Yards, and two or three large sparrs of Wood,
and a spare Top-mast or two in the Ship; I resolv'd to fall to work with these,
and I flung as many of them over board 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 ty'd four of them fast
together at both Ends as well as I could, in the Form of a Raft, and laying two
or three short Pieces of Plank upon them cross-ways, I found I could walk upon
it very well, but that it was not able to bear any great Weight, the Pieces
being too light; so I went to work, and with the Carpenter's Saw I cut a spare
Top-mast into three Lengths, and added them to my Raft, with a great deal of
Labour and Pains, but hope of furnishing my self with Necessaries, encourag'd
me to go beyond what I should have been able to have done upon another
Occasion.
My Raft was now strong
enough to bear any reasonable Weight; my next Care was what to load it with,
and how to preserve what I laid upon it from the Surf of the Sea; But I was not
long considering this, I first laid all the Plank or Boards upon it that I
could get, and having consider'd well what I most wanted, I first got three of
the Seamens Chests, which I had broken open and empty'd, and lower'd them down
upon my Raft; the first of these I fill'd with Provision, viz. Bread,
Rice, three Dutch Cheeses, five Pieces of dry'd Goat's Flesh, which we liv'd
much u'pon, 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
kill'd; there had been some Barly and Wheat together, but, to my great
Disappointment, I found afterwards that the Rats had eaten or spoil'd it all;
as for Liquors, I found several Cases of Bottles belonging to our Skipper, in
which some Cordial Waters, and in all about five or six Gallons of Rack, these
I stow'd 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 Tyde began to flow, tho'
very calm, and I had the Mortification to see my Coat, Shirt, and Wast-coat
which I had left on Shore upon the Sand, swim away; as for my Breeches which
were only Linnen and open knee'd, I swam on board in them and my Stockings:
However this put me upon rummaging for Clothes, of which I found enough, but
took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had other things which my Eye
was more upon, as first Tools to work with on Shore, and it was after long
searching that I found out the Carpenter's Chest, which was indeed a very
useful Prize to me, and much more valuable than a Ship 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 contain'd.
My next Care was for
some Ammunition and Arms; there were two very good Fowling-pieces in the great
Cabbin, and two Pistols, these I secur'd 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 stow'd 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 my self pretty
well freighted, and began to think how I should get to Shore with them, having
neither Sail, Oar, or Rudder, and the least Cap full of Wind would have overset
all my Navigation.
I had three
Encouragements,
As I imagin'd, so it
was, there appear'd 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 suffer'd a
second Shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have broke my Heart,
for knowing nothing of the Coast, my Raft run a-ground at one End of it upon a
Shoal, and not being a-ground at the other End, it wanted but a little that all
my Cargo had slip'd off towards that End that was a-float, and so fall'n 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 my self in
the Mouth of a little River, with Land on both Sides, and a strong Current or
Tide running up, I look'd 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 resolv'd to place my self as near the Coast as
I could.
At length I spy'd 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 dipt
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 my 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 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 fasten'd or mor'd 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 ebb'd 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 seem'd to over-top 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 arm'd I
travell'd 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 Fate to my great
Affliction, (viz.) that I was in an Island environ'd 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, un-inhabited,
except by wild Beasts, of whom however I saw none, yet I saw Abundance of
Fowls, but knew not their Kinds, neither when I kill'd 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 fir'd there since the Creation of the World; I had no
sooner fir'd, but from all the Parts of the Wood there arose an innumerable
Number of Fowls of many Sorts, making a confus'd 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 kill'd, 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 my self 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, tho', as I afterwards found,
there was really no Need for those Fears.
However, as well as I
could, I barricaded my self round with the Chests and Boards that I had brought
on Shore, and me a Kind of a Hut for that Night's Lodging; as for Food, I yet
saw not which Way to supply my self, 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 resolv'd 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 resolv'd to set all other Things apart,
'till I got every Thing out of the Ship that I could get; then I call'd a
Council, that is to say, in my Thoughts, whether I should take back the Raft,
but this appear'd impracticable; so I resolv'd to go as before, when the Tide
was down, and I did so, only that I stripp'd before I went from my Hut, having
nothing on but a Chequer'd Shirt, and a Pair of Linnen Drawers, and a Pair of
Pumps on my Feet.
I got on Board the Ship,
as before, and prepar'd 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 Skrew- Jack, a Dozen or two
of Hatchets, and above all, that most useful Thing call'd a Grindstone; all
these I secur'd together, with several Things belonging to the Gunner,
particularly two or three Iron Crows, and two Barrels of Musquet Bullets, seven
Musquets, and another fowling Piece, with some small Quantity of Powder more; a
large Bag full of small Shot, and a great Roll of Sheet Lead: But this last was
so heavy, I could not hoise it up to get it over the Ship's Side.
Besides these Things, I
took all the Mens Cloths 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 devour'd 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 compos'd, and unconcern'd, and look'd 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 unconcern'd at it, nor did she offer to
stir away; upon which I toss'd her a Bit of Bisket, tho' by the Way I was not
very free of it, for my Store was not great: However, I spar'd her a Bit, I
Say, and she went to it, smell'd of it, and ate it, and look'd (as pleas'd) for
more, but I thank'd her, and could spare no more; so she march'd off.
Having got my second
Cargo on Shore, tho' 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
block'd 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,
for the Night before I had slept little, and had labour'd very hard all Day, as
well to fetch all those Things from the Ship, as to get them on Shore.
I had the biggest
Maggazin of all Kinds now that ever were laid up, I believe, for one Man, but I
was not satisfy'd 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 some Thing 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, the Barrel of wet
Gun-powder: 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 meer 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 medling 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 surprizing to me, because I had given over
expecting any more Provisions, except what was spoil'd by the Water: I soon
empty'd the Hogshead of that Bread, and wrapt 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 plunder'd 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 Missen-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 overloaden, that after I was enter'd 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
my self 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, tho' with infinite Labour; for I
was fain to dip for it into the Water, a Work which fatigu'd 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 suppos'd capable to
bring, tho' I believe verily, had the calm Weather held, I should have brought
away the whole Ship Piece by Piece: But preparing the 12th Time to go on Board,
I found the Wind begin to rise; however at low Water I went on Board, and tho'
I thought I had rumag'd the Cabbin so effectually, as that nothing more could
be found, yet I discover'd a Locker with Drawers in it, in one of which I found
two or three Razors, and one Pair of large Sizzers, 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, some Silver.
I smil'd to my self 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, 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 Canvas, 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 occur'd 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 my self 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 the Things I
had about me, and partly the Roughness of the Water, for the Wind rose very
hastily, and before it was quite high Water, it blew a Storm.
But I was gotten home to
my little Tent, where I lay with all my Wealth about me very secure. It blew
very hard all Mat Night, and in the Morning when I look'd out, behold no more
Ship was to be seen; I was a little surpriz'd, but recover'd my self with this
satisfactory Reflection, viz. That I had lost no time, nor abated no Diligence to get everything 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 employ'd about securing my self 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
resolv'd 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 believ'd would not be
wholesome, and more particularly because there was no fresh Water near it, so I
resolv'd 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 mention'd, 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 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 resolv'd 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 shelter'd 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
pitch'd 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 sharpen'd 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 I 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 In-side, leaning against them, about two Foot and a half
high, like a Spurr 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 compleatly
fenc'd in, and fortify'd, as I thought, from all the World, and consequently
slept secure in the Night, which otherwise I could not have done, tho', as it
appear'd 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 carry'd 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 cover'd the uppermost with a large Tarpaulin which I
had sav'd 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 belong'd 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
enclos'd all my Goods, I made up the Entrance, which till now I had left open,
and so pass'd and re- pass'd, 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 thro' my Tent, I laid 'em up within my Fence in the Nature of a
Terras, that so it rais'd the Ground within about a Foot and a Half; and thus I
made me a Cave just behind my Tent, which serv'd 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 happen'd 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 happen'd, and after that a great
Clap of Thunder, as is naturally the Effect of it; I was not so much surpris'd
with the Lightning as I was with a Thought which darted into my Mind as swift
as the Lightning it self: O my Powder! My very Heart sunk within me, when I
thought, that at one Blast all my Powder might be destroy'd, 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, tho' 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 apply'd my self to make Bags and Boxes to separate the Powder,
and 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 finish'd this Work in
about a Fortnight, and I think my Powder, which in all was about
In the Interval of time
while this was doing I went out once at least every Day with my Gun, as well to
divert my self, as to see if I could kill any thing fit for Food, and as near
as I could to acquaint my self with what the Island produc'd. The first time I
went out I presently discover'd that there were Goats in the
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 my self, Why
Providence should thus compleatly ruine its Creatures, and render them so
absolutely miserable, so without Help abandon'd, so entirely depress'd, that it
could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a Life.
But something always
return'd 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, then Reason as It were
expostulated with me 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 not they sav'd and you
lost? Why were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there? and then I pointed to the Sea. All Evills are to be
consider'd with the Good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurr'd to me
again, how well I was furnish'd for my Subsistence, and what would have been my
Case if it had not happen'd, Which was an 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 liv'd 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, (tho' to my self) what should I
ha' 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 my self in such a manner, as to live without my Gun when my
Ammunition was spent; so that I had a tollerable View of subsisting without any
Want as long as I liv'd; for I consider'd from the beginning how I would
provide for the Accidents that might happen, and for the time that was to come,
even not only after my Ammunition should be spent, but even after my Health or
Strength should decay.
I confess I had not
entertain'd any Notion of my Ammunition being destroy'd 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 lighten'd and thunder'd, as I observ'd 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 Sept.
when, in the Manner as above said, I first set Foot upon this horrid
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 Sept. 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
Kalander, 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 mention'd, 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 huddel'd 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 pack'd up among my things; some Portugueze Books also, and
among them two or three Popish Prayer-Books, and several other Books, all which
I carefully secur'd. 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 carry'd both the Cats with me, and as for the Dog, he jump'd out
of the Ship of himself and swam on Shore to me the Day after I went on Shore
with my first Cargo, and was a trusty Servant to me many Years; I wanted
nothing that he could fetch me, nor any Company that he could make up to me, I
only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do: As I observ'd
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 amass'd together, and
of these, this of Ink was one, as also Spade, Pick-Axe, and Shovel to dig or
remove the Earth, Needles, Pins, and Thread; as for Linnen, I soon learn'd 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 finish'd 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 some times 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 my self of one of the Iron Crows, which however tho' I found it,
yet it made driving those Posts or Piles very laborious and tedious Work.
But what need I ha' been
concern'd 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 reduc'd 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 my self 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 enjoy'd, against the Miseries I suffer'd, Thus,
Evil
I am cast upon a
horrible desolate
I am singl'd out and
separated, as it were, from all the World to be
miserable.
I am divided from
Mankind, a Solitaire, one banish'd from humane Society.
I have not Clothes to
cover me.
I am without any Defence
or Means to resist any Violence of Man or Beast.
I have no Soul to speak
to, or relieve me.
Good.
But I am alive, and not
drown'd as all my Ship's Company was.
But I am singl'd out too
from all the Ship's Crew to be spar'd from Death; and he that miraculously
sav'd me from Death, can deliver me from this Condition.
But I am in a hot
Climate, where if I had Clothes I could hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an
But God wonderfully sent
the Ship in near enough to the Shore, that I have gotten out so many necessary
things as will either supply my Wants, or enable me to supply my self 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 our selves from, and to set in the Description of
Good and Evil, on the Credit Side of the Accompt.
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 my
self to accommodate my way of Living, and to make things as easy to me as I
could.
I have already describ'd
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
rais'd a kind of Wall up against it of Turfs, about two Foot thick on the
Out-side, and after some time, I think it was a Year and Half, I rais'd Rafters
from it leaning to the Rock, and thatch'd or cover'd it with Bows 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 observ'd
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 confus'd Heap of
Goods, which as they lay in no Order, so they took up all my Place, I had no
room to turn my self; so I set my self to enlarge my Cave and Works farther
into the Earth, for it was a loose sandy Rock, which yielded easily to the
Labour I bestow'd on it; and so when I found I was pretty safe as to Beasts of
Prey, I work'd side-ways to the Right Hand into the Rock, and then turning to
the Right again, work'd quite out and made me a Door to come out, on the
Out-side of my ale 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
my self to make such necessary things as I found I most wanted, as particularly
a Chair and a Table, for without these I was not able to enjoy the few Comforts
I had in the World, I could not write, or eat, or do several things with so
much Pleasure without a Table.
So I went to work; and
here I must needs observe, that as Reason is the
Substance and Original of the Mathematicks, 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 mechanick Art. I had never handled a Tool in my
Life, and yet in time by Labour, Application, and Contrivance, I found at last
that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had Tools;
however I made abundance of things, even without Tools, and some with no more
Tools than an Adze and a Hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way
before, and that with infinite Labour: For Example, If I wanted a Board, I had
no other Way but to cut down a Tree, set it on an Edge before me, and hew it
flat on either Side with my Axe, till I had brought it to be thin as a Plank,
and then dubb 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 employ'd one way as another.
However, I made me a
Table and a Chair, as I observ'd 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 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 knock'd 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 look'd like a general Magazine of all Necessary things, and I
had every thing so ready at my Hand, that it was a great Pleasure to me to see
all my Goods in such Order, and especially to find my Stock of all Necessaries
so great.
And now it was when I
began to keep a Journal of every Day's Employment, for indeed at first I was in
too much Hurry, and not only Hurry as to Labour, but in too much Discomposure
of Mind, and my Journal would ha' been full of many dull things: For Example, I
must have said thus. Sept. the 30th. After I got to Shore and had
escap'd 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 my self 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 tyr'd and faint I was forc'd to lye down on the Ground to
repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devour'd.
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 spy'd a
Sail, please my self with the Hopes of it, and then after looking steadily till
I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a Child, and thus
encrease my Misery by my Folly.
But having gotten over
these things in some Measure, and having settled my houshold 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
(tho' in it will be told all these Particulars over again) as long as it
lasted, for having no more Ink I was forc'd to leave it off.
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