Latest / Adventure Books Library / 09 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
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- 0:00Chapter eight, Sails from the Island for the Brazils. It now came into
- 0:05my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the clergyman, that the work
- 0:09of converting the savages might perhaps be set on foot in his absence, to
- 0:13his satisfaction. And I told him that now I thought that it was put
- 0:17in a fair way for the Savages being thus divided among the Christians. If
- 0:22they would, but every one of them do their part with those which came
- 0:25under their hands, I hoped it might have a very good effect. He
- 0:30agreed presently, in that if they did their part, But how says he,
- 0:34shall we obtain that of them? I told him I would call them
- 0:38altogether and leave it in charge with them, or go to them one by
- 0:42one, which he thought best. So we divided it. He to speak
- 0:47to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the
- 0:50English, who were all Protestants. And we recommended it earnestly to them,
- 0:55and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of Papist or Protestant
- 1:00in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge
- 1:03of the True God and of their savior, Jesus Christ, and they likewise
- 1:08promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes one with another about
- 1:14religion. When I came to will Atkins's house, I found that the young
- 1:19woman I have mentioned above and will Atkins's wife were become intimates. And this
- 1:23prudent religious young woman had perfected the work will Atkins had begun. And though
- 1:29it was not above four days after what I have related, yet the new
- 1:33baptized savage woman was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in
- 1:38all my observation or conversation in the world. It came next into my mind
- 1:42in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all the needful things
- 1:48I had to leave with them, I had not left them a Bible,
- 1:51in which I showed myself less considering for them than my good friend. The
- 1:55widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a hundred pounds from
- 1:59Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a prayer book. However,
- 2:02the good woman's charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for they
- 2:07were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of
- 2:10them than I had done. I took one of the bibles in my pocket.
- 2:15And when I came to will Atkins's tent or house and found the young
- 2:20woman and Atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together. For will Atkins
- 2:24told me with a great deal of joy, I asked if they were together
- 2:29now, and he said yes. So I went into the house and he
- 2:31with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse, Oh,
- 2:37sir, says will Atkins. When God has sinners to reconcile to himself and
- 2:42aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger. My wife has got
- 2:46a new instructor. I knew I was unworthy, as I was incapable of
- 2:51that work. That young woman has been sent hither from heaven. She is
- 2:54enough to convert a whole island of savages. The young woman blushed and rose
- 2:59up to go away, but I desired her to sit still. I told
- 3:02her she had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped God would
- 3:07bless her in it. We talked a little, and I did not perceive
- 3:10that they had any book among them, though I did not ask, but
- 3:15I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out my bible. Here said
- 3:20I to Atkins, I have brought you an assistant that perhaps you had not
- 3:23before. The man was so confounded that he was not able to speak for
- 3:28some time. But recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands,
- 3:31and turning to his wife, Here, my dear, says, he did
- 3:36not. I tell you, our God, though he lives above, could
- 3:38hear what we have said. Here's the book I prayed for when you and
- 3:43I kneeled down under the bush. Now God has heard us and sent it.
- 3:47When he had said so, the man fell into such passionate transports that
- 3:52between the joy of having it and giving God thanks for it, the tears
- 3:57ran down his face like a child that was crying. The woman was surprised,
- 4:01and was like to have run into a mistake that none of us were
- 4:04aware of, for she firmly believed God had sent the book upon her husband's
- 4:10petition. It is true that providentially it was so, and might be taken
- 4:14so in a consequent sense. But I believe it would have been no difficult
- 4:18matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an
- 4:23express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that individual book. But it
- 4:27was too serious a matter to suffer any delusion to take place. So I
- 4:31turned to the young woman and told her we did not desire to impose upon
- 4:35the new convert in her first and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged
- 4:40her to explain to her that God may be very properly said to answer our
- 4:44petitions when in the course of his providence such things are in a particular manner
- 4:49brought to pass as we petitioned for. But we did not expect returns from
- 4:54heaven in a miraculous and particular manner. And it is a mercy that it
- 4:58is not so. This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there
- 5:03was no priestcraft used here, And I should have thought it one of the
- 5:08most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so. But the effect
- 5:13upon will Atkins is really not to be expressed. And there we may be
- 5:16sure was no delusion. Sure no man was ever more thankful in the world
- 5:21for anything of its kind than he was for the Bible. Nor I believe
- 5:27never any man was glad of a Bible from a better principle. And though
- 5:30he had been a most profligate creature, had strong, furious, and desperately
- 5:35wicked. Yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well
- 5:40instructing children, viz. That parents should never give over to teach and instruct,
- 5:45nor ever despair of the success of their endeavors. Let the children be
- 5:49ever so refractory or to appearance insensible to instruction. For if ever God,
- 5:55in his providence, touches the conscience of such, the force of their education
- 6:00turns upon them. And the early instruction of parents is not lost, though
- 6:04it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time or other they
- 6:09may find the benefit of it. Thus it was with this poor man,
- 6:13however ignorant he was of religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some
- 6:17to do with now more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of
- 6:21the instruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of use
- 6:26to him. Among the rest. It occurred to him he said, how
- 6:30his father used to insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible and
- 6:35the privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons, but
- 6:40he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, being
- 6:45to talk to heathens, savages and barbarians, he wanted the help of the
- 6:48written oracle for his assistance. The young woman was glad of it also for
- 6:53the present occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth on
- 6:57board our ship, among their goods which were not yet brought on shore.
- 7:00And now, having said so many things of this young woman, I cannot
- 7:04omit telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in it
- 7:09very instructive and remarkable. I have related to what extremity the poor young woman
- 7:15was reduced, how her mistress was starved to death and died on board that
- 7:18unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was reduced
- 7:23to the last extremity. The gentlewoman and her son and this maid were first
- 7:29hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and starved, that
- 7:33is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger. One day,
- 7:39being discoursing with her on the extremities they suffered, I asked her if she
- 7:43could describe by what she had felt what it was to starve, and how
- 7:46it appeared. She said she believed she could, and told her tale very
- 7:50distinctly. Thus first we had for some days fared exceedingly hard and suffered very
- 7:57great hunger. But at last we were wholly without food of any kind except
- 8:01sugar and a little wine and water. The first day, after I had
- 8:05received no food at all, I found myself towards evening empty and sick at
- 8:09the stomach. A nearer night, much inclined to yawning and sleep, I
- 8:15lay down on the couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about
- 8:18three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine
- 8:22when I lay down, and being about three hours awake, it being about
- 8:26five o'clock in the morning, I found myself empty and my stomach sickish,
- 8:31and lay down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint
- 8:35and ill. And thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety,
- 8:39first hungry, then sick again with wretchings to vomit. The second night,
- 8:45being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than a draft
- 8:48of fresh water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes,
- 8:52and that the market was mightily stocked with provisions. That I bought some for
- 8:56my mistress, and went and dined very very heartily. I thought my stomach
- 9:01was full after this, as it would have been after a good dinner.
- 9:05But when I awaked, I was exceedingly sunk in spirits to find myself in
- 9:09the extremity of famine. The last glass of wine we had I drank and
- 9:13put sugar in it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment,
- 9:18but there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon,
- 9:22I found the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from
- 9:26the stomach into the head. And I lay, as they told me,
- 9:31stupid and senseless as one drunk for some time. The third day, in
- 9:35the morning, after a night of strange, confused and inconsistent dreams, and
- 9:39rather dozing than sleeping, I awake, ravenous and furious with hunger, and
- 9:45I question had not my understanding, returned and conquered it whether if I had
- 9:50been a mother and had had a little child with me, its life would
- 9:54have been safe or not. This lasted about three hours, during which time
- 9:58I was twice raging mad as any creature in bedlam, as my young master
- 10:03told me, and as he can now inform you. In one of these
- 10:07fits of lunacy or distraction, I fell down and struck my face against the
- 10:11corner of a pallet bed in which my mistress lay, and with the blow
- 10:15the blood gushed out of my nose, and the cabin boy bringing me a
- 10:18little basin, I sat down and bled into it a great deal. And
- 10:22as the blood came from me, I came to myself, and the violence
- 10:26of the flame or fever I was in abated, and so did the ravenous
- 10:31part of the hunger. Then I grew sick and wretched to vomit, but
- 10:35could not, for I had nothing in my stomach to bring up. After
- 10:39I had bled some time, I swooned, and they all believed I was
- 10:43dead. But I came to myself soon after, and then had a most
- 10:46dreadful pain in my stomach, not to be described, not like the colic,
- 10:50but a gnawing, eager pain for food, And towards night it went
- 10:54off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food. I took another
- 10:58draft of water with sugar in it, but my stomach loathed the sugar and
- 11:03brought it all up again. Then I took a draft of water without sugar,
- 11:07and that stayed with me. And I laid me down upon the bed,
- 11:11praying most heartily that it would please God to take me away, and
- 11:15composing my mind in hopes of it. I slumbered awhile, and then waking,
- 11:20thought myself dying, Being light with vapors from an empty stomach. I
- 11:24recommended my soul then to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw
- 11:28me into the sea. All this while my mistress lay by me, just
- 11:33as I thought expiring. But she bore it with much more patience than I,
- 11:37and gave the last bit of bread she had left to her child,
- 11:41my young master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him
- 11:45to eat it, and I believe it saved his life. Towards the morning,
- 11:48I slept again, and when I awoke, I fell into a violent
- 11:52passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger.
- 11:56I got up ravenous and in a most dreadful condition, and once or twice
- 12:01I was going to bite my own arm at last I saw the basin in
- 12:05which was the blood I had bled at my nose the day before. I
- 12:07ran to it and swallowed it with such haste and such a greedy appetite,
- 12:13as if I wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be
- 12:16taken from me now after it was down, though the thoughts of it filled
- 12:20me with horror, Yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I took
- 12:24another draft of water and was composed and refreshed for some hours after. This
- 12:28was the fourth day, and this I kept up till towards night, when
- 12:33with the compass of three hours, I had all the several circumstances over again,
- 12:37one after another, viz. Sick, sleepy, eagerly, hungry,
- 12:43pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic,
- 12:46then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour,
- 12:50and my strength was wasted exceedingly. At night I lay me down, having
- 12:56no comfort, but in the hope that I should die before morning. All
- 13:00this night I had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned into a
- 13:03disease, and I had a terrible colic and griping by wind instead of food
- 13:09having found its way into the bowels. And in this condition I lay till
- 13:13morning, when I was surprised by the cries and lamentations of my young master,
- 13:18who called out to me that his mother was dead. I lifted myself
- 13:22up a little, for I had not strength to rise, but found she
- 13:26was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life.
- 13:30I had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some sustenance as
- 13:35I cannot describe, with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite, as nothing
- 13:39but the tortures of death can imitate. And in this condition I was when
- 13:43I heard the seamen above cry out a sail, a sail, and halloo,
- 13:48and jump about as if they were distracted. I was not able to
- 13:52get off from the bed, and my mistress much less, and my young
- 13:56master was so sick that I thought he had been expiring. So we could
- 14:00not opened the cabin door or get any account what it was that occasioned such
- 14:03confusion, nor had we any conversation with the ship's company for twelve days,
- 14:09they having told us they had not a mouthful of anything to eat in the
- 14:13ship, And this they told us afterwards they thought we had been dead.
- 14:16It was this dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save our
- 14:20lives, and how you found us, sir, You know as well as
- 14:24I, and better too. This was her own relation. And is such
- 14:30a distinct account of starving to death, as I confess I never met with,
- 14:33and was exceeding instructive to me. I am the rather apt to believe
- 14:37it to be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of
- 14:41a good part of it. Though I must own not so distinct and so
- 14:45feeling as the maid and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him
- 14:48at the price of her own life. But the poor maid, whose constitution
- 14:52was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years and a weekly
- 14:56woman, too, might struggle harder with. Nevertheless, she might be supposed
- 15:01to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to
- 15:05keep the last bit, something longer than she parted with any to relieve her
- 15:09maid. No question, as the case is here related, if our ship
- 15:13or some other had not so providentially met them but a few days more,
- 15:18would have ended all their lives. I now returned to my disposition of things
- 15:22among the people. And first, it is to be observed here that,
- 15:26for many reasons, I did not think fit to let them know anything of
- 15:30the sloop I had framed and which I thought of setting up among them.
- 15:33For I found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division
- 15:37among them that I saw plainly. Had I set up the sloop and left
- 15:41it among them, they would, upon every like disgust, have separated and
- 15:46gone away from one another, or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made
- 15:50the island a den of thieves instead of a plantation of sober and religious people,
- 15:56as I intended it. Nor did I leave the two pieces of brass
- 15:58cannon that I had on board, or the extra two quarter deck guns that
- 16:03my nephew had provided. For the same reason, I thought it was enough
- 16:07to qualify them for a defensive war against any that should invade them, but
- 16:11not to set them up for an offensive war, or to go abroad to
- 16:15attack others, which in the end would only bring ruin and destruction upon them.
- 16:21I reserved the sloop therefore, and the guns for their service another way,
- 16:25as I shall observe in its place. Having now done with the island,
- 16:30I left them all in good circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and
- 16:33went on board my ship again on the sixth of May, having been about
- 16:37twenty five days among them, and as they were all resolved to stay upon
- 16:41the island till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further
- 16:45relief from the Brazils if I could possibly find an opportunity. I particularly promised
- 16:52to send them some cattle, such as sheep, hogs and cows, as
- 16:56to the two cows and calves which I brought from England. We had been
- 17:00obliged by the length of our voyage to kill them at sea for want of
- 17:03hay to feed them the next day, giving them a salute of five guns
- 17:08at parting, we set sail and arrived at the Bay of All Saints in
- 17:11the Brazils in about twenty two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage,
- 17:17but this that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed and the
- 17:22current setting strong to the east northeast, running as it were, into a
- 17:26bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out of our
- 17:30course, and once or twice our men cried out land to the eastward,
- 17:34but whether it was the continent or islands, we could not tell by any
- 17:37means. But the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and the
- 17:41weather calm, we saw the sea as it were, covered towards the land
- 17:45with something very black, not being able to discover what it was, till
- 17:49after some time our chief mate, going up the main shrouds a little way,
- 17:55and looking at them with a perspective, cried out it was an army.
- 17:59I could not imagine what he meant by an army, and thwarted him
- 18:02a little hastily. Nay Sah says he don't be angry, for tis an
- 18:07army and a fleet too, For I believe there are a thousand canoes,
- 18:11and you may see them paddle along, for they are coming towards us apace.
- 18:15I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew,
- 18:18the captain, for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the
- 18:22island, and having never been in those seas before that he could not tell
- 18:26what to think of it, but said two or three times we should all
- 18:30be devoured, I must confess, considering we were becalmed, and the current
- 18:36set strong, towards the shore. I liked it the worse. However,
- 18:40I bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor as
- 18:42soon as we came so near as to know that we must engage them.
- 18:47The weather continued calm, and they came on a pace towards us. So
- 18:52I gave orders to come to an anchor and furl all our sails. As
- 18:56for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but fire,
- 19:00and therefore they should get their boats out and fasten them, one close by
- 19:03the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well,
- 19:07and wait the issue. In that posture. This I did, that the
- 19:11men in the boats might be ready with the sheets and buckets to put out
- 19:15any fire these savages might endeavor to fix to the outside of the ship.
- 19:19In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they
- 19:22came up with us. But never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians.
- 19:27Though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number. Yet
- 19:32when they came up, we reckoned about one hundred and twenty six canoes.
- 19:36Some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more and
- 19:40the least six or seven. When they came nearer to us, they seemed
- 19:44to be struck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they
- 19:48had never seen before. Nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood,
- 19:53know what to make of us. They came boldly up, however,
- 19:56very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round us,
- 20:00But we called to our men in the boats not to let them come too
- 20:03near them. This very order brought us to an engagement with them, without
- 20:08our designing it. For five or six of the large canoes came so near
- 20:12our longboat that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which
- 20:17they understood very well and went back. But at their retreat about fifty arrows
- 20:22came on board from those boats, and one of our men in the longboat
- 20:26was very much wounded. However, I called to them not to fire by
- 20:30any means, But we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and
- 20:33the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence like waisteboards to cover them from
- 20:38the arrows of the savages if they should shoot again. About half an hour
- 20:44afterwards, they all came up in a body astern of us, and so
- 20:48near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell
- 20:51their design, And I easily found they were some of my old friends,
- 20:56the same sort of savages that I had been used to engage with. In
- 20:59a short time more, they rowed a little farther out to sea till they
- 21:03came directly broadside with us, and then rode down straight upon us, till
- 21:07they came so near that they could hear us speak. Upon this, I
- 21:11ordered all my men to keep close lest they should shoot any more arrows,
- 21:15and made all our guns ready. But being so near as to be within
- 21:19hearing, I made Friday go out upon the deck and call aloud to them
- 21:25in his language, to know what they meant. Whether they understood him or
- 21:29not, that I knew not. But as soon as he had called to
- 21:32them, six of them, who were in the foremost or nighest boat to
- 21:36us, turned their canoes from us, and, stooping down, showed us
- 21:40their naked backs. Whether this was a defiance or challenge, we knew not,
- 21:45or whether it was done in mere contempt or as a signal to the
- 21:48rest. But immediately Friday cried out they were going to shoot, and unhappily
- 21:52for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows,
- 21:57and, to my inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man
- 22:03being in their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than three
- 22:07arrows, and about three more fell very near him. Such unlucky marksmen they
- 22:11were. I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and
- 22:17companion that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot and four
- 22:22with great and gave them such a broadside as they had never heard in their
- 22:26lives before. They were not above half a cable's length off when we fired,
- 22:30and our gunners took their aim so well that three or four of their
- 22:34canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot.
- 22:38Only The ill manners, of turning up their bare backs to us gave us
- 22:42no great offense. Neither did I know for certain whether that which would pass
- 22:47for the greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not.
- 22:51Therefore, in return, I had only resolved to had fired four or five
- 22:55guns at them with powder only which I knew would frighten them sufficiently. But
- 23:00when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of,
- 23:03And especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved
- 23:08and valued, and who indeed so well deserved it, I thought myself not
- 23:14only justifiable before God and man, but would have been very glad if I
- 23:18could have overset every canoe there and drowned every one of them. I can
- 23:23neither tell how many we killed, nor how many we wounded at this broadside,
- 23:27but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen among such a multitude.
- 23:33There were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all,
- 23:37and the men all set a swimming. The rest frightened out of their wits,
- 23:41scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save
- 23:45those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot. So I supposed that
- 23:49many of them were lost, and our men took up one poor fellow swimming
- 23:53for his life above an hour after they were all gone. The small shot
- 23:59from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many, But in short
- 24:03we never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast that
- 24:07in three hours or thereabouts. We could not see above three or four straggling
- 24:11canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more, for a breeze
- 24:15of wind springing up. The same evening we waded and set sail for the
- 24:18brazils. We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen
- 24:25that he would neither eat nor speak. But we all fancied he would starve
- 24:29himself to death. But I took a way to cure him. For I
- 24:32had made them take him and turn him into the long boat, and make
- 24:36him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him
- 24:40where they found him if he would not speak. Nor would that do,
- 24:44But they readily did throw him into the sea and came away from him.
- 24:48Then he followed them, for he swam like a cork and called to them
- 24:52in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said.
- 24:55However, at last they took him in again, and then he began to
- 24:59be more tr factable. Nor did I ever design they should drown him.
- 25:03We were now under sail again. But I was the most disconsolate creature alive
- 25:07for want of my man Friday, and would have been very glad to have
- 25:11gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence
- 25:15for my occasion, but it could not be. So we went on.
- 25:19We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long
- 25:22time before we could make him understand anything. But in time our men taught
- 25:27him some English, and he began to be a little tractable. Afterwards,
- 25:32we inquired what country he came from, but could make nothing of what he
- 25:36said, for his speech was so odd all gutturals, and he spoke in
- 25:40the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we could never form
- 25:44a word after him. And we were all of opinion that they might speak
- 25:48that language as well, if they were gagged or otherwise. Nor could we
- 25:52perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or
- 25:56palate, but formed their words just as a hunting horn forms a tune with
- 26:00an open throat. He told us, however, some time after, when
- 26:04we had taught him to speak a little English, that they were going with
- 26:07their kings to fight a great battle. When he said kings, we asked
- 26:11him how many kings. He said they were five. Nation We could not
- 26:15make him understand the plural s, and that they all joined to go against
- 26:21two nation. We asked him what made them come up to us? He
- 26:25said, to make ye to great wonder. Look here it is to be
- 26:27observed that all those natives, as also those of Africa, when they learn
- 26:32English, always add to ease at the end of the words where we used
- 26:36one, and they placed the accent upon them as make ye, take ye,
- 26:40and the like nay. I could hardly make Friday leave it off,
- 26:44though at last he did. And now I name the poor fellow once more,
- 26:48I must take my last leave of him, poor honest Friday. We
- 26:52buried him with all the decency and solemnity possible, by putting him into a
- 26:56coffin and throwing him into the sea. And I caused them to fire eleven
- 27:02guns for him. So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful,
- 27:06honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had. We went now away
- 27:11with a fair wind for Brazil, and in about twelve days time we made
- 27:15land in the latitude of five degrees south of the line, being the northeasternmost
- 27:21land of all that part of America. We kept on south by east in
- 27:26sight of the shore four days when we made Cape Saint Augustine, and in
- 27:30three days came to an anchor off the Bay of All Saints, the old
- 27:33place of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil fate.
- 27:38Never ship came to this port that had less business than I had. And
- 27:42yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least correspondence
- 27:47on shore. Not my partner himself, who was alive and made a great
- 27:52figure among them, Not my two merchant trustees, Not the fame of my
- 27:56wonderful preservation in the island could obtain me that faith. My partner, however,
- 28:02remembering that I had given five hundred moidors to the prior of the Monastery
- 28:06of the Augustines and two hundred and seventy two to the poor, went to
- 28:10the monastery and obliged the prior that then was to go to the governor and
- 28:15get leave for me personally with the captain, and one more besides eight seamen
- 28:19to come on shore, and no more. And this upon condition absolutely capitulated,
- 28:26for that we should not offer to land any goods out of the ship,
- 28:30or to carry any person away without license. They were so strict with
- 28:33us as to landing any goods. That it was with extreme difficulty that I
- 28:37got on shore three bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs,
- 28:42and some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.
- 28:47He was a very generous, open hearted man, although he began,
- 28:51like me, with little at first. Though he knew not that I had
- 28:55the least design of giving him anything. He sent me on board a present
- 28:59of fresh provisions, wine and sweetmeats worth about thirty moi doors, including some
- 29:03tobacco, and three or four fine medals of gold. But I was even
- 29:08with him in my present, which as I have said, consisted of fine
- 29:12broadcloth, English stuffs, lace and fine holland Also I delivered him about the
- 29:18value of one hundred pounds sterling in the same goods for other uses. And
- 29:22I obliged him to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me
- 29:26from England, as I have said, for the use of my colony,
- 29:30in order to send the refreshments I intended to my plantation. Accordingly, he
- 29:34got hands and finished the sloop in a very few days, for she was
- 29:38already framed, and I gave the master of her such instructions that he could
- 29:42not miss the place, nor did he, as I had an account from
- 29:47my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small cargo I sent
- 29:51them, and one of our seamen that had been on shore with me there
- 29:55offered to go with the sloop and settle there. Upon my letter to the
- 29:59Governor's Spanish to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and
- 30:03on my giving him some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he
- 30:07said he understood, having been an old planter at Maryland and a buccaneer into
- 30:12the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired, and as
- 30:17an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had taken prisoner of war
- 30:21to be his slave, and ordered the Governor Spaniard to give him his share
- 30:25of everything he wanted, with the rest. When we came to fit this
- 30:29man out, my old partner told me there was a certain, very honest
- 30:32fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure
- 30:37of the church. I know not what the matter is with him, says
- 30:41he, but on my conscience. I think he is a heretic in his
- 30:44heart, and he has been obliged to conceal himself for fear of the inquisition.
- 30:48He then told me that he would be very glad of such an opportunity
- 30:52to make his escape with his wife and two daughters, and if I would
- 30:56let them go to my island and allot them a plantation, he would give
- 31:00them a small stock to begin with, for the officers of the inquisition had
- 31:04seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little
- 31:08household stuff and two slaves and adds. He though I hate his principles,
- 31:14yet I would not have him fall into their heads, for he will be
- 31:18assuredly burned alive if he does. I granted this presently, and joined my
- 31:22englishmen with them, and we concealed the man and his wife and daughters on
- 31:27board our ship till the sloop put out to go to sea, and then,
- 31:32having put all their goods on board, some time before, we put
- 31:34them on board the sloop after she was got out of the bay. Our
- 31:38seamen was mightily pleased with this new partner, and their stocks indeed were much
- 31:44alike, rich in tools, in preparations, and a farm, but nothing
- 31:48to begin with except as above. However, they carried over with them what
- 31:52was worth all the rest some materials for planting sugar canes, with some plants
- 31:57of canes, which he I mean, the Brazil planter, understood very well.
- 32:04Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island,
- 32:07I sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves, about twenty
- 32:12two hogs, among them three sows, two mares, and a stone horse.
- 32:16For my Spaniards. According to my promise, I engaged three brazil women
- 32:21to go and recommended it to them to marry them and use them kindly.
- 32:25I could have procured more women, but I remembered that the poor persecuted man
- 32:30had two daughters, and that there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted
- 32:35partners. The rest had wives of their own, though in another country.
- 32:38All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was
- 32:44very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now with this addition, between
- 32:47sixty and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a great
- 32:52many. I found letters at London from them, all by way of Lisbon
- 32:57when I came back to England. I have now done with the island and
- 33:01all manner of discourse about it. And whoever reads the rest of my memorandums
- 33:06would do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read
- 33:09of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms,
- 33:14much less by those of other men to beware, not cooled by almost forty
- 33:19years, miseries and disappointments, not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation, nor made
- 33:24cautious by afflictions and distress beyond example. End of Chapter eight