The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe









CHAPTER I - REVISITS ISLAND







THAT homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz. 

"That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," was 

never more verified than in the story of my Life.  Any one would 

think that after thirty-five years' affliction, and a variety of 

unhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through 

before, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the 

fulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be 

allowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life, 

and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy; 

I say, after all this, any one would have thought that the native 

propensity to rambling which I gave an account of in my first 

setting out in the world to have been so predominant in my 

thoughts, should be worn out, and I might, at sixty one years of 

age, have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have done 

venturing life and fortune any more.



Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken 

away in me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing to seek:  

if I had gained ten thousand pounds I had been no richer; for I had 

already sufficient for me, and for those I had to leave it to; and 

what I had was visibly increasing; for, having no great family, I 

could not spend the income of what I had unless I would set up for 

an expensive way of living, such as a great family, servants, 

equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things I had no notion 

of, or inclination to; so that I had nothing, indeed, to do but to 

sit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see it increase 

daily upon my hands.  Yet all these things had no effect upon me, 

or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination I had to go 

abroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper.  In 

particular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, 

and the colony I left there, ran in my head continually.  I dreamed 

of it all night, and my imagination ran upon it all day:  it was 

uppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and 

strongly upon it that I talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothing 

could remove it out of my mind:  it even broke so violently into 

all my discourses that it made my conversation tiresome, for I 

could talk of nothing else; all my discourse ran into it, even to 

impertinence; and I saw it myself.



I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stir 

that people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owing 

to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy 

in their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, 

or a ghost walking; that people's poring affectionately upon the 

past conversation of their deceased friends so realises it to them 

that they are capable of fancying, upon some extraordinary 

circumstances, that they see them, talk to them, and are answered 

by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour in 

the thing, and they really know nothing of the matter.



For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any such 

things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after 

they are dead; or whether there is anything in the stories they 

tell us of that kind more than the product of vapours, sick minds, 

and wandering fancies:  but this I know, that my imagination worked 

up to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, or 

what else I may call it, that I actually supposed myself often upon 

the spot, at my old castle, behind the trees; saw my old Spaniard, 

Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left upon the island; 

nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them steadily, 

though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and this I 

did till I often frightened myself with the images my fancy 

represented to me.  One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of 

the three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the first 

Spaniard, and Friday's father, that it was surprising:  they told 

me how they barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, and 

that they set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on purpose 

to distress and starve them; things that I had never heard of, and 

that, indeed, were never all of them true in fact:  but it was so 

warm in my imagination, and so realised to me, that, to the hour I 

saw them, I could not be persuaded but that it was or would be 

true; also how I resented it, when the Spaniard complained to me; 

and how I brought them to justice, tried them, and ordered them all 

three to be hanged.  What there was really in this shall be seen in 

its place; for however I came to form such things in my dream, and 

what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was, I say, 

much of it true.  I own that this dream had nothing in it literally 

and specifically true; but the general part was so true - the base; 

villainous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, and 

had been so much worse than all I can describe, that the dream had 

too much similitude of the fact; and as I would afterwards have 

punished them severely, so, if I had hanged them all, I had been 

much in the right, and even should have been justified both by the 

laws of God and man.



But to return to my story.  In this kind of temper I lived some 

years; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no 

agreeable diversion but what had something or other of this in it; 

so that my wife, who saw my mind wholly bent upon it, told me very 

seriously one night that she believed there was some secret, 

powerful impulse of Providence upon me, which had determined me to 

go thither again; and that she found nothing hindered me going but 

my being engaged to a wife and children.  She told me that it was 

true she could not think of parting with me:  but as she was 

assured that if she was dead it would be the first thing I would 

do, so, as it seemed to her that the thing was determined above, 

she would not be the only obstruction; for, if I thought fit and 

resolved to go - [Here she found me very intent upon her words, and 

that I looked very earnestly at her, so that it a little disordered 

her, and she stopped.  I asked her why she did not go on, and say 

out what she was going to say?  But I perceived that her heart was 

too full, and some tears stood in her eyes.]  "Speak out, my dear," 

said I; "are you willing I should go?" - "No," says she, very 

affectionately, "I am far from willing; but if you are resolved to 

go," says she, "rather than I would be the only hindrance, I will 

go with you:  for though I think it a most preposterous thing for 

one of your years, and in your condition, yet, if it must be," said 

she, again weeping, "I would not leave you; for if it be of Heaven 

you must do it, there is no resisting it; and if Heaven make it 

your duty to go, He will also make it mine to go with you, or 

otherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it."



This affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of 

the vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing; I corrected 

my wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately what 

business I had after threescore years, and after such a life of 

tedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a 

manner; I, say, what business had I to rush into new hazards, and 

put myself upon adventures fit only for youth and poverty to run 

into?



With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I had a 

wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of another; 

that I had all the world could give me, and had no need to seek 

hazard for gain; that I was declining in years, and ought to think 

rather of leaving what I had gained than of seeking to increase it; 

that as to what my wife had said of its being an impulse from 

Heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, I had no notion of 

that; so, after many of these cogitations, I struggled with the 

power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as I believe 

people may always do in like cases if they will:  in a word, I 

conquered it, composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my 

thoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifully 

with; and particularly, as the most effectual method, I resolved to 

divert myself with other things, and to engage in some business 

that might effectually tie me up from any more excursions of this 

kind; for I found that thing return upon me chiefly when I was 

idle, and had nothing to do, nor anything of moment immediately 

before me.  To this purpose, I bought a little farm in the county 

of Bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither.  I had a little 

convenient house upon it, and the land about it, I found, was 

capable of great improvement; and it was many ways suited to my 

inclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, 

and improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, I 

was removed from conversing among sailors and things relating to 

the remote parts of the world.  I went down to my farm, settled my 

family, bought ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon-horses, cows, and 

sheep, and, setting seriously to work, became in one half-year a 

mere country gentleman.  My thoughts were entirely taken up in 

managing my servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, 

&c.; and I lived, as I thought, the most agreeable life that nature 

was capable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortunes 

was capable of retreating to.



I farmed upon my own land; I had no rent to pay, was limited by no 

articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what I planted 

was for myself, and what I improved was for my family; and having 

thus left off the thoughts of wandering, I had not the least 

discomfort in any part of life as to this world.  Now I thought, 

indeed, that I enjoyed the middle state of life which my father so 

earnestly recommended to me, and lived a kind of heavenly life, 

something like what is described by the poet, upon the subject of a 

country life:-





"Free from vices, free from care,

Age has no pain, and youth no snare."





But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseen 

Providence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon me 

inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into a 

deep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as I may say, 

being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me; and, 

like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with an 

irresistible force upon me.  This blow was the loss of my wife.  It 

is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give a 

character of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sex 

by the flattery of a funeral sermon.  She was, in a few words, the 

stay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; the 

engine that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass I 

was in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that filled 

my head, and did more to guide my rambling genius than a mother's 

tears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my own 

reasoning powers could do.  I was happy in listening to her, and in 

being moved by her entreaties; and to the last degree desolate and 

dislocated in the world by the loss of her.



When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me.  I was as 

much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brazils, 

when I first went on shore there; and as much alone, except for the 

assistance of servants, as I was in my island.  I knew neither what 

to think nor what to do.  I saw the world busy around me:  one part 

labouring for bread, another part squandering in vile excesses or 

empty pleasures, but equally miserable because the end they 

proposed still fled from them; for the men of pleasure every day 

surfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow and 

repentance; and the men of labour spent their strength in daily 

struggling for bread to maintain the vital strength they laboured 

with:  so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to 

work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end 

of wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily 

bread.



This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island; 

where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not want it; 

and bred no more goats, because I had no more use for them; where 

the money lay in the drawer till it grew mouldy, and had scarce the 

favour to be looked upon in twenty years.  All these things, had I 

improved them as I ought to have done, and as reason and religion 

had dictated to me, would have taught me to search farther than 

human enjoyments for a full felicity; and that there was something 

which certainly was the reason and end of life superior to all 

these things, and which was either to be possessed, or at least 

hoped for, on this side of the grave.



But my sage counsellor was gone; I was like a ship without a pilot, 

that could only run afore the wind.  My thoughts ran all away again 

into the old affair; my head was quite turned with the whimsies of 

foreign adventures; and all the pleasant, innocent amusements of my 

farm, my garden, my cattle, and my family, which before entirely 

possessed me, were nothing to me, had no relish, and were like 

music to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste.  In 

a word, I resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm, and 

return to London; and in a few months after I did so.



When I came to London, I was still as uneasy as I was before; I had 

no relish for the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but to 

saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said he is 

perfectly useless in God's creation, and it is not one farthing's 

matter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive.  This 

also was the thing which, of all circumstances of life, was the 

most my aversion, who had been all my days used to an active life; 

and I would often say to myself, "A state of idleness is the very 

dregs of life;" and, indeed, I thought I was much more suitably 

employed when I was twenty-six days making a deal board.



It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, whom, as 

I have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and had made 

him commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage to 

Bilbao, being the first he had made.  He came to me, and told me 

that some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing to him 

to go a voyage for them to the East Indies, and to China, as 

private traders.  "And now, uncle," says he, "if you will go to sea 

with me, I will engage to land you upon your old habitation in the 

island; for we are to touch at the Brazils."



Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and of 

the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of second 

causes with the idea of things which we form in our minds, 

perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world.



My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering was 

returned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thought 

to say, when that very morning, before he came to me, I had, in a 

great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my 

circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, that I would go 

to Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and if it was 

rational and practicable, I would go and see the island again, and 

what was become of my people there.  I had pleased myself with the 

thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants from 

hence, getting a patent for the possession and I know not what; 

when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I have 

said, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to the 

East Indies.



I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, "What 

devil," said I, "sent you on this unlucky errand?"  My nephew 

stared as if he had been frightened at first; but perceiving that I 

was not much displeased at the proposal, he recovered himself.  "I 

hope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir," says he.  "I daresay 

you would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once 

reigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs in 

the world."  In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, 

that is to say, the prepossession I was under, and of which I have 

said so much, that I told him, in a few words, if he agreed with 

the merchants, I would go with him; but I told him I would not 

promise to go any further than my own island.  "Why, sir," says he, 

"you don't want to be left there again, I hope?"  "But," said I, 

"can you not take me up again on your return?"  He told me it would 

not be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allow him 

to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being a 

month's sail out of his way, and might be three or four.  "Besides, 

sir, if I should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, then 

you would be just reduced to the condition you were in before."



This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it, 

which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being 

taken in pieces, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom we 

agreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, and 

finished fit to go to sea in a few days.  I was not long resolving, 

for indeed the importunities of my nephew joined so effectually 

with my inclination that nothing could oppose me; on the other 

hand, my wife being dead, none concerned themselves so much for me 

as to persuade me one way or the other, except my ancient good 

friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to consider my 

years, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazards of a long 

voyage; and above all, my young children.  But it was all to no 

purpose, I had an irresistible desire for the voyage; and I told 

her I thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions I 

had upon my mind, that it would be a kind of resisting Providence 

if I should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased her 

expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provision 

for my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs for my 

absence, and providing for the education of my children.  In order 

to do this, I made my will, and settled the estate I had in such a 

manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I was 

perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them, 

whatever might befall me; and for their education, I left it wholly 

to the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her 

care:  all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have 

taken more care in their education, or understood it better; and as 

she lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.



My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5; 

and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th; 

having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a very 

considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony, 

which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.



First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed to place 

there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my 

account while I stayed, and either to leave them there or carry 

them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, I 

carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious 

fellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a general mechanic; 

for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills to grind corn, 

was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made anything that 

was proper to make of earth or of wood:  in a word, we called him 

our Jack-of-all-trades.  With these I carried a tailor, who had 

offered himself to go a passenger to the East Indies with my 

nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and 

who proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired in 

many other businesses besides that of his trade; for, as I observed 

formerly, necessity arms us for all employments.



My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept account 

of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, 

and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that I 

expected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculation 

might comfortably supply them for seven years; if I remember right, 

the materials I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats, 

shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for 

wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds, 

bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with 

pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds more 

in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges, 

and every necessary thing I could think of.



I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besides 

some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three 

or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, because 

I knew not what time and what extremities I was providing for, I 

carried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and 

the iron part of some pikes and halberds.  In short, we had a large 

magazine of all sorts of store; and I made my nephew carry two 

small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leave 

behind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we might 

build a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies.  Indeed, I at 

first thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, if 

we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen 

in the course of that story.



I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet 

with, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the 

reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with 

my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weather 

happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer 

than I expected it at first; and I, who had never made but one 

voyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to come 

back again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to think the 

same ill fate attended me, and that I was born to be never 

contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at 

sea.  Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were 

obliged to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind-bound 

two-and-twenty days; but we had this satisfaction with the 

disaster, that provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the 

utmost plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched the 

ship's stores, but rather added to them.  Here, also, I took in 

several live hogs, and two cows with their calves, which I 

resolved, if I had a good passage, to put on shore in my island; 

but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them.



We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fair 

gale of wind for some days.  As I remember, it might be about the 

20th of February in the evening late, when the mate, having the 

watch, came into the round-house and told us he saw a flash of 

fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, a 

boy came in and told us the boatswain heard another.  This made us 

all run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard 

nothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found 

that there was some very terrible fire at a distance; immediately 

we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed that 

there could be no land that way in which the fire showed itself, 

no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW.  Upon 

this, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, by 

our hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that it 

could not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and were 

presently satisfied we should discover it, because the further we 

sailed, the greater the light appeared; though, the weather being 

hazy, we could not perceive anything but the light for a while.  In 

about half-an-hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, though 

not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we could 

plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of 

the sea.



I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all 

acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recollected 

my former circumstances, and what condition I was in when taken up 

by the Portuguese captain; and how much more deplorable the 

circumstances of the poor creatures belonging to that ship must be, 

if they had no other ship in company with them.  Upon this I 

immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon after 

another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that there 

was help for them at hand and that they might endeavour to save 

themselves in their boat; for though we could see the flames of the 

ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us.



We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship 

drove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our great 

terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the 

air; and in a few minutes all the fire was out, that is to say, the 

rest of the ship sunk.  This was a terrible, and indeed an 

afflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded, 

must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost 

distress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean; which, at 

present, as it was dark, I could not see.  However, to direct them 

as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all parts of 

the ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept 

firing guns all the night long, letting them know by this that 

there was a ship not far off.



About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats 

by the help of our perspective glasses, and found there were two of 

them, both thronged with people, and deep in the water.  We 

perceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they saw 

our ship, and did their utmost to make us see them.  We immediately 

spread our ancient, to let them know we saw them, and hung a waft 

out, as a signal for them to come on board, and then made more 

sail, standing directly to them.  In little more than half-an-hour 

we came up with them; and took them all in, being no less than 

sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great many 

passengers.



Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship of three-

hundred tons, home-bound from Quebec.  The master gave us a long 

account of the distress of his ship; how the fire began in the 

steerage by the negligence of the steersman, which, on his crying 

out for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out; but they 

soon found that some sparks of the first fire had got into some 

part of the ship so difficult to come at that they could not 

effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between the 

timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the 

hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they were 

able to exert.



They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to 

their great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and 

a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great 

service to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisions 

into her, after they had secured their lives from the fire.  They 

had, indeed, small hopes of their lives by getting into these boats 

at that distance from any land; only, as they said, that they thus 

escaped from the fire, and there was a possibility that some ship 

might happen to be at sea, and might take them in.  They had sails, 

oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and water as, with 

sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might support them 

about twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and no 

contrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banks 

of Newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain them 

till they might go on shore.  But there were so many chances 

against them in all these cases, such as storms, to overset and 

founder them; rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs; 

contrary winds, to keep them out and starve them; that it must have 

been next to miraculous if they had escaped.



In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless and 

ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me they 

were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and 

after that four more:  these were the five guns which I caused to 

be fired at first seeing the light.  This revived their hearts, and 

gave them the notice, which, as above, I desired it should, that 

there was a ship at hand for their help.  It was upon the hearing 

of these guns that they took down their masts and sails:  the sound 

coming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning.  

Some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired three 

muskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, the 

wind being contrary, we never heard.  Some time after that again 

they were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights, 

and hearing the guns, which, as I have said, I caused to be fired 

all the rest of the night.  This set them to work with their oars, 

to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might the sooner come 

up with them; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found 

we saw them.



It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the 

strange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poor 

delivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at so 

unexpected a deliverance.  Grief and fear are easily described:  

sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands, 

make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise of 

joy, has a thousand extravagances in it.  There were some in tears; 

some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the 

greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downright 

lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others 

wringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, some 

laughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; 

others sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; and 

a few were crossing themselves and giving God thanks.



I would not wrong them either; there might be many that were 

thankful afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them at 

first, and they were not able to master it:  then were thrown into 

ecstasies, and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few that 

were composed and serious in their joy.  Perhaps also, the case may 

have some addition to it from the particular circumstance of that 

nation they belonged to:  I mean the French, whose temper is 

allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly, 

and their spirits more fluid than in other nations.  I am not 

philosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had ever 

seen before came up to it.  The ecstasies poor Friday, my trusty 

savage, was in when he found his father in the boat came the 

nearest to it; and the surprise of the master and his two 

companions, whom I delivered from the villains that set them on 

shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was 

to compare to this, either that I saw in Friday, or anywhere else 

in my life.



It is further observable, that these extravagances did not show 

themselves in that different manner I have mentioned, in different 

persons only; but all the variety would appear, in a short 

succession of moments, in one and the same person.  A man that we 

saw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, would 

the next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic; and the 

next moment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces, 

and stamping them under his feet like a madman; in a few moments 

after that we would have him all in tears, then sick, swooning, 

and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few moments 

have been dead.  Thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or 

twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if I remember 

right, our surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirty 

persons.



There were two priests among them:  one an old man, and the other a 

young man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was the 

worst.  As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw 

himself safe, he dropped down stone dead to all appearance.  Not 

the least sign of life could be perceived in him; our surgeon 

immediately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was the 

only man in the ship that believed he was not dead.  At length he 

opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part, 

so as to warm it as much as possible.  Upon this the blood, which 

only dropped at first, flowing freely, in three minutes after the 

man opened his eyes; a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew 

better, and after the blood was stopped, he walked about, told us 

he was perfectly well, and took a dram of cordial which the surgeon 

gave him.  About a quarter of an hour after this they came running 

into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a Frenchwoman that 

had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad.  It seems 

he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his 

mind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy.  His spirits 

whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them, the blood 

grew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any 

creature that ever was in it.  The surgeon would not bleed him 

again in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him 

to sleep; which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awoke 

next morning perfectly composed and well.  The younger priest 

behaved with great command of his passions, and was really an 

example of a serious, well-governed mind.  At his first coming on 

board the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating 

himself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappily 

and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a 

swoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving God 

thanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments, 

and that, next to his Maker, he would give me thanks also.  I was 

heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, but 

kept others from interrupting him also.  He continued in that 

posture about three minutes, or little more, after I left him, then 

came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of 

seriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me, 

that had, under God, given him and so many miserable creatures 

their lives.  I told him I had no need to tell him to thank God for 

it, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already; 

but I added that it was nothing but what reason and humanity 

dictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to give 

thanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us the 

instruments of His mercy to so many of His creatures.  After this 

the young priest applied himself to his countrymen, and laboured to 

compose them:  he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, 

and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their 

reason; and with some he had success, though others were for a time 

out of all government of themselves.



I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be 

useful to those into whose hands it may fall, for guiding 

themselves in the extravagances of their passions; for if an excess 

of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of their 

reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage, and a 

provoked mind carry us to?  And, indeed, here I saw reason for 

keeping an exceeding watch over our passions of every kind, as well 

those of joy and satisfaction as those of sorrow and anger.



We were somewhat disordered by these extravagances among our new 

guests for the first day; but after they had retired to lodgings 

provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and had slept 

heartily - as most of them did, being fatigued and frightened - 

they were quite another sort of people the next day.  Nothing of 

good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness shown them, 

was wanting; the French, it is known, are naturally apt enough to 

exceed that way.  The captain and one of the priests came to me the 

next day, and desired to speak with me and my nephew; the commander 

began to consult with us what should be done with them; and first, 

they told us we had saved their lives, so all they had was little 

enough for a return to us for that kindness received.  The captain 

said they had saved some money and some things of value in their 

boats, caught hastily out of the flames, and if we would accept it 

they were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only 

desired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if 

possible, they might get a passage to France.  My nephew wished to 

accept their money at first word, and to consider what to do with 

them afterwards; but I overruled him in that part, for I knew what 

it was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if the 

Portuguese captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and 

taken all I had for my deliverance, I must have been starved, or 

have been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had been at Barbary, 

the mere being sold to a Mahometan excepted; and perhaps a 

Portuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not in some 

cases much worse.



I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in 

their distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, as 

we were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered if 

we were in the like or any other extremity; that we had done 

nothing for them but what we believed they would have done for us 

if we had been in their case and they in ours; but that we took 

them up to save them, not to plunder them; and it would be a most 

barbarous thing to take that little from them which they had saved 

out of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; that 

this would be first to save them from death, and then kill them 

ourselves:  save them from drowning, and abandon them to starving; 

and therefore I would not let the least thing be taken from them.  

As to setting them on shore, I told them indeed that was an 

exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the East 

Indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward 

a very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven on purpose 

for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to 

change our voyage on their particular account; nor could my nephew, 

the captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under 

charter to pursue his voyage by way of Brazil; and all I knew we 

could do for them was to put ourselves in the way of meeting with 

other ships homeward bound from the West Indies, and get them a 

passage, if possible, to England or France.



The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind they could 

not but be very thankful for it; but they were in very great 

consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being 

carried away to the East Indies; they then entreated me that as I 

was driven so far to the westward before I met with them, I would 

at least keep on the same course to the banks of Newfoundland, 

where it was probable I might meet with some ship or sloop that 

they might hire to carry them back to Canada.



I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and 

therefore I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered that 

to carry this whole company to the East Indies would not only be an 

intolerable severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining our 

whole voyage by devouring all our provisions; so I thought it no 

breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen accident made 

absolutely necessary to us, and in which no one could say we were 

to blame; for the laws of God and nature would have forbid that we 

should refuse to take up two boats full of people in such a 

distressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as well 

respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to set them on 

shore somewhere or other for their deliverance.  So I consented 

that we would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind and weather would 

permit:  and if not, I would carry them to Martinico, in the West 

Indies.



The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and 

as the winds had continued in the points between NE. and SE. a long 

time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France; 

for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French, 

from St. Christopher's, but they had been so long beating up 

against the wind that they durst take in no passengers, for fear of 

wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for 

those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on.  It was 

about a week after this that we made the banks of Newfoundland; 

where, to shorten my story, we put all our French people on board a 

bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and 

afterwards to carry them to France, if they could get provisions to 

victual themselves with.  When I say all the French went on shore, 

I should remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were 

bound to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to 

be set on shore on the coast of Coromandel; which I readily agreed 

to, for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as 

will appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves 

on our ship, and proved very useful fellows.



From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering 

away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes 

little or no wind at all; when we met with another subject for our 

humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.







CHAPTER II -  INTERVENING HISTORY OF COLONY







IT was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., on the 19th day 

of March 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course SE. and by S.  

We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to 

us, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after 

coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, 

fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun as a signal 

of distress.  The weather was pretty good, wind at NNW. a fresh 

gale, and we soon came to speak with her.  We found her a ship of 

Bristol, bound home from Barbadoes, but had been blown out of the 

road at Barbadoes a few days before she was ready to sail, by a 

terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone 

on shore; so that, besides the terror of the storm, they were in an 

indifferent case for good mariners to bring the ship home.  They 

had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another 

terrible storm, after the hurricane was over, which had blown them 

quite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they 

lost their masts.  They told us they expected to have seen the 

Bahama Islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east, 

by a strong gale of wind at NNW., the same that blew now:  and 

having no sails to work the ship with but a main course, and a kind 

of square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they had set up, they 

could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away 

for the Canaries.



But that which was worst of all was, that they were almost starved 

for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone; 

their bread and flesh were quite gone - they had not one ounce left 

in the ship, and had had none for eleven days.  The only relief 

they had was, their water was not all spent, and they had about 

half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some succades, 

or sweetmeats, they had at first, but these were all devoured; and 

they had seven casks of rum.  There was a youth and his mother and 

a maid-servant on board, who were passengers, and thinking the ship 

was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the 

hurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, they 

were in a more deplorable condition than the rest:  for the seamen 

being reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had no 

compassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and they were, 

indeed, in such a condition that their misery is very hard to 

describe.



I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, 

the weather being fair and the wind abated, to go on board the 

ship.  The second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, 

had been on board our ship, and he told me they had three 

passengers in the great cabin that were in a deplorable condition.  

"Nay," says he, "I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing 

of them for above two days; and I was afraid to inquire after 

them," said he, "for I had nothing to relieve them with."  We 

immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could 

spare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew, 

that I would have victualled them though we had gone away to 

Virginia, or any other part of the coast of America, to have 

supplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that.



But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid of eating 

too much, even of that little we gave them.  The mate, or 

commander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poor 

wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they could 

hardly sit to their oars.  The mate himself was very ill, and half 

starved; for he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and 

went share and share alike with them in every bit they ate.  I 

cautioned him to eat sparingly, and set meat before him 

immediately, but he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began 

to be sick and out of order; so he stopped a while, and our surgeon 

mixed him up something with some broth, which he said would be to 

him both food and physic; and after he had taken it he grew better.  

In the meantime I forgot not the men.  I ordered victuals to be 

given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it:  

they were so exceedingly hungry that they were in a manner 

ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them ate 

with so much greediness that they were in danger of their lives the 

next morning.  The sight of these people's distress was very moving 

to me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of at my 

first coming on shore in my island, where I had not the least 

mouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any; besides the 

hourly apprehensions I had of being made the food of other 

creatures.  But all the while the mate was thus relating to me the 

miserable condition of the ship's company, I could not put out of 

my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in 

the great cabin, viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, 

whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days, and whom, he 

seemed to confess, they had wholly neglected, their own extremities 

being so great; by which I understood that they had really given 

them no food at all, and that therefore they must be perished, and 

be all lying dead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the cabin.



As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board 

with his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving 

crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on 

board the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them a 

sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil.  Our 

surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while they 

stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men 

taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was 

well boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at a 

time:  and by this caution he preserved the men, who would 

otherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was given 

them on purpose to save their lives.



At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and 

see what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they were 

alive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper:  

and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with some of the prepared 

broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he 

did not question would restore them gradually.  I was not satisfied 

with this; but, as I said above, having a great mind to see the 

scene of misery which I knew the ship itself would present me with, 

in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took the 

captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went 

myself, a little after, in their boat.



I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the 

victuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate 

observed his orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door, 

and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasion to 

have patience, kept them off by force; however, he caused some 

biscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened with the liquor 

of the meat, which they called brewis, and gave them every one some 

to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their own safety 

that he was obliged to give them but little at a time.  But it was 

all in vain; and had I not come on board, and their own commander 

and officers with me, and with good words, and some threats also of 

giving them no more, I believe they would have broken into the 

cook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace - for 

words are indeed of very small force to a hungry belly; however, we 

pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously at first, and 

the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and 

the men did well enough.



But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another 

nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company 

had so little for themselves, it was but too true that they had at 

first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them:  so 

that for six or seven days it might be said they had really no food 

at all, and for several days before very little.  The poor mother, 

who, as the men reported, was a woman of sense and good breeding, 

had spared all she could so affectionately for her son, that at 

last she entirely sank under it; and when the mate of our ship went 

in, she sat upon the floor on deck, with her back up against the 

sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head 

sunk between her shoulders like a corpse, though not quite dead.  

My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a 

spoon put some broth into her mouth.  She opened her lips, and 

lifted up one hand, but could not speak:  yet she understood what 

he said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late 

for her, but pointed to her child, as if she would have said they 

should take care of him.  However, the mate, who was exceedingly 

moved at the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into her 

mouth, and, as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down - though I 

question whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was too 

late, and she died the same night.



The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate 

mother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin bed, as 

one stretched out, with hardly any life left in him.  He had a 

piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; 

however, being young, and having more strength than his mother, the 

mate got something down his throat, and he began sensibly to 

revive; though by giving him, some time after, but two or three 

spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again.



But the next care was the poor maid:  she lay all along upon the 

deck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down 

in a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life.  Her limbs were 

distorted; one of her hands was clasped round the frame of the 

chair, and she gripped it so hard that we could not easily make her 

let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both 

together, set fast against the frame of the cabin table:  in short, 

she lay just like one in the agonies of death, and yet she was 

alive too.  The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and 

terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us 

afterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying 

for two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly.  We 

knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who 

was a man of very great knowledge and experience, had, with great 

application, recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hands 

still; for she was little less than distracted for a considerable 

time after.



Whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired to consider 

that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, where 

sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place.  Our 

business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not lie by 

for them; and though they were willing to steer the same course 

with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with 

a ship that had no masts.  However, as their captain begged of us 

to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast to 

his jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or 

four days; and then, having given him five barrels of beef, a 

barrel of pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, 

flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks 

of sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them for 

satisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own 

earnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods.



The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-

bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with the loss of 

his mother, and also at having lost his father but a few months 

before, at Barbadoes.  He begged of the surgeon to speak to me to 

take him out of the ship; for he said the cruel fellows had 

murdered his mother:  and indeed so they had, that is to say, 

passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to the 

poor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough to keep her 

alive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, no 

right, and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.



The surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it would carry 

him away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in as bad 

circumstances almost as those we found him in, that is to say, 

starving in the world.  He said it mattered not whither he went, if 

he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among; that 

the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my 

nephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and 

as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would be 

very thankful for it, let us carry them where we would.  The 

surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me that I 

yielded, and we took them both on board, with all their goods, 

except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed or 

come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his 

commander sign a writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as he 

came to Bristol, to one Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the 

youth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote to 

him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow; 

which, I suppose, was not done, for I could never learn that the 

ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at sea, 

being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that I 

am of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards she might 

founder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we met 

with her.



I was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and had 

hitherto a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the 

winds had been contrary.  I shall trouble nobody with the little 

incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c., on the rest of our 

voyage; but to shorten my story, shall observe that I came to my 

old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April 1695.  It was with 

no small difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it and 

went to it before on the south and east side of the island, coming 

from the Brazils, so now, coming in between the main and the 

island, and having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, I did 

not know it when I saw it, or, know whether I saw it or not.  We 

beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands in 

the mouth of the great river Orinoco, but none for my purpose; only 

this I learned by my coasting the shore, that I was under one great 

mistake before, viz. that the continent which I thought I saw from 

the island I lived in was really no continent, but a long island, 

or rather a ridge of islands, reaching from one to the other side 

of the extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who 

came to my island were not properly those which we call Caribbees, 

but islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited 

nearer to our side than the rest.



In short, I visited several of these islands to no purpose; some I 

found were inhabited, and some were not; on one of them I found 

some Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with 

them, found they had a sloop lying in a small creek hard by, and 

came thither to make salt, and to catch some pearl-mussels if they 

could; but that they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay 

farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.



Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship, 

sometimes with the Frenchman's shallop, which we had found a 

convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will, 

at length I came fair on the south side of my island, and presently 

knew the very countenance of the place:  so I brought the ship safe 

to an anchor, broadside with the little creek where my old 

habitation was.  As soon as I saw the place I called for Friday, 

and asked him if he knew where he was?  He looked about a little, 

and presently clapping his hands, cried, "Oh yes, Oh there, Oh yes, 

Oh there!" pointing to our old habitation, and fell dancing and 

capering like a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him from 

jumping into the sea to swim ashore to the place.



"Well, Friday," says I, "do you think we shall find anybody here or 

no? and do you think we shall see your father?"  The fellow stood 

mute as a stock a good while; but when I named his father, the poor 

affectionate creature looked dejected, and I could see the tears 

run down his face very plentifully.  "What is the matter, Friday? 

are you troubled because you may see your father?"  "No, no," says 

he, shaking his head, "no see him more:  no, never more see him 

again."  "Why so, Friday? how do you know that?"  "Oh no, Oh no," 

says Friday, "he long ago die, long ago; he much old man."  "Well, 

well, Friday, you don't know; but shall we see any one else, then?"  

The fellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points to the 

hill just above my old house; and though we lay half a league off, 

he cries out, "We see! we see! yes, we see much man there, and 

there, and there."  I looked, but I saw nobody, no, not with a 

perspective glass, which was, I suppose, because I could not hit 

the place:  for the fellow was right, as I found upon inquiry the 

next day; and there were five or six men all together, who stood to 

look at the ship, not knowing what to think of us.



As soon as Friday told me he saw people, I caused the English 

ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we 

were friends; and in about a quarter of an hour after we perceived 

a smoke arise from the side of the creek; so I immediately ordered 

the boat out, taking Friday with me, and hanging out a white flag, 

I went directly on shore, taking with me the young friar I 

mentioned, to whom I had told the story of my living there, and the 

manner of it, and every particular both of myself and those I left 

there, and who was on that account extremely desirous to go with 

me.  We had, besides, about sixteen men well armed, if we had found 

any new guests there which we did not know of; but we had no need 

of weapons.



As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, we 

rowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my eye 

upon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knew by 

his face perfectly well:  as to his habit, I shall describe it 

afterwards.  I ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself; 

but there was no keeping Friday in the boat, for the affectionate 

creature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off the 

Spaniards, where, indeed, I saw nothing of him; and if they had not 

let him go ashore, he would have jumped into the sea.  He was no 

sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow out 

of a bow.  It would have made any man shed tears, in spite of the 

firmest resolution, to have seen the first transports of this poor 

fellow's joy when he came to his father:  how he embraced him, 

kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his arms, set him down 

upon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him, as 

any one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour 

together; then lay down on the ground, and stroked his legs, and 

kissed them, and then got up again and stared at him; one would 

have thought the fellow bewitched.  But it would have made a dog 

laugh the next day to see how his passion ran out another way:  in 

the morning he walked along the shore with his father several 

hours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady; 

and every now and then he would come to the boat to fetch something 

or other for him, either a lump of sugar, a dram, a biscuit, or 

something or other that was good.  In the afternoon his frolics ran 

another way; for then he would set the old man down upon the 

ground, and dance about him, and make a thousand antic gestures; 

and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, and 

telling him one story or another of his travels, and of what had 

happened to him abroad to divert him.  In short, if the same filial 

affection was to be found in Christians to their parents in our 

part of the world, one would be tempted to say there would hardly 

have been any need of the fifth commandment.



But this is a digression:  I return to my landing.  It would be 

needless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that 

the Spaniards received me with.  The first Spaniard, whom, as I 

said, I knew very well, was he whose life I had saved.  He came 

towards the boat, attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce 

also; and he not only did not know me at first, but he had no 

thoughts, no notion of its being me that was come, till I spoke to 

him.  "Seignior," said I, in Portuguese, "do you not know me?"  At 

which he spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man that 

was with him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in Spanish 

that I did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me, 

telling me he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he 

had once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; he 

said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard 

always knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attended 

him, bade him go and call out his comrades.  He then asked me if I 

would walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possession 

of my own house again, and where I should see they had made but 

mean improvements.  I walked along with him, but, alas! I could no 

more find the place than if I had never been there; for they had 

planted so many trees, and placed them in such a position, so thick 

and close to one another, and in ten years' time they were grown so 

big, that the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and 

blind ways as they themselves only, who made them, could find.



I asked them what put them upon all these fortifications; he told 

me I would say there was need enough of it when they had given me 

an account how they had passed their time since their arriving in 

the island, especially after they had the misfortune to find that I 

was gone.  He told me he could not but have some pleasure in my 

good fortune, when he heard that I was gone in a good ship, and to 

my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong persuasion 

that one time or other he should see me again, but nothing that 

ever befell him in his life, he said, was so surprising and 

afflicting to him at first as the disappointment he was under when 

he came back to the island and found I was not there.



As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left 

behind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell me, the 

Spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages, 

only that their number was so small:  "And," says he, "had they 

been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory;" and 

with that he crossed himself on the breast.  "But, sir," says he, 

"I hope you will not be displeased when I shall tell you how, 

forced by necessity, we were obliged for our own preservation to 

disarm them, and make them our subjects, as they would not be 

content with being moderately our masters, but would be our 

murderers."  I answered I was afraid of it when I left them there, 

and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island but that they 

were not come back, that I might have put them in possession of 

everything first, and left the others in a state of subjection, as 

they deserved; but if they had reduced them to it I was very glad, 

and should be very far from finding any fault with it; for I knew 

they were a parcel of refractory, ungoverned villains, and were fit 

for any manner of mischief.



While I was saying this, the man came whom he had sent back, and 

with him eleven more.  In the dress they were in it was impossible 

to guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear, both to 

them and to me.  First, he turned to me, and pointing to them, 

said, "These, sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to 

you;" and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let them 

know who I was; upon which they all came up, one by one, not as if 

they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and the like, but 

really as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarch 

or great conqueror:  their behaviour was, to the last degree, 

obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly, majestic 

gravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they had so 

much more manners than I, that I scarce knew how to receive their 

civilities, much less how to return them in kind.



The history of their coming to, and conduct in, the island after my 

going away is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents which 

the former part of my relation will help to understand, and which 

will in most of the particulars, refer to the account I have 

already given, that I cannot but commit them, with great delight, 

to the reading of those that come after me.



In order to do this as intelligibly as I can, I must go back to the 

circumstances in which I left the island, and the persons on it, of 

whom I am to speak.  And first, it is necessary to repeat that I 

had sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard (the two whose lives 

I had rescued from the savages) in a large canoe to the main, as I 

then thought it, to fetch over the Spaniard's companions that he 

left behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity that 

he had been in, and in order to succour them for the present; and 

that, if possible, we might together find some way for our 

deliverance afterwards.  When I sent them away I had no visible 

appearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance, 

any more than I had twenty years before - much less had I any 

foreknowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean, of an English 

ship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not be but 

a very great surprise to them, when they came back, not only to 

find that I was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot, 

possessed of all that I had left behind me, which would otherwise 

have been their own.



The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might begin 

where I left off, was of their own part; and I desired the Spaniard 

would give me a particular account of his voyage back to his 

countrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over.  He 

told me there was little variety in that part, for nothing 

remarkable happened to them on the way, having had very calm 

weather and a smooth sea.  As for his countrymen, it could not be 

doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seems 

he was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel they 

had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time):  they were, he 

said, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he was 

fallen into the hands of the savages, who, they were satisfied, 

would devour him as they did all the rest of their prisoners; that 

when he told them the story of his deliverance, and in what manner 

he was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream to 

them, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat like that of 

Joseph's brethren when he told them who he was, and the story of 

his exaltation in Pharaoh's court; but when he showed them the 

arms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought them for 

their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a 

just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately 

prepared to come away with him.



Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were 

obliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but to 

trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large 

canoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for 

pleasure.  In these they came away the next morning.  It seems they 

wanted no time to get themselves ready; for they had neither 

clothes nor provisions, nor anything in the world but what they had 

on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their 

bread.  They were in all three weeks absent; and in that time, 

unluckily for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, as I 

mentioned in the other part, and to get off from the island, 

leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned, 

disagreeable villains behind me that any man could desire to meet 

with - to the poor Spaniards' great grief and disappointment.



The only just thing the rogues did was, that when the Spaniards 

came ashore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions, 

and other relief, as I had ordered them to do; also they gave them 

the long paper of directions which I had left with them, containing 

the particular methods which I took for managing every part of my 

life there; the way I baked my bread, bred up tame goats, and 

planted my corn; how I cured my grapes, made my pots, and, in a 

word, everything I did.  All this being written down, they gave to 

the Spaniards (two of them understood English well enough):  nor 

did they refuse to accommodate the Spaniards with anything else, 

for they agreed very well for some time.  They gave them an equal 

admission into the house or cave, and they began to live very 

sociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my 

methods, together with Friday's father, managed all their affairs; 

but as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the 

island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came home 

at night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.



The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the others 

but let them alone, which, however, they could not find in their 

hearts to do long:  but, like the dog in the manger, they would not 

eat themselves, neither would they let the others eat.  The 

differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such as 

are not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war:  

and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can be 

imagined - without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature, 

and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the first 

relation of it came from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may call 

the accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows they could not 

deny a word of it.



But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply a 

defect in my former relation; and this was, I forgot to set down 

among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set 

sail, there happened a little quarrel on board of our ship, which I 

was once afraid would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was it 

appeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us 

all to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the 

most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons:  and as 

they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some 

ugly, dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry them 

in irons to England, and have them hanged there for mutiny and 

running away with the ship.  This, it seems, though the captain did 

not intend to do it, frightened some other men in the ship; and 

some of them had put it into the head of the rest that the captain 

only gave them good words for the present, till they should come to 

same English port, and that then they should be all put into gaol, 

and tried for their lives.  The mate got intelligence of this, and 

acquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that I, who still 

passed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate and 

satisfy the men, and tell them that they might be assured, if they 

behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time 

past should be pardoned.  So I went, and after passing my honour's 

word to them they appeared easy, and the more so when I caused the 

two men that were in irons to be released and forgiven.



But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; the 

wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men who 

had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and some 

other weapons (what powder or shot they had we knew not), and had 

taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and run away 

with her to their companions in roguery on shore.  As soon as we 

found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and 

the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they could 

neither find them nor any of the rest, for they all fled into the 

woods when they saw the boat coming on shore.  The mate was once 

resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their 

plantations, burned all their household stuff and furniture, and 

left them to shift without it; but having no orders, he let it all 

alone, left everything as he found it, and bringing the pinnace 

way, came on board without them.  These two men made their number 

five; but the other three villains were so much more wicked than 

they, that after they had been two or three days together they 

turned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, and 

would have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good while 

be persuaded to give them any food:  as for the Spaniards, they 

were not yet come.



When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go 

forward:  the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English 

brutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said, 

they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so the 

two poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing but 

industry and application would make them live comfortably, they 

pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little 

more to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who always 

landed on the east parts of the island.  Here they built them two 

huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and 

stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed, 

and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, planted, and 

enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began to 

live pretty well.  Their first crop of corn was on the ground; and 

though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at 

first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve 

them, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of the 

fellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making 

soup, puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and the 

milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.



They were going on in this little thriving position when the three 

unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to 

insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was 

theirs:  that the governor, meaning me, had given them the 

possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and that 

they should build no houses upon their ground unless they would pay 

rent for them.  The two men, thinking they were jesting at first, 

asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they 

were that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded; 

and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, he 

hoped if they built tenements upon their land, and made 

improvements, they would, according to the custom of landlords, 

grant a long lease:  and desired they would get a scrivener to draw 

the writings.  One of the three, cursing and raging, told them they 

should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a 

distance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their 

victuals, he takes a firebrand, and claps it to the outside of 

their hut, and set it on fire:  indeed, it would have been all 

burned down in a few minutes if one of the two had not run to the 

fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and 

that not without some difficulty too.



The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him 

away, that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand, 

and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the 

hut, he had ended his days at once.  His comrade, seeing the danger 

they were both in, ran after him, and immediately they came both 

out with their muskets, and the man that was first struck at with 

the pole knocked the fellow down that began the quarrel with the 

stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to 

help him; and then, seeing the rest come at them, they stood 

together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, 

bade them stand off.



The others had firearms with them too; but one of the two honest 

men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger, 

told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were dead men, 

and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms.  They did not, 

indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him so resolute, it brought 

them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with 

them and be gone:  and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded 

sufficiently with the blow.  However, they were much in the wrong, 

since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them 

effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to 

the Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treated 

them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every 

day gave them some intimation that they did so.







CHAPTER III - FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS







BUT not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of 

the rogueries with which they plagued them continually, night and 

day, it forced the two men to such a desperation that they resolved 

to fight them all three, the first time they had a fair 

opportunity.  In order to do this they resolved to go to the castle 

(as they called my old dwelling), where the three rogues and the 

Spaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair 

battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fair play:  so 

they got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, and 

called the Englishmen by their names telling a Spaniard that 

answered that they wanted to speak with them.



It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having been 

in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, for 

distinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sad 

complaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met with 

from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their 

plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so 

hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their three 

kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, and 

that if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assist 

them again, they should be starved.  When the Spaniards came home 

at night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedom 

to reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerly 

terms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they being 

harmless, inoffensive fellows:  that they were putting themselves 

in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them a 

great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they were 

then in.



One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, "What had they to do 

there? that they came on shore without leave; and that they should 

not plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground."  

"Why," says the Spaniard, very calmly, "Seignior Inglese, they must 

not starve."  The Englishman replied, like a rough tarpaulin, "They 

might starve; they should not plant nor build in that place."  "But 

what must they do then, seignior?" said the Spaniard.  Another of 

the brutes returned, "Do? they should be servants, and work for 

them."  "But how can you expect that of them?" says the Spaniard; 

"they are not bought with your money; you have no right to make 

them servants."  The Englishman answered, "The island was theirs; 

the governor had given it to them, and no man had anything to do 

there but themselves;" and with that he swore that he would go and 

burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land.  

"Why, seignior," says the Spaniard, "by the same rule, we must be 

your servants, too."  "Ay," returned the bold dog, "and so you 

shall, too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or three 

oaths in the proper intervals of his speech.  The Spaniard only 

smiled at that, and made him no answer.  However, this little 

discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other.  

(I think it was he they called Will Atkins), "Come, Jack, let's go 

and have t'other brush with them; we'll demolish their castle, I'll 

warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions."



Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a 

pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among 

themselves of what they would do to the Spaniards, too, when 

opportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so 

perfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, only that 

in general they threatened them hard for taking the two 

Englishmen's part.  Whither they went, or how they bestowed their 

time that evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but it 

seems they wandered about the country part of the night, and them 

lying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they were 

weary and overslept themselves.  The case was this:  they had 

resolved to stay till midnight, and so take the two poor men when 

they were asleep, and as they acknowledged afterwards, intended to 

set fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burn 

them there or murder them as they came out.  As malice seldom 

sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been 

kept awake.  However, as the two men had also a design upon them, 

as I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and 

murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they 

were up and gone abroad before the bloody-minded rogues came to 

their huts.



When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who it seems 

was the forwardest man, called out to his comrade, "Ha, Jack, 

here's the nest, but the birds are flown."  They mused a while, to 

think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad so 

soon, and suggested presently that the Spaniards had given them 

notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to one 

another that they would be revenged of the Spaniards.  As soon as 

they had made this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poor 

men's habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, to anything, but 

they pulled down both their houses, and left not the least stick 

standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; they 

tore all their household stuff in pieces, and threw everything 

about in such a manner, that the poor men afterwards found some of 

their things a mile off.  When they had done this, they pulled up 

all the young trees which the poor men had planted; broke down an 

enclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, 

in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a horde 

of Tartars would have done.



The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had 

resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but 

two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have 

been blood shed among them, for they were all very stout, resolute 

fellows, to give them their due.



But Providence took more care to keep them asunder than they 

themselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged one 

another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and 

afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three were 

come to the old habitation again:  we shall see their different 

conduct presently.  When the three came back like furious 

creatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about 

had put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told them 

what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of them 

stepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a couple 

of boys at play, takes hold of his hat as it was upon his head, and 

giving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says to him, "And 

you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce if you do 

not mend your manners."  The Spaniard, who, though a quiet civil 

man, was as brave a man as could be, and withal a strong, well-made 

man, looked at him for a good while, and then, having no weapon in 

his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and, with one blow of his 

fist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; at 

which one of the rogues, as insolent as the first, fired his pistol 

at the Spaniard immediately; he missed his body, indeed, for the 

bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of 

his ear, and he bled pretty much.  The blood made the Spaniard 

believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into 

some heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but now 

resolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking the 

fellow's musket whom he had knocked down, was just going to shoot 

the man who had fired at him, when the rest of the Spaniards, being 

in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, they 

stepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them.



When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the 

Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they 

began to cool, and giving the Spaniards better words, would have 

their arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that was 

between them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be the 

best method they could take to keep them from killing one another, 

told them they would do them no harm, and if they would live 

peaceably, they would be very willing to assist and associate with 

them as they did before; but that they could not think of giving 

them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do 

mischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened 

them all to make them their servants.



The rogues were now quite deaf to all reason, and being refused 

their arms, they raved away like madmen, threatening what they 

would do, though they had no firearms.  But the Spaniards, 

despising their threatening, told them they should take care how 

they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they 

did they would shoot them as they would ravenous beasts, wherever 

they found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they 

should certainly be hanged.  However, this was far from cooling 

them, but away they went, raging and swearing like furies.  As soon 

as they were gone, the two men came back, in passion and rage 

enough also, though of another kind; for having been at their 

plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above 

mentioned, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough.  

They could scarce have room to tell their tale, the Spaniards were 

so eager to tell them theirs:  and it was strange enough to find 

that three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive no 

punishment at all.



The Spaniards, indeed, despised them, and especially, having thus 

disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the two 

Englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains 

soever it cost to find them out.  But the Spaniards interposed here 

too, and told them that as they had disarmed them, they could not 

consent that they (the two) should pursue them with firearms, and 

perhaps kill them.  "But," said the grave Spaniard, who was their 

governor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if you 

will leave it to us:  for there is no doubt but they will come to 

us again, when their passion is over, being not able to subsist 

without our assistance.  We promise you to make no peace with them 

without having full satisfaction for you; and upon this condition 

we hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other than 

in your own defence."  The two Englishmen yielded to this very 

awkwardly, and with great reluctance; but the Spaniards protested 

that they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make them 

all easy at last.  "For," said they, "we are not so many of us; 

here is room enough for us all, and it is a great pity that we 

should not be all good friends."  At length they did consent, and 

waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with the 

Spaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.



In about five days' time the vagrants, tired with wandering, and 

almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggs 

all that while, came back to the grove; and finding my Spaniard, 

who, as I have said, was the governor, and two more with him, 

walking by the side of the creek, they came up in a very 

submissive, humble manner, and begged to be received again into the 

society.  The Spaniards used them civilly, but told them they had 

acted so unnaturally to their countrymen, and so very grossly to 

themselves, that they could not come to any conclusion without 

consulting the two Englishmen and the rest; but, however, they 

would go to them and discourse about it, and they should know in 

half-an-hour.  It may be guessed that they were very hard put to 

it; for, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they 

begged they would send them out some bread in the meantime, which 

they did, sending at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh 

and a boiled parrot, which they ate very eagerly.



After half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a long 

debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin of 

all their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they owned 

before, and therefore could not deny now.  Upon the whole, the 

Spaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they had 

obliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the three while they were 

naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuild 

their fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other of 

larger dimensions than they were before; to fence their ground 

again, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the land 

again for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything to 

the same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could.



Well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty of 

provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and 

the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together 

again; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded to 

work - I mean for themselves - except now and then a little, just 

as they pleased.  However, the Spaniards told them plainly that if 

they would but live sociably and friendly together, and study the 

good of the whole plantation, they would be content to work for 

them, and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; and 

thus, having lived pretty well together for a month or two, the 

Spaniards let them have arms again, and gave them liberty to go 

abroad with them as before.



It was not above a week after they had these arms, and went abroad, 

before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and 

troublesome as ever.  However, an accident happened presently upon 

this, which endangered the safety of them all, and they were 

obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the 

preservation of their lives.



It happened one night that the governor, the Spaniard whose life I 

had saved, who was now the governor of the rest, found himself very 

uneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep:  he was 

perfectly well in body, only found his thoughts tumultuous; his 

mind ran upon men fighting and killing one another; but he was 

broad awake, and could not by any means get any sleep; in short, he 

lay a great while, but growing more and more uneasy, he resolved to 

rise.  As they lay, being so many of them, on goat-skins laid thick 

upon such couches and pads as they made for themselves, so they had 

little to do, when they were willing to rise, but to get upon their 

feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their pumps, 

and they were ready for going any way that their thoughts guided 

them.  Being thus got up, he looked out; but being dark, he could 

see little or nothing, and besides, the trees which I had planted, 

and which were now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that he 

could only look up, and see that it was a starlight night, and 

hearing no noise, he returned and lay down again; but to no 

purpose; he could not compose himself to anything like rest; but 

his thoughts were to the last degree uneasy, and he knew not for 

what.  Having made some noise with rising and walking about, going 

out and coming in, another of them waked, and asked who it was that 

was up.  The governor told him how it had been with him.  "Say you 

so?" says the other Spaniard; "such things are not to be slighted, 

I assure you; there is certainly some mischief working near us;" 

and presently he asked him, "Where are the Englishmen?"  "They are 

all in their huts," says he, "safe enough."  It seems the Spaniards 

had kept possession of the main apartment, and had made a place for 

the three Englishmen, who, since their last mutiny, were always 

quartered by themselves, and could not come at the rest.  "Well," 

says the Spaniard, "there is something in it, I am persuaded, from 

my own experience.  I am satisfied that our spirits embodied have a 

converse with and receive intelligence from the spirits unembodied, 

and inhabiting the invisible world; and this friendly notice is 

given for our advantage, if we knew how to make use of it.  Come, 

let us go and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it to 

justify the trouble, I'll tell you a story to the purpose, that 

shall convince you of the justice of my proposing it."



They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where I 

used to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone, 

as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and 

pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, but 

were going round through the grove unwarily, when they were 

surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way from 

them, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a 

great number.



Among the precautions I used to take on the savages landing on the 

island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least 

discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place:  and when 

by any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectually 

that they that got away were scarce able to give any account of it; 

for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that had 

seen me escape to tell any one else, except it was the three 

savages in our last encounter who jumped into the boat; of whom, I 

mentioned, I was afraid they should go home and bring more help.  

Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men that so 

great a number came now together, or whether they came ignorantly, 

and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards could 

not understand; but whatever it was, it was their business either 

to have concealed themselves or not to have seen them at all, much 

less to have let the savages have seen there were any inhabitants 

in the place; or to have fallen upon them so effectually as not a 

man of them should have escaped, which could only have been by 

getting in between them and their boats; but this presence of mind 

was wanting to them, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a 

great while.



We need not doubt but that the governor and the man with him, 

surprised with this sight, ran back immediately and raised their 

fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they were 

all in, and they again as readily took the alarm; but it was 

impossible to persuade them to stay close within where they were, 

but they must all run out to see how things stood.  While it was 

dark, indeed, they were safe, and they had opportunity enough for 

some hours to view the savages by the light of three fires they had 

made at a distance from one another; what they were doing they knew 

not, neither did they know what to do themselves.  For, first, the 

enemy were too many; and secondly, they did not keep together, but 

were divided into several parties, and were on shore in several 

places.



The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and, as 

they found that the fellows went straggling all over the shore, 

they made no doubt but, first or last, some of them would chop in 

upon their habitation, or upon some other place where they would 

see the token of inhabitants; and they were in great perplexity 

also for fear of their flock of goats, which, if they should be 

destroyed, would have been little less than starving them.  So the 

first thing they resolved upon was to despatch three men away 

before it was light, two Spaniards and one Englishman, to drive 

away all the goats to the great valley where the cave was, and, if 

need were, to drive them into the very cave itself.  Could they 

have seen the savages all together in one body, and at a distance 

from their canoes, they were resolved, if there had been a hundred 

of them, to attack them; but that could not be done, for they were 

some of them two miles off from the other, and, as it appeared 

afterwards, were of two different nations.



After having mused a great while on the course they should take, 

they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send the old 

savage, Friday's father, out as a spy, to learn, if possible, 

something concerning them, as what they came for, what they 

intended to do, and the like.  The old man readily undertook it; 

and stripping himself quite naked, as most of the savages were, 

away he went.  After he had been gone an hour or two, he brings 

word that he had been among them undiscovered, that he found they 

were two parties, and of two several nations, who had war with one 

another, and had a great battle in their own country; and that both 

sides having had several prisoners taken in the fight, they were, 

by mere chance, landed all on the same island, for the devouring 

their prisoners and making merry; but their coming so by chance to 

the same place had spoiled all their mirth - that they were in a 

great rage at one another, and were so near that he believed they 

would fight again as soon as daylight began to appear; but he did 

not perceive that they had any notion of anybody being on the 

island but themselves.  He had hardly made an end of telling his 

story, when they could perceive, by the unusual noise they made, 

that the two little armies were engaged in a bloody fight.  

Friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade our 

people to lie close, and not be seen; he told them their safety 

consisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but lie still, and 

the savages would kill one another to their hands, and then the 

rest would go away; and it was so to a tittle.  But it was 

impossible to prevail, especially upon the Englishmen; their 

curiosity was so importunate that they must run out and see the 

battle.  However, they used some caution too:  they did not go 

openly, just by their own dwelling, but went farther into the 

woods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they might 

securely see them manage the fight, and, as they thought, not be 

seen by them; but the savages did see them, as we shall find 

hereafter.



The battle was very fierce, and, if I might believe the Englishmen, 

one of them said he could perceive that some of them were men of 

great bravery, of invincible spirit, and of great policy in guiding 

the fight.  The battle, they said, held two hours before they could 

guess which party would be beaten; but then that party which was 

nearest our people's habitation began to appear weakest, and after 

some time more some of them began to fly; and this put our men 

again into a great consternation, lest any one of those that fled 

should run into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, and 

thereby involuntarily discover the place; and that, by consequence, 

the pursuers would also do the like in search of them.  Upon this, 

they resolved that they would stand armed within the wall, and 

whoever came into the grove, they resolved to sally out over the 

wall and kill them, so that, if possible, not one should return to 

give an account of it; they ordered also that it should be done 

with their swords, or by knocking them down with the stocks of 

their muskets, but not by shooting them, for fear of raising an 

alarm by the noise.



As they expected it fell out; three of the routed army fled for 

life, and crossing the creek, ran directly into the place, not in 

the least knowing whither they went, but running as into a thick 

wood for shelter.  The scout they kept to look abroad gave notice 

of this within, with this comforting addition, that the conquerors 

had not pursued them, or seen which way they were gone; upon this 

the Spanish governor, a man of humanity, would not suffer them to 

kill the three fugitives, but sending three men out by the top of 

the hill, ordered them to go round, come in behind them, and 

surprise and take them prisoners, which was done.  The residue of 

the conquered people fled to their canoes, and got off to sea; the 

victors retired, made no pursuit, or very little, but drawing 

themselves into a body together, gave two great screaming shouts, 

most likely by way of triumph, and so the fight ended; the same 

day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they also marched to 

their canoes.  And thus the Spaniards had the island again free to 

themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages for 

several years after.



After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their den, and 

viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty men 

dead on the spot; some were killed with long arrows, which were 

found sticking in their bodies; but most of them were killed with 

great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found in 

the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great many arrows.  

These swords were strange, unwieldy things, and they must be very 

strong men that used them; most of those that were killed with them 

had their heads smashed to pieces, as we may say, or, as we call it 

in English, their brains knocked out, and several their arms and 

legs broken; so that it is evident they fight with inexpressible 

rage and fury.  We found not one man that was not stone dead; for 

either they stay by their enemy till they have killed him, or they 

carry all the wounded men that are not quite dead away with them.



This deliverance tamed our ill-disposed Englishmen for a great 

while; the sight had filled them with horror, and the consequences 

appeared terrible to the last degree, especially upon supposing 

that some time or other they should fall into the hands of those 

creatures, who would not only kill them as enemies, but for food, 

as we kill our cattle; and they professed to me that the thoughts 

of being eaten up like beef and mutton, though it was supposed it 

was not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horrible 

that it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when they 

thought of it, and filled their minds with such unusual terror, 

that they were not themselves for some weeks after.  This, as I 

said, tamed even the three English brutes I have been speaking of; 

and for a great while after they were tractable, and went about the 

common business of the whole society well enough - planted, sowed, 

reaped, and began to be all naturalised to the country.  But some 

time after this they fell into such simple measures again as 

brought them into a great deal of trouble.



They had taken three prisoners, as I observed; and these three 

being stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taught them 

to work for them, and as slaves they did well enough; but they did 

not take their measures as I did by my man Friday, viz. to begin 

with them upon the principle of having saved their lives, and then 

instruct them in the rational principles of life; much less did 

they think of teaching them religion, or attempt civilising and 

reducing them by kind usage and affectionate arguments.  As they 

gave them their food every day, so they gave them their work too, 

and kept them fully employed in drudgery enough; but they failed in 

this by it, that they never had them to assist them and fight for 

them as I had my man Friday, who was as true to me as the very 

flesh upon my bones.



But to come to the family part.  Being all now good friends - for 

common danger, as I said above, had effectually reconciled them - 

they began to consider their general circumstances; and the first 

thing that came under consideration was whether, seeing the savages 

particularly haunted that side of the island, and that there were 

more remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way of 

living, and manifestly to their advantage, they should not rather 

move their habitation, and plant in some more proper place for 

their safety, and especially for the security of their cattle and 

corn.



Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would not 

remove their habitation; because that, some time or other, they 

thought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; and 

if I should send any one to seek them, I should be sure to direct 

them to that side, where, if they should find the place demolished, 

they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we were 

gone, and so our supply would go too.  But as to their corn and 

cattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cave 

was, where the land was as proper for both, and where indeed there 

was land enough.  However, upon second thoughts they altered one 

part of their resolution too, and resolved only to remove part of 

their cattle thither, and part of their corn there; so that if one 

part was destroyed the other might be saved.  And one part of 

prudence they luckily used:  they never trusted those three savages 

which they had taken prisoners with knowing anything of the 

plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle they had 

there, much less of the cave at that place, which they kept, in 

case of necessity, as a safe retreat; and thither they carried also 

the two barrels of powder which I had sent them at my coming away.  

They resolved, however, not to change their habitation; yet, as I 

had carefully covered it first with a wall or fortification, and 

then with a grove of trees, and as they were now fully convinced 

their safety consisted entirely in their being concealed, they set 

to work to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually than 

before.  For this purpose, as I planted trees, or rather thrust in 

stakes, which in time all grew up to be trees, for some good 

distance before the entrance into my apartments, they went on in 

the same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole space of 

ground from the trees I had set quite down to the side of the 

creek, where I landed my floats, and even into the very ooze where 

the tide flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or any 

sign that there had been any landing thereabouts:  these stakes 

also being of a wood very forward to grow, they took care to have 

them generally much larger and taller than those which I had 

planted.  As they grew apace, they planted them so very thick and 

close together, that when they had been three or four years grown 

there was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into the 

plantation.  As for that part which I had planted, the trees were 

grown as thick as a man's thigh, and among them they had placed so 

many other short ones, and so thick, that it stood like a palisado 

a quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible to 

penetrate it, for a little dog could hardly get between the trees, 

they stood so close.



But this was not all; for they did the same by all the ground to 

the right hand and to the left, and round even to the side of the 

hill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves, to come out 

but by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then 

lifted up, and placed again from the first stage up to the top:  so 

that when the ladder was taken down, nothing but what had wings or 

witchcraft to assist it could come at them.  This was excellently 

well contrived:  nor was it less than what they afterwards found 

occasion for, which served to convince me, that as human prudence 

has the authority of Providence to justify it, so it has doubtless 

the direction of Providence to set it to work; and if we listened 

carefully to the voice of it, I am persuaded we might prevent many 

of the disasters which our lives are now, by our own negligence, 

subjected to.



They lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and had no 

more visits from the savages.  They had, indeed, an alarm given 

them one morning, which put them into a great consternation; for 

some of the Spaniards being out early one morning on the west side 

or end of the island (which was that end where I never went, for 

fear of being discovered), they were surprised with seeing about 

twenty canoes of Indians just coming on shore.  They made the best 

of their way home in hurry enough; and giving the alarm to their 

comrades, they kept close all that day and the next, going out only 

at night to make their observation:  but they had the good luck to 

be undiscovered, for wherever the savages went, they did not land 

that time on the island, but pursued some other design.







CHAPTER IV - RENEWED INVASION OF SAVAGES







AND now they had another broil with the three Englishmen; one of 

whom, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of the three 

captive slaves, because the fellow had not done something right 

which he bade him do, and seemed a little untractable in his 

showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt which he wore by his 

side, and fell upon the poor savage, not to correct him, but to 

kill him.  One of the Spaniards who was by, seeing him give the 

fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his 

head, but stuck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut 

the poor creature's arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not to 

murder the poor man, placed himself between him and the savage, to 

prevent the mischief.  The fellow, being enraged the more at this, 

struck at the Spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he would serve 

him as he intended to serve the savage; which the Spaniard 

perceiving, avoided the blow, and with a shovel, which he had in 

his hand (for they were all working in the field about their corn 

land), knocked the brute down.  Another of the Englishmen, running 

up at the same time to help his comrade, knocked the Spaniard down; 

and then two Spaniards more came in to help their man, and a third 

Englishman fell in upon them.  They had none of them any firearms 

or any other weapons but hatchets and other tools, except this 

third Englishman; he had one of my rusty cutlasses, with which he 

made at the two last Spaniards, and wounded them both.  This fray 

set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in they 

took the three Englishmen prisoners.  The next question was, what 

should be done with them?  They had been so often mutinous, and 

were so very furious, so desperate, and so idle withal, they knew 

not what course to take with them, for they were mischievous to the 

highest degree, and cared not what hurt they did to any man; so 

that, in short, it was not safe to live with them.



The Spaniard who was governor told them, in so many words, that if 

they had been of his own country he would have hanged them; for all 

laws and all governors were to preserve society, and those who were 

dangerous to the society ought to be expelled out of it; but as 

they were Englishmen, and that it was to the generous kindness of 

an Englishman that they all owed their preservation and 

deliverance, he would use them with all possible lenity, and would 

leave them to the judgment of the other two Englishmen, who were 

their countrymen.  One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and 

said they desired it might not be left to them.  "For," says he, "I 

am sure we ought to sentence them to the gallows;" and with that he 

gives an account how Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposed to 

have all the five Englishmen join together and murder all the 

Spaniards when they were in their sleep.



When the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to Will Atkins, 

"How, Seignior Atkins, would you murder us all?  What have you to 

say to that?"  The hardened villain was so far from denying it, 

that he said it was true, and swore they would do it still before 

they had done with them.  "Well, but Seignior Atkins," says the 

Spaniard, "what have we done to you that you will kill us?  What 

would you get by killing us?  And what must we do to prevent you 

killing us?  Must we kill you, or you kill us?  Why will you put us 

to the necessity of this, Seignior Atkins?" says the Spaniard very 

calmly, and smiling.  Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the 

Spaniard's making a jest of it, that, had he not been held by three 

men, and withal had no weapon near him, it was thought he would 

have attempted to kill the Spaniard in the middle of all the 

company.  This hare-brained carriage obliged them to consider 

seriously what was to be done.  The two Englishmen and the Spaniard 

who saved the poor savage were of the opinion that they should hang 

one of the three for an example to the rest, and that particularly 

it should be he that had twice attempted to commit murder with his 

hatchet; indeed, there was some reason to believe he had done it, 

for the poor savage was in such a miserable condition with the 

wound he had received that it was thought he could not live.  But 

the governor Spaniard still said No; it was an Englishman that had 

saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an 

Englishman to death, though he had murdered half of them; nay, he 

said if he had been killed himself by an Englishman, and had time 

left to speak, it should be that they should pardon him.



This was so positively insisted on by the governor Spaniard, that 

there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels are most apt 

to prevail where they are so earnestly pressed, so they all came 

into it.  But then it was to be considered what should be done to 

keep them from doing the mischief they designed; for all agreed, 

governor and all, that means were to be used for preserving the 

society from danger.  After a long debate, it was agreed that they 

should be disarmed, and not permitted to have either gun, powder, 

shot, sword, or any weapon; that they should be turned out of the 

society, and left to live where they would and how they would, by 

themselves; but that none of the rest, either Spaniards or English, 

should hold any kind of converse with them, or have anything to do 

with them; that they should be forbid to come within a certain 

distance of the place where the rest dwelt; and if they offered to 

commit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of 

the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the 

society, they should die without mercy, and they would shoot them 

wherever they could find them.



The humane governor, musing upon the sentence, considered a little 

upon it; and turning to the two honest Englishmen, said, "Hold; you 

must reflect that it will be long ere they can raise corn and 

cattle of their own, and they must not starve; we must therefore 

allow them provisions."  So he caused to be added, that they should 

have a proportion of corn given them to last them eight months, and 

for seed to sow, by which time they might be supposed to raise some 

of their own; that they should have six milch-goats, four he-goats, 

and six kids given them, as well for present subsistence as for a 

store; and that they should have tools given them for their work in 

the fields, but they should have none of these tools or provisions 

unless they would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure 

any of the Spaniards with them, or of their fellow-Englishmen.



Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to shift 

for themselves.  They went away sullen and refractory, as neither 

content to go away nor to stay:  but, as there was no remedy, they 

went, pretending to go and choose a place where they would settle 

themselves; and some provisions were given them, but no weapons.  

About four or five days after, they came again for some victuals, 

and gave the governor an account where they had pitched their 

tents, and marked themselves out a habitation and plantation; and 

it was a very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part of the 

island, NE., much about the place where I providentially landed in 

my first voyage, when I was driven out to sea in my foolish attempt 

to sail round the island.



Here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrived them in 

a manner like my first habitation, being close under the side of a 

hill, having some trees already growing on three sides of it, so 

that by planting others it would be very easily covered from the 

sight, unless narrowly searched for.  They desired some dried goat-

skins for beds and covering, which were given them; and upon giving 

their words that they would not disturb the rest, or injure any of 

their plantations, they gave them hatchets, and what other tools 

they could spare; some peas, barley, and rice, for sowing; and, in 

a word, anything they wanted, except arms and ammunition.



They lived in this separate condition about six months, and had got 

in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the 

parcel of land they had planted being but little.  Indeed, having 

all their plantation to form, they had a great deal of work upon 

their hands; and when they came to make boards and pots, and such 

things, they were quite out of their element, and could make 

nothing of it; therefore when the rainy season came on, for want of 

a cave in the earth, they could not keep their grain dry, and it 

was in great danger of spoiling.  This humbled them much:  so they 

came and begged the Spaniards to help them, which they very readily 

did; and in four days worked a great hole in the side of the hill 

for them, big enough to secure their corn and other things from the 

rain:  but it was a poor place at best compared to mine, and 

especially as mine was then, for the Spaniards had greatly enlarged 

it, and made several new apartments in it.



About three quarters of a year after this separation, a new frolic 

took these rogues, which, together with the former villainy they 

had committed, brought mischief enough upon them, and had very near 

been the ruin of the whole colony.  The three new associates began, 

it seems, to be weary of the laborious life they led, and that 

without hope of bettering their circumstances:  and a whim took 

them that they would make a voyage to the continent, from whence 

the savages came, and would try if they could seize upon some 

prisoners among the natives there, and bring them home, so as to 

make them do the laborious part of the work for them.



The project was not so preposterous, if they had gone no further.  

But they did nothing, and proposed nothing, but had either mischief 

in the design, or mischief in the event.  And if I may give my 

opinion, they seemed to be under a blast from Heaven:  for if we 

will not allow a visible curse to pursue visible crimes, how shall 

we reconcile the events of things with the divine justice?  It was 

certainly an apparent vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy 

that brought them to the state they were in; and they showed not 

the least remorse for the crime, but added new villanies to it, 

such as the piece of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor slave 

because he did not, or perhaps could not, understand to do what he 

was directed, and to wound him in such a manner as made him a 

cripple all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicine 

could be had for his cure; and, what was still worse, the 

intentional murder, for such to be sure it was, as was afterwards 

the formed design they all laid to murder the Spaniards in cold 

blood, and in their sleep.



The three fellows came down to the Spaniards one morning, and in 

very humble terms desired to be admitted to speak with them.  The 

Spaniards very readily heard what they had to say, which was this:  

that they were tired of living in the manner they did, and that 

they were not handy enough to make the necessaries they wanted, and 

that having no help, they found they should be starved; but if the 

Spaniards would give them leave to take one of the canoes which 

they came over in, and give them arms and ammunition proportioned 

to their defence, they would go over to the main, and seek their 

fortunes, and so deliver them from the trouble of supplying them 

with any other provisions.



The Spaniards were glad enough to get rid of them, but very 

honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were 

running into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that 

very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell 

them they would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider of 

it.  The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they 

stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work, and they 

could but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered, there was 

an end of them; they had no wives or children to cry after them; 

and, in short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring 

they would go, whether they gave them any arms or not.



The Spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if they were 

resolved to go they should not go like naked men, and be in no 

condition to defend themselves; and that though they could ill 

spare firearms, not having enough for themselves, yet they would 

let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each man a 

hatchet, which they thought was sufficient for them.  In a word, 

they accepted the offer; and having baked bread enough to serve 

them a month given them, and as much goats' flesh as they could eat 

while it was sweet, with a great basket of dried grapes, a pot of 

fresh water, and a young kid alive, they boldly set out in the 

canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was at least forty miles 

broad.  The boat, indeed, was a large one, and would very well have 

carried fifteen or twenty men, and therefore was rather too big for 

them to manage; but as they had a fair breeze and flood-tide with 

them, they did well enough.  They had made a mast of a long pole, 

and a sail of four large goat-skins dried, which they had sewed or 

laced together; and away they went merrily together.  The Spaniards 

called after them "BON VOYAJO;" and no man ever thought of seeing 

them any more.



The Spaniards were often saying to one another, and to the two 

honest Englishmen who remained behind, how quietly and comfortably 

they lived, now these three turbulent fellows were gone.  As for 

their coming again, that was the remotest thing from their thoughts 

that could be imagined; when, behold, after two-and-twenty days' 

absence, one of the Englishmen being abroad upon his planting work, 

sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, with guns 

upon their shoulders.



Away runs the Englishman, frightened and amazed, as if he was 

bewitched, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they were all 

undone, for there were strangers upon the island, but he could not 

tell who they were.  The Spaniard, pausing a while, says to him, 

"How do you mean - you cannot tell who?  They are the savages, to 

be sure."  "No, no," says the Englishman, "they are men in clothes, 

with arms."  "Nay, then," says the Spaniard, "why are you so 

concerned!  If they are not savages they must be friends; for there 

is no Christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than 

harm."  While they were debating thus, came up the three 

Englishmen, and standing without the wood, which was new planted, 

hallooed to them.  They presently knew their voices, and so all the 

wonder ceased.  But now the admiration was turned upon another 

question - What could be the matter, and what made them come back 

again?



It was not long before they brought the men in, and inquiring where 

they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave them a full 

account of their voyage in a few words:  that they reached the land 

in less than two days, but finding the people alarmed at their 

coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they 

durst not go on, shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven 

hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they perceived 

that the land they saw from our island was not the main, but an 

island:  that upon entering that opening of the sea they saw 

another island on the right hand north, and several more west; and 

being resolved to land somewhere, they put over to one of the 

islands which lay west, and went boldly on shore; that they found 

the people very courteous and friendly to them; and they gave them 

several roots and some dried fish, and appeared very sociable; and 

that the women, as well as the men, were very forward to supply 

them with anything they could get for them to eat, and brought it 

to them a great way, on their heads.  They continued here for four 

days, and inquired as well as they could of them by signs, what 

nations were this way, and that way, and were told of several 

fierce and terrible people that lived almost every way, who, as 

they made known by signs to them, used to eat men; but, as for 

themselves, they said they never ate men or women, except only such 

as they took in the wars; and then they owned they made a great 

feast, and ate their prisoners.



The Englishmen inquired when they had had a feast of that kind; and 

they told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon and to two 

fingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now, 

which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to make 

them fat for the next feast.  The Englishmen seemed mighty desirous 

of seeing those prisoners; but the others mistaking them, thought 

they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own 

eating.  So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the 

sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify that the next 

morning at sunrising they would bring some for them; and 

accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and 

eleven men, and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on 

their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to 

a seaport town to victual a ship.



As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their 

stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do.  

To refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the 

savage gentry that could be offered them, and what to do with them 

they knew not.  However, after some debate, they resolved to accept 

of them:  and, in return, they gave the savages that brought them 

one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of 

their bullets; which, though they did not understand their use, 

they seemed particularly pleased with; and then tying the poor 

creatures' hands behind them, they dragged the prisoners into the 

boat for our men.



The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them, 

or else they that gave them this noble present would certainly have 

expected that they should have gone to work with them, have killed 

two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the 

donors to dinner.  But having taken their leave, with all the 

respect and thanks that could well pass between people, where on 

either side they understood not one word they could say, they put 

off with their boat, and came back towards the first island; where, 

when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty, 

there being too many of them for their occasion.  In their voyage 

they endeavoured to have some communication with their prisoners; 

but it was impossible to make them understand anything.  Nothing 

they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was 

looked upon as going to murder them.  They first of all unbound 

them; but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the 

women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; for 

they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be 

killed.  If they gave them thing to eat, it was the same thing; 

they then concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and 

so not be fat enough to kill.  If they looked at one of them more 

particularly, the party presently concluded it was to see whether 

he or she was fattest, and fittest to kill first; nay, after they 

had brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly, and 

treat them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or 

supper for their new masters.



When the three wanderers had give this unaccountable history or 

journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new 

family was; and being told that they had brought them on shore, and 

put them into one of their huts, and were come up to beg some 

victuals for them, they (the Spaniards) and the other two 

Englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all 

down to the place and see them; and did so, and Friday's father 

with them.  When they came into the hut, there they sat, all bound; 

for when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands that 

they might not take the boat and make their escape; there, I say, 

they sat, all of them stark naked.  First, there were three comely 

fellows, well shaped, with straight limbs, about thirty to thirty-

five years of age; and five women, whereof two might be from thirty 

to forty, two more about four or five and twenty; and the fifth, a 

tall, comely maiden, about seventeen.  The women were well-

favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only 

tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would have 

passed for very handsome women, even in London, having pleasant 

countenances, and of a very modest behaviour; especially when they 

came afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though that dress was 

very indifferent, it must be confessed.



The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards, 

who were, to give them a just character, men of the most calm, 

sedate tempers, and perfect good humour, that ever I met with:  

and, in particular, of the utmost modesty:  I say, the sight was 

very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women, all 

together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human 

nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment 

to be dragged out and have their brains knocked out, and then to be 

eaten up like a calf that is killed for a dainty.



The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday's 

father, to go in, and see first if he knew any of them, and then if 

he understood any of their speech.  As soon as the old man came in, 

he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could 

any of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make, 

except one of the women.  However, this was enough to answer the 

end, which was to satisfy them that the men into whose hands they 

were fallen were Christians; that they abhorred eating men or 

women; and that they might be sure they would not be killed.  As 

soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and 

by such awkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe; for 

it seems they were of several nations.  The woman who was their 

interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were 

willing to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought 

them away, to save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing; 

and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, 

anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate 

they were willing to work.



The governor, who found that the having women among them would 

presently be attended with some inconvenience, and might occasion 

some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they 

intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use them, 

whether as servants or as wives?  One of the Englishmen answered, 

very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both; to which 

the governor said:  "I am not going to restrain you from it - you 

are your own masters as to that; but this I think is but just, for 

avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I desire it of you 

for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of 

you take any of these women as a wife, he shall take but one; and 

that having taken one, none else shall touch her; for though we 

cannot marry any one of you, yet it is but reasonable that, while 

you stay here, the woman any of you takes shall be maintained by 

the man that takes her, and should be his wife - I mean," says he, 

"while he continues here, and that none else shall have anything to 

do with her."  All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to 

it without any difficulty.



Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take 

any of them?  But every one of them answered "No."  Some of them 

said they had wives in Spain, and the others did not like women 

that were not Christians; and all together declared that they would 

not touch one of them, which was an instance of such virtue as I 

have not met with in all my travels.  On the other hand, the five 

Englishmen took them every one a wife, that is to say, a temporary 

wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the Spaniards 

and Friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had 

enlarged exceedingly within.  The three servants which were taken 

in the last battle of the savages lived with them; and these 

carried on the main part of the colony, supplied all the rest with 

food, and assisted them in anything as they could, or as they found 

necessity required.



But the wonder of the story was, how five such refractory, ill-

matched fellows should agree about these women, and that some two 

of them should not choose the same woman, especially seeing two or 

three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the 

others; but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling 

among themselves, for they set the five women by themselves in one 

of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots 

among them who should choose first.



Him that drew to choose first went away by himself to the hut where 

the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it 

was worth observing, that he that chose first took her that was 

reckoned the homeliest and oldest of the five, which made mirth 

enough amongst the rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but 

the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was 

application and business they were to expect assistance in, as much 

as in anything else; and she proved the best wife of all the 

parcel.



When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, and fetched 

out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them 

again, and they firmly believed they were now going to be devoured.  

Accordingly, when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of 

them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, 

and took their leave of her with such agonies and affection as 

would have grieved the hardest heart in the world:  nor was it 

possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to 

be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, Friday's 

father, who immediately let them know that the five men, who were 

to fetch them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives.  

When they had done, and the fright the women were in was a little 

over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them:  

and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent 

for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded 

with their tools, household stuff, and provisions.  The three 

wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones 

nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they 

continued separated as before; and thus my island was peopled in 

three places, and, as I might say, three towns were begun to be 

built.



And here it is very well worth observing that, as it often happens 

in the world (what the wise ends in God's providence are, in such a 

disposition of things, I cannot say), the two honest fellows had 

the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce 

worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born 

to do themselves good nor any one else, had three clever, careful, 

and ingenious wives; not that the first two were bad wives as to 

their temper or humour, for all the five were most willing, quiet, 

passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; 

but my meaning is, they were not alike capable, ingenious, or 

industrious, or alike cleanly and neat.  Another observation I must 

make, to the honour of a diligent application on one hand, and to 

the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, 

that when I came to the place, and viewed the several improvements, 

plantings, and management of the several little colonies, the two 

men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison.  

They had, indeed, both of them as much ground laid out for corn as 

they wanted, and the reason was, because, according to my rule, 

nature dictated that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than 

they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the 

planting, of the fences, and indeed, of everything else, was easy 

to be seen at first view.



The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, 

so that, when you came to the place, nothing was to be seen but a 

wood; and though they had twice had their plantation demolished, 

once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be 

shown in its place, yet they had restored all again, and everything 

was thriving and flourishing about them; they had grapes planted in 

order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves 

never seen anything of that kind; and by their good ordering their 

vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the others.  They 

had also found themselves out a retreat in the thickest part of the 

woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found, 

yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, 

when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives 

and children so as they could never be found; they having, by 

sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood which, as I said, 

grew so readily, made the grove impassable, except in some places, 

when they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went on 

by ways of their own leaving.



As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were 

much civilised by their settlement compared to what they were 

before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same 

opportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind 

never left them, and that was their idleness.  It is true, they 

planted corn and made fences; but Solomon's words were never better 

verified than in them, "I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and 

it was all overgrown with thorns":  for when the Spaniards came to 

view their crop they could not see it in some places for weeds, the 

hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in and 

eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed 

in, to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the 

stable-door after the steed was stolen.  Whereas, when they looked 

on the colony of the other two, there was the very face of industry 

and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in 

all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the 

other hand, verified Solomon's words in another place, "that the 

diligent hand maketh rich"; for everything grew and thrived, and 

they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than 

the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet 

more pleasure and diversion too.



It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly 

within doors; and having learned the English ways of dressing, and 

cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a 

cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands' 

victuals very nicely and well; whereas the others could not be 

brought to understand it; but then the husband, who, as I say, had 

been cook's mate, did it himself.  But as for the husbands of the 

three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught 

fish and birds:  in a word, anything but labour; and they fared 

accordingly.  The diligent lived well and comfortably, and the 

slothful hard and beggarly; and so, I believe, generally speaking, 

it is all over the world.



But I now come to a scene different from all that had happened 

before, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story was 

this:  Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of 

Indians or savages, call them which you please, and there is no 

room to doubt they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their 

slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to 

our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it, as I 

did:  but having been made sensible, by their experience, that 

their only business was to lie concealed, and that if they were not 

seen by any of the savages they would go off again quietly, when 

their business was done, having as yet not the least notion of 

there being any inhabitants in the island; I say, having been made 

sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice to all 

the three plantations to keep within doors, and not show 

themselves, only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice 

when the boats went to sea again.



This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all 

these measures, and made it known among the savages that there were 

inhabitants there; which was, in the end, the desolation of almost 

the whole colony.  After the canoes with the savages were gone off, 

the Spaniards peeped abroad again; and some of them had the 

curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they 

had been doing.  Here, to their great surprise, they found three 

savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground.  It was 

supposed they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, 

that, like beasts, they were fallen asleep, and would not stir when 

the others went, or they had wandered into the woods, and did not 

come back in time to be taken in.



The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight and perfectly at 

a loss what to do.  The Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with 

them, and his advice was asked, but he professed he knew not what 

to do.  As for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing 

them, there were none of them inclined to do that:  the Spaniard 

governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood; 

for as to them, the poor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded 

none of their property, and they thought they had no just quarrel 

against them, to take away their lives.  And here I must, in 

justice to these Spaniards, observe that, let the accounts of 

Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, I never met 

with seventeen men of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign 

country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so 

very good-humoured, and so courteous, as these Spaniards:  and as 

to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no 

inhumanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions; and yet all of 

them men of great courage and spirit.  Their temper and calmness 

had appeared in their bearing the insufferable usage of the three 

Englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared now in the case 

of the savages above.  After some consultation they resolved upon 

this; that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible, 

these three men might be gone.  But then the governor recollected 

that the three savages had no boat; and if they were left to rove 

about the island, they would certainly discover that there were 

inhabitants in it; and so they should be undone that way.  Upon 

this, they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep 

still, and so they resolved to awaken them, and take them 

prisoners; and they did so.  The poor fellows were strangely 

frightened when they were seized upon and bound; and afraid, like 

the women, that they should be murdered and eaten:  for it seems 

those people think all the world does as they do, in eating men's 

flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that, and away they 

carried them.



It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to the 

castle, I mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them 

first to the bower, where was the chief of their country work, such 

as the keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterward 

they carried them to the habitation of the two Englishmen.  Here 

they were set to work, though it was not much they had for them to 

do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that they 

thought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not, but one 

of them ran away, and, taking to the woods, they could never hear 

of him any more.  They had good reason to believe he got home again 

soon after in some other boats or canoes of savages who came on 

shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their 

revels as usual, went off in two days' time.  This thought 

terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not 

without good cause indeed, that if this fellow came home safe among 

his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there 

were people in the island, and also how few and weak they were; for 

this savage, as observed before, had never been told, and it was 

very happy he had not, how many there were or where they lived; nor 

had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less 

had they shown him any of their other retired places; such as the 

cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two Englishmen had 

made, and the like.



The first testimony they had that this fellow had given 

intelligence of them was, that about two mouths after this six 

canoes of savages, with about seven, eight, or ten men in a canoe, 

came rowing along the north side of the island, where they never 

used to come before, and landed, about an hour after sunrise, at a 

convenient place, about a mile from the habitation of the two 

Englishmen, where this escaped man had been kept.  As the chief 

Spaniard said, had they been all there the damage would not have 

been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped; but the 

case differed now very much, for two men to fifty was too much 

odds.  The two men had the happiness to discover them about a 

league off, so that it was above an hour before they landed; and as 

they landed a mile from their huts, it was some time before they 

could come at them.  Now, having great reason to believe that they 

were betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the two slaves 

which were left, and cause two of the three men whom they brought 

with the women (who, it seems, proved very faithful to them) to 

lead them, with their two wives, and whatever they could carry away 

with them, to their retired places in the woods, which I have 

spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot, 

till they heard farther.  In the next place, seeing the savages 

were all come on shore, and that they had bent their course 

directly that way, they opened the fences where the milch cows were 

kept, and drove them all out; leaving their goats to straggle in 

the woods, whither they pleased, that the savages might think they 

were all bred wild; but the rogue who came with them was too 

cunning for that, and gave them an account of it all, for they went 

directly to the place.



When the two poor frightened men had secured their wives and goods, 

they sent the other slave they had of the three who came with the 

women, and who was at their place by accident, away to the 

Spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire speedy 

help, and, in the meantime, they took their arms and what 

ammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in the wood 

where their wives were sent; keeping at a distance, yet so that 

they might see, if possible, which way the savages took.  They had 

not gone far but that from a rising ground they could see the 

little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation, 

and, in a moment more, could see all their huts and household stuff 

flaming up together, to their great grief and mortification; for 

this was a great loss to them, irretrievable, indeed, for some 

time.  They kept their station for a while, till they found the 

savages, like wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place, 

rummaging every way, and every place they could think of, in search 

of prey; and in particular for the people, of whom now it plainly 

appeared they had intelligence.



The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not secure 

where they stood, because it was likely some of the wild people 

might come that way, and they might come too many together, thought 

it proper to make another retreat about half a mile farther; 

believing, as it afterwards happened, that the further they 

strolled, the fewer would be together.  Their next halt was at the 

entrance into a very thick-grown part of the woods, and where an 

old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow and very large; and in 

this tree they both took their standing, resolving to see there 

what might offer.  They had not stood there long before two of the 

savages appeared running directly that way, as if they had already 

had notice where they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and 

a little way farther they espied three more coming after them, and 

five more beyond them, all coming the same way; besides which, they 

saw seven or eight more at a distance, running another way; for in 

a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen beating for their game.



The poor men were now in great perplexity whether they should stand 

and keep their posture or fly; but after a very short debate with 

themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the country 

thus before help came, they might perhaps find their retreat in the 

woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them 

there, and if they were too many to deal with, then they would get 

up to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend 

themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, 

though all the savages that were landed, which was near fifty, were 

to attack them.



Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should 

fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the 

middle party, by which the two and the five that followed would be 

separated; at length they resolved to let the first two pass by, 

unless they should spy them the tree, and come to attack them.  The 

first two savages confirmed them also in this resolution, by 

turning a little from them towards another part of the wood; but 

the three, and the five after them, came forward directly to the 

tree, as if they had known the Englishmen were there.  Seeing them 

come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in a line 

as they came:  and as they resolved to fire but one at a time, 

perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; for which purpose 

the man who was to fire put three or four small bullets into his 

piece; and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole 

in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till 

they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could 

not miss.



While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they plainly 

saw that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped 

from them; and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that, if 

possible, he should not escape, though they should both fire; so 

the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at 

the first shot, he should be sure to have a second.  But the first 

was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for as the savages kept 

near one another, a little behind in a line, he fired, and hit two 

of them directly; the foremost was killed outright, being shot in 

the head; the second, which was the runaway Indian, was shot 

through the body, and fell, but was not quite dead; and the third 

had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball that 

went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully 

frightened, though not so much hurt, sat down upon the ground, 

screaming and yelling in a hideous manner.



The five that were behind, more frightened with the noise than 

sensible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made 

the sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes 

rattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from all 

parts, screaming, and every sort making a different noise, 

according to their kind; just as it was when I fired the first gun 

that perhaps was ever shot off in the island.



However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what the 

matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place where 

their companions lay in a condition miserable enough.  Here the 

poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach 

of the same mischief, stood all together over the wounded man, 

talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came to 

be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a 

flash of fire first, and immediately after that thunder from their 

gods, had killed those two and wounded him.  This, I say, is 

rational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no man 

near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, nor so 

much as heard of a gun; neither knew they anything of killing and 

wounding at a distance with fire and bullets:  if they had, one 

might reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcerned 

to view the fate of their fellows, without some apprehensions of 

their own.



Our two men, as they confessed to me, were grieved to be obliged to 

kill so many poor creatures, who had no notion of their danger; 

yet, having them all thus in their power, and the first having 

loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly both together among 

them; and singling out, by agreement, which to aim at, they shot 

together, and killed, or very much wounded, four of them; the 

fifth, frightened even to death, though not hurt, fell with the 

rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, thought they 

had killed them all.



The belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come 

boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns, which 

was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise when they came 

to the place, and found no less than four of them alive, and of 

them two very little hurt, and one not at all.  This obliged them 

to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they 

made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause of all the 

mischief, and of another that was hurt in the knee, and put them 

out of their pain; then the man that was not hurt at all came and 

kneeled down to them, with his two hands held up, and made piteous 

moans to them, by gestures and signs, for his life, but could not 

say one word to them that they could understand.  However, they 

made signs to him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and 

one of the Englishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by 

great chance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and 

there they left him; and with what speed they could made after the 

other two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more of 

them, should find way to their covered place in the woods, where 

their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay.  They came once 

in sight of the two men, but it was at a great distance; however, 

they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a valley towards 

the sea, quite the contrary way from that which led to their 

retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that, 

they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner, who, as 

they supposed, was delivered by his comrades, for he was gone, and 

the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him lay just 

at the foot of the tree.



They were now in as great concern as before, not knowing what 

course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what number; 

so they resolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to 

see if all was well there, and to make them easy.  These were in 

fright enough, to be sure; for though the savages were their own 

countrymen, yet they were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps 

the more for the knowledge they had of them.  When they came there, 

they found the savages had been in the wood, and very near that 

place, but had not found it; for it was indeed inaccessible, from 

the trees standing so thick, unless the persons seeking it had been 

directed by those that knew it, which these did not:  they found, 

therefore, everything very safe, only the women in a terrible 

fright.  While they were here they had the comfort to have seven of 

the Spaniards come to their assistance; the other ten, with their 

servants, and Friday's father, were gone in a body to defend their 

bower, and the corn and cattle that were kept there, in case the 

savages should have roved over to that side of the country, but 

they did not spread so far.  With the seven Spaniards came one of 

the three savages, who, as I said, were their prisoners formerly; 

and with them also came the savage whom the Englishmen had left 

bound hand and foot at the tree; for it seems they came that way, 

saw the slaughter of the seven men, and unbound the eighth, and 

brought him along with them; where, however, they were obliged to 

bind again, as they had the two others who were left when the third 

ran away.



The prisoners now began to be a burden to them; and they were so 

afraid of their escaping, that they were once resolving to kill 

them all, believing they were under an absolute necessity to do so 

for their own preservation.  However, the chief of the Spaniards 

would not consent to it, but ordered, for the present, that they 

should be sent out of the way to my old cave in the valley, and be 

kept there, with two Spaniards to guard them, and have food for 

their subsistence, which was done; and they were bound there hand 

and foot for that night.



When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so encouraged, 

that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer there; 

but taking five of the Spaniards, and themselves, with four muskets 

and a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves, away they 

went in quest of the savages.  And first they came to the tree 

where the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy to see that 

some more of the savages had been there, for they had attempted to 

carry their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good way, 

but had given it over.  From thence they advanced to the first 

rising ground, where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed, 

and where they had the mortification still to see some of the 

smoke; but neither could they here see any of the savages.  They 

then resolved, though with all possible caution, to go forward 

towards their ruined plantation; but, a little before they came 

thither, coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly the 

savages all embarked again in their canoes, in order to be gone.  

They seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them, 

to give them a parting blow; but, upon the whole, they were very 

well satisfied to be rid of them.



The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their 

improvements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them 

to rebuild, and assist them with needful supplies.  Their three 

countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclination 

to do any good, yet as soon as they heard of it (for they, living 

remote eastward, knew nothing of the matter till all was over), 

came and offered their help and assistance, and did, very friendly, 

work for several days to restore their habitation and make 

necessaries for them.  And thus in a little time they were set upon 

their legs again.



About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of 

seeing three of the savages' canoes come driving on shore, and, at 

some distance from them, two drowned men, by which they had reason 

to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset 

some of them; for it had blown very hard the night after they went 

off.  However, as some might miscarry, so, on the other hand, 

enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had 

done as of what had happened to them; and to whet them on to 

another enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems, 

resolved to attempt, with sufficient force to carry all before 

them; for except what the first man had told them of inhabitants, 

they could say little of it of their own knowledge, for they never 

saw one man; and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they 

had no other witness to confirm it to, them.







CHAPTER V - A GREAT VICTORY







IT was five or six months after this before they heard any more of 

the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had either 

forgot their former bad luck, or given over hopes of better; when, 

on a sudden, they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no 

less than eight-and-twenty canoes, full of savages, armed with bows 

and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of 

war; and they brought such numbers with them, that, in short, it 

put all our people into the utmost consternation.



As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side 

of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what 

to do.  In the first place, knowing that their being entirely 

concealed was their only safety before and would be much more so 

now, while the number of their enemies would be so great, they 

resolved, first of all, to take down the huts which were built for 

the two Englishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave; 

because they supposed the savages would go directly thither, as 

soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, though they 

did not now land within two leagues of it.  In the next place, they 

drove away all the flocks of goats they had at the old bower, as I 

called it, which belonged to the Spaniards; and, in short, left as 

little appearance of inhabitants anywhere as was possible; and the 

next morning early they posted themselves, with all their force, at 

the plantation of the two men, to wait for their coming.  As they 

guessed, so it happened:  these new invaders, leaving their canoes 

at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore, 

directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, 

as near as our men could judge.  Our army was but small indeed; 

but, that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number.  

The whole account, it seems, stood thus:  first, as to men, 

seventeen Spaniards, five Englishmen, old Friday, the three slaves 

taken with the women, who proved very faithful, and three other 

slaves, who lived with the Spaniards.  To arm these, they had 

eleven muskets, five pistols, three fowling-pieces, five muskets or 

fowling-pieces which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whom 

I reduced, two swords, and three old halberds.



To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusee; but they 

had each a halberd, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a 

great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a 

hatchet; also every one of our men had a hatchet.  Two of the women 

could not be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and 

they had bows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from the 

savages when the first action happened, which I have spoken of, 

where the Indians fought with one another; and the women had 

hatchets too.



The chief Spaniard, whom I described so often, commanded the whole; 

and Will Atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow for wickedness, was 

a most daring, bold fellow, commanded under him.  The savages came 

forward like lions; and our men, which was the worst of their fate, 

had no advantage in their situation; only that Will Atkins, who now 

proved a most useful fellow, with six men, was planted just behind 

a small thicket of bushes as an advanced guard, with orders to let 

the first of them pass by and then fire into the middle of them, 

and as soon as he had fired, to make his retreat as nimbly as he 

could round a part of the wood, and so come in behind the 

Spaniards, where they stood, having a thicket of trees before them.



When the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way in 

heaps, out of all manner of order, and Will Atkins let about fifty 

of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a very thick 

throng, he orders three of his men to fire, having loaded their 

muskets with six or seven bullets apiece, about as big as large 

pistol-bullets.  How many they killed or wounded they knew not, but 

the consternation and surprise was inexpressible among the savages; 

they were frightened to the last degree to hear such a dreadful 

noise, and see their men killed, and others hurt, but see nobody 

that did it; when, in the middle of their fright, Will Atkins and 

his other three let fly again among the thickest of them; and in 

less than a minute the first three, being loaded again, gave them a 

third volley.



Had Will Atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon as they 

had fired, as they were ordered to do, or had the rest of the body 

been at hand to have poured in their shot continually, the savages 

had been effectually routed; for the terror that was among them 

came principally from this, that they were killed by the gods with 

thunder and lightning, and could see nobody that hurt them.  But 

Will Atkins, staying to load again, discovered the cheat:  some of 

the savages who were at a distance spying them, came upon them 

behind; and though Atkins and his men fired at them also, two or 

three times, and killed above twenty, retiring as fast as they 

could, yet they wounded Atkins himself, and killed one of his 

fellow-Englishmen with their arrows, as they did afterwards one 

Spaniard, and one of the Indian slaves who came with the women.  

This slave was a most gallant fellow, and fought most desperately, 

killing five of them with his own hand, having no weapon but one of 

the armed staves and a hatchet.



Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and two other men 

killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and the 

Spaniards, after firing three volleys upon them, retreated also; 

for their number was so great, and they were so desperate, that 

though above fifty of them were killed, and more than as many 

wounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of 

danger, and shot their arrows like a cloud; and it was observed 

that their wounded men, who were not quite disabled, were made 

outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen.



When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the Englishman 

that were killed behind them:  and the savages, when they came up 

to them, killed them over again in a wretched manner, breaking 

their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and wooden swords, 

like true savages; but finding our men were gone, they did not seem 

inclined to pursue them, but drew themselves up in a ring, which 

is, it seems, their custom, and shouted twice, in token of their 

victory; after which, they had the mortification to see several of 

their wounded men fall, dying with the mere loss of blood.



The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together upon 

a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have had them 

march and charge again all together at once:  but the Spaniard 

replied, "Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; let 

them alone till morning; all the wounded men will be stiff and sore 

with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood; and so we 

shall have the fewer to engage."  This advice was good:  but Will 

Atkins replied merrily, "That is true, seignior, and so shall I 

too; and that is the reason I would go on while I am warm."  "Well, 

Seignior Atkins," says the Spaniard, "you have behaved gallantly, 

and done your part; we will fight for you if you cannot come on; 

but I think it best to stay till morning:" so they waited.



But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages 

in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great 

noise and hurry among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved 

to fall upon them in the night, especially if they could come to 

give them but one volley before they were discovered, which they 

had a fair opportunity to do; for one of the Englishmen in whose 

quarter it was where the fight began, led them round between the 

woods and the seaside westward, and then turning short south, they 

came so near where the thickest of them lay, that before they were 

seen or heard eight of them fired in among them, and did dreadful 

execution upon them; in half a minute more eight others fired after 

them, pouring in their small shot in such a quantity that abundance 

were killed and wounded; and all this while they were not able to 

see who hurt them, or which way to fly.



The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and then 

divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among 

them all together.  They had in each body eight persons, that is to 

say, twenty-two men and the two women, who, by the way, fought 

desperately.  They divided the firearms equally in each party, as 

well as the halberds and staves.  They would have had the women 

kept back, but they said they were resolved to die with their 

husbands.  Having thus formed their little army, they marched out 

from among the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy, 

shouting and hallooing as loud as they could; the savages stood all 

together, but were in the utmost confusion, hearing the noise of 

our men shouting from three quarters together.  They would have 

fought if they had seen us; for as soon as we came near enough to 

be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old Friday was wounded, 

though not dangerously.  But our men gave them no time, but running 

up to them, fired among them three ways, and then fell in with the 

butt-ends of their muskets, their swords, armed staves, and 

hatchets, and laid about them so well that, in a word, they set up 

a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their lives which 

way soever they could.



Our men were tired with the execution, and killed or mortally 

wounded in the two fights about one hundred and eighty of them; the 

rest, being frightened out of their wits, scoured through the woods 

and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimble feet 

could help them to; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to 

pursue them, they got all together to the seaside, where they 

landed, and where their canoes lay.  But their disaster was not at 

an end yet; for it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from 

the sea, so that it was impossible for them to go off; nay, the 

storm continuing all night, when the tide came up their canoes were 

most of them driven by the surge of the sea so high upon the shore 

that it required infinite toil to get them off; and some of them 

were even dashed to pieces against the beach.  Our men, though glad 

of their victory, yet got little rest that night; but having 

refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved to march 

to that part of the island where the savages were fled, and see 

what posture they were in.  This necessarily led them over the 

place where the fight had been, and where they found several of the 

poor creatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a 

sight disagreeable enough to generous minds, for a truly great man 

though obliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takes no 

delight in his misery.  However, there was no need to give any 

orders in this case; for their own savages, who were their 

servants, despatched these poor creatures with their hatchets.



At length they came in view of the place where the more miserable 

remains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about a 

hundred still; their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, 

with their knees up towards their mouth, and the head put between 

the two hands, leaning down upon the knees.  When our men came 

within two musket-shots of them, the Spaniard governor ordered two 

muskets to be fired without ball, to alarm them; this he did, that 

by their countenance he might know what to expect, whether they 

were still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten as to be 

discouraged, and so he might manage accordingly.  This stratagem 

took:  for as soon as the savages heard the first gun, and saw the 

flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in the 

greatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly 

towards them, they all ran screaming and yelling away, with a kind 

of howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had never 

heard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the country.



At first our men had much rather the weather had been calm, and 

they had all gone away to sea:  but they did not then consider that 

this might probably have been the occasion of their coming again in 

such multitudes as not to be resisted, or, at least, to come so 

many and so often as would quite desolate the island, and starve 

them.  Will Atkins, therefore, who notwithstanding his wound kept 

always with them, proved the best counsellor in this case:  his 

advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and step in between 

them and their boats, and so deprive them of the capacity of ever 

returning any more to plague the island.  They consulted long about 

this; and some were against it for fear of making the wretches fly 

to the woods and live there desperate, and so they should have them 

to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir out about their 

business, and have their plantations continually rifled, all their 

tame goats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of 

continual distress.



Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with a hundred men 

than with a hundred nations; that, as they must destroy their 

boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed 

themselves.  In a word, he showed them the necessity of it so 

plainly that they all came into it; so they went to work 

immediately with the boats, and getting some dry wood together from 

a dead tree, they tried to set some of them on fire, but they were 

so wet that they would not burn; however, the fire so burned the 

upper part that it soon made them unfit for use at sea.



When the Indians saw what they were about, some of them came 

running out of the woods, and coming as near as they could to our 

men, kneeled down and cried, "Oa, Oa, Waramokoa," and some other 

words of their language, which none of the others understood 

anything of; but as they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, 

it was easy to understand they begged to have their boats spared, 

and that they would be gone, and never come there again.  But our 

men were now satisfied that they had no way to preserve themselves, 

or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of these 

people from ever going home again; depending upon this, that if 

even so much as one of them got back into their country to tell the 

story, the colony was undone; so that, letting them know that they 

should not have any mercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and 

destroyed every one that the storm had not destroyed before; at the 

sight of which, the savages raised a hideous cry in the woods, 

which our people heard plain enough, after which they ran about the 

island like distracted men, so that, in a word, our men did not 

really know what at first to do with them.  Nor did the Spaniards, 

with all their prudence, consider that while they made those people 

thus desperate, they ought to have kept a good guard at the same 

time upon their plantations; for though it is true they had driven 

away their cattle, and the Indians did not find out their main 

retreat, I mean my old castle at the hill, nor the cave in the 

valley, yet they found out my plantation at the bower, and pulled 

it all to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod 

all the corn under foot, tore up the vines and grapes, being just 

then almost ripe, and did our men inestimable damage, though to 

themselves not one farthing's worth of service.



Though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yet they 

were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; for 

as they were too nimble of foot for our people when they found them 

single, so our men durst not go abroad single, for fear of being 

surrounded with their numbers.  The best was they had no weapons; 

for though they had bows, they had no arrows left, nor any 

materials to make any; nor had they any edge-tool among them.  The 

extremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and indeed 

deplorable; but, at the same time, our men were also brought to 

very bad circumstances by them, for though their retreats were 

preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest 

spoiled, and what to do, or which way to turn themselves, they knew 

not.  The only refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they had 

in the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there, 

and the plantation of the three Englishmen.  Will Atkins and his 

comrades were now reduced to two; one of them being killed by an 

arrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under the 

temple, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable 

that this was the same barbarous fellow that cut the poor savage 

slave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have 

murdered the Spaniards.



I looked upon their case to have been worse at this time than mine 

was at any time, after I first discovered the grains of barley and 

rice, and got into the manner of planting and raising my corn, and 

my tame cattle; for now they had, as I may say, a hundred wolves 

upon the island, which would devour everything they could come at, 

yet could be hardly come at themselves.



When they saw what their circumstances were, the first thing they 

concluded was, that they would, if possible, drive the savages up 

to the farther part of the island, south-west, that if any more 

came on shore they might not find one another; then, that they 

would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them as they 

could come at, till they had reduced their number; and if they 

could at last tame them, and bring them to anything, they would 

give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their 

daily labour.  In order to do this, they so followed them, and so 

terrified them with their guns, that in a few days, if any of them 

fired a gun at an Indian, if he did not hit him, yet he would fall 

down for fear.  So dreadfully frightened were they that they kept 

out of sight farther and farther; till at last our men followed 

them, and almost every day killing or wounding some of them, they 

kept up in the woods or hollow places so much, that it reduced them 

to the utmost misery for want of food; and many were afterwards 

found dead in the woods, without any hurt, absolutely starved to 

death.



When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity 

moved them, especially the generous-minded Spaniard governor; and 

he proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive and bring him 

to understand what they meant, so far as to be able to act as 

interpreter, and go among them and see if they might be brought to 

some conditions that might be depended upon, to save their lives 

and do us no harm.



It was some while before any of them could be taken; but being weak 

and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised and made a 

prisoner.  He was sullen at first, and would neither eat nor drink; 

but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given to him, and no 

violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, and came to 

himself.  They often brought old Friday to talk to him, who always 

told him how kind the others would be to them all; that they would 

not only save their lives, but give them part of the island to live 

in, provided they would give satisfaction that they would keep in 

their own bounds, and not come beyond it to injure or prejudice 

others; and that they should have corn given them to plant and make 

it grow for their bread, and some bread given them for their 

present subsistence; and old Friday bade the fellow go and talk 

with the rest of his countrymen, and see what they said to it; 

assuring them that, if they did not agree immediately, they should 

be all destroyed.



The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in number to 

about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, 

and begged to have some food given them; upon which twelve 

Spaniards and two Englishmen, well armed, with three Indian slaves 

and old Friday, marched to the place where they were.  The three 

Indian slaves carried them a large quantity of bread, some rice 

boiled up to cakes and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and 

they were ordered to go to the side of a hill, where they sat down, 

ate their provisions very thankfully, and were the most faithful 

fellows to their words that could be thought of; for, except when 

they came to beg victuals and directions, they never came out of 

their bounds; and there they lived when I came to the island and I 

went to see them.  They had taught them both to plant corn, make 

bread, breed tame goats, and milk them:  they wanted nothing but 

wives in order for them soon to become a nation.  They were 

confined to a neck of land, surrounded with high rocks behind them, 

and lying plain towards the sea before them, on the south-east 

corner of the island.  They had land enough, and it was very good 

and fruitful; about a mile and a half broad, and three or four 

miles in length.  Our men taught them to make wooden spades, such 

as I made for myself, and gave among them twelve hatchets and three 

or four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected, innocent 

creatures that ever were heard of.



After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect 

to the savages, till I came to revisit them, which was about two 

years after; not but that, now and then, some canoes of savages 

came on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they 

were of several nations, and perhaps had never heard of those that 

came before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search or 

inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have been 

very hard to have found them out.



Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all that happened to 

them till my return, at least that was worth notice.  The Indians 

were wonderfully civilised by them, and they frequently went among 

them; but they forbid, on pain of death, any one of the Indians 

coming to them, because they would not have their settlement 

betrayed again.  One thing was very remarkable, viz. that they 

taught the savages to make wicker-work, or baskets, but they soon 

outdid their masters:  for they made abundance of ingenious things 

in wicker-work, particularly baskets, sieves, bird-cages, 

cupboards, &c.; as also chairs, stools, beds, couches, being very 

ingenious at such work when they were once put in the way of it.



My coming was a particular relief to these people, because we 

furnished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, pick-axes, 

and all things of that kind which they could want.  With the help 

of those tools they were so very handy that they came at last to 

build up their huts or houses very handsomely, raddling or working 

it up like basket-work all the way round.  This piece of ingenuity, 

although it looked very odd, was an exceeding good fence, as well 

against heat as against all sorts of vermin; and our men were so 

taken with it that they got the Indians to come and do the like for 

them; so that when I came to see the two Englishmen's colonies, 

they looked at a distance as if they all lived like bees in a hive.



As for Will Atkins, who was now become a very industrious, useful, 

and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent of basket-work as 

I believe was never seen; it was one hundred and twenty paces round 

on the outside, as I measured by my steps; the walls were as close 

worked as a basket, in panels or squares of thirty-two in number, 

and very strong, standing about seven feet high; in the middle was 

another not above twenty-two paces round, but built stronger, being 

octagon in its form, and in the eight corners stood eight very 

strong posts; round the top of which he laid strong pieces, knit 

together with wooden pins, from which he raised a pyramid for a 

handsome roof of eight rafters, joined together very well, though 

he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he made himself, 

too, out of the old iron that I had left there.  Indeed, this 

fellow showed abundance of ingenuity in several things which he had 

no knowledge of:  he made him a forge, with a pair of wooden 

bellows to blow the fire; he made himself charcoal for his work; 

and he formed out of the iron crows a middling good anvil to hammer 

upon:  in this manner he made many things, but especially hooks, 

staples, and spikes, bolts and hinges.  But to return to the house:  

after he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked it 

up between the rafters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched that 

over again so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over that a large 

leaf of a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as 

if it had been tiled or slated.  He owned, indeed, that the savages 

had made the basket-work for him.  The outer circuit was covered as 

a lean-to all round this inner apartment, and long rafters lay from 

the thirty-two angles to the top posts of the inner house, being 

about twenty feet distant, so that there was a space like a walk 

within the outer wicker-wall, and without the inner, near twenty 

feet wide.



The inner place he partitioned off with the same wickerwork, but 

much fairer, and divided into six apartments, so that he had six 

rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a door:  

first into the entry, or coming into the main tent, another door 

into the main tent, and another door into the space or walk that 

was round it; so that walk was also divided into six equal parts, 

which served not only for a retreat, but to store up any 

necessaries which the family had occasion for.  These six spaces 

not taking up the whole circumference, what other apartments the 

outer circle had were thus ordered:  As soon as you were in at the 

door of the outer circle you had a short passage straight before 

you to the door of the inner house; but on either side was a wicker 

partition and a door in it, by which you went first into a large 

room or storehouse, twenty feet wide and about thirty feet long, 

and through that into another not quite so long; so that in the 

outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were only to be 

come at through the apartments of the inner tent, and served as 

closets or retiring rooms to the respective chambers of the inner 

circle; and four large warehouses, or barns, or what you please to 

call them, which went through one another, two on either hand of 

the passage, that led through the outer door to the inner tent.  

Such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was never seen in the 

world, nor a house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built.  

In this great bee-hive lived the three families, that is to say, 

Will Atkins and his companion; the third was killed, but his wife 

remained with three children, and the other two were not at all 

backward to give the widow her full share of everything, I mean as 

to their corn, milk, grapes, &c., and when they killed a kid, or 

found a turtle on the shore; so that they all lived well enough; 

though it was true they were not so industrious as the other two, 

as has been observed already.



One thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that as for religion, I 

do not know that there was anything of that kind among them; they 

often, indeed, put one another in mind that there was a God, by the 

very common method of seamen, swearing by His name:  nor were their 

poor ignorant savage wives much better for having been married to 

Christians, as we must call them; for as they knew very little of 

God themselves, so they were utterly incapable of entering into any 

discourse with their wives about a God, or to talk anything to them 

concerning religion.



The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wives had 

made from them was, that they had taught them to speak English 

pretty well; and most of their children, who were near twenty in 

all, were taught to speak English too, from their first learning to 

speak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, like 

their mothers.  None of these children were above six years old 

when I came thither, for it was not much above seven years since 

they had fetched these five savage ladies over; they had all 

children, more or less:  the mothers were all a good sort of well-

governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to one 

another, mighty observant, and subject to their masters (I cannot 

call them husbands), and lacked nothing but to be well instructed 

in the Christian religion, and to be legally married; both of which 

were happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least in 

consequence of my coming among them.







CHAPTER VI - THE FRENCH CLERGYMAN'S COUNSEL







HAVING thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty 

much of my runagate Englishmen, I must say something of the 

Spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whose story 

there are some incidents also remarkable enough.



I had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances 

when they were among the savages.  They told me readily that they 

had no instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that 

country; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of 

people; that even if means had been put into their hands, yet they 

had so abandoned themselves to despair, and were so sunk under the 

weight of their misfortune, that they thought of nothing but 

starving.  One of them, a grave and sensible man, told me he was 

convinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the part of wise 

men to give themselves up to their misery, but always to take hold 

of the helps which reason offered, as well for present support as 

for future deliverance:  he told me that grief was the most 

senseless, insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded 

only things past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or 

to be remedied, but had no views of things to come, and had no 

share in anything that looked like deliverance, but rather added to 

the affliction than proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated a 

Spanish proverb, which, though I cannot repeat in the same words 

that he spoke it in, yet I remember I made it into an English 

proverb of my own, thus:-





"In trouble to be troubled,

Is to have your trouble doubled."





He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements I had 

made in my solitude:  my unwearied application, as he called it; 

and how I had made a condition, which in its circumstances was at 

first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy than 

theirs was, even now when they were all together.  He told me it 

was remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presence of mind in 

their distress than any people that ever he met with; that their 

unhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst men in the world 

to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers, 

after the common efforts were over, was to despair, lie down under 

it, and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies 

for escape.



I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were 

cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or 

present sustenance till they could provide for it; that, it was 

true, I had this further disadvantage and discomfort, that I was 

alone; but then the supplies I had providentially thrown into my 

hands, by the unexpected driving of the ship on the shore, was such 

a help as would have encouraged any creature in the world to have 

applied himself as I had done.  "Seignior," says the Spaniard, "had 

we poor Spaniards been in your case, we should never have got half 

those things out of the ship, as you did:  nay," says he, "we 

should never have found means to have got a raft to carry them, or 

to have got the raft on shore without boat or sail:  and how much 

less should we have done if any of us had been alone!"  Well, I 

desired him to abate his compliments, and go on with the history of 

their coming on shore, where they landed.  He told me they 

unhappily landed at a place where there were people without 

provisions; whereas, had they had the common sense to put off to 

sea again, and gone to another island a little further, they had 

found provisions, though without people:  there being an island 

that way, as they had been told, where there were provisions, 

though no people - that is to say, that the Spaniards of Trinidad 

had frequently been there, and had filled the island with goats and 

hogs at several times, where they had bred in such multitudes, and 

where turtle and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could 

have been in no want of flesh, though they had found no bread; 

whereas, here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, 

which they understood not, and which had no substance in them, and 

which the inhabitants gave them sparingly enough; and they could 

treat them no better, unless they would turn cannibals and eat 

men's flesh.



They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilise the 

savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in the 

ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted upon 

them as unjust that they who came there for assistance and support 

should attempt to set up for instructors to those that gave them 

food; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for the 

instructors of others but those who could live without them.  They 

gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven to; how 

sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the island 

they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived more 

indolent, and for that reason were less supplied with the 

necessaries of life, than they had reason to believe others were in 

the same part of the world; and yet they found that these savages 

were less ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies 

of food.  Also, they added, they could not but see with what 

demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of 

God directs the events of things in this world, which, they said, 

appeared in their circumstances:  for if, pressed by the hardships 

they were under, and the barrenness of the country where they were, 

they had searched after a better to live in, they had then been out 

of the way of the relief that happened to them by my means.



They then gave me an account how the savages whom they lived 

amongst expected them to go out with them into their wars; and, it 

was true, that as they had firearms with them, had they not had the 

disaster to lose their ammunition, they could have been serviceable 

not only to their friends, but have made themselves terrible both 

to friends and enemies; but being without powder and shot, and yet 

in a condition that they could not in reason decline to go out with 

their landlords to their wars; so when they came into the field of 

battle they were in a worse condition than the savages themselves, 

for they had neither bows nor arrows, nor could they use those the 

savages gave them.  So they could do nothing but stand still and be 

wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth of the enemy; 

and then, indeed, the three halberds they had were of use to them; 

and they would often drive a whole little army before them with 

those halberds, and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their 

muskets.  But for all this they were sometimes surrounded with 

multitudes, and in great danger from their arrows, till at last 

they found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which 

they covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, 

and these covered them from the arrows of the savages:  that, 

notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger; and 

five of them were once knocked down together with the clubs of the 

savages, which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner - 

that is to say, the Spaniard whom I relieved.  At first they 

thought he had been killed; but when they afterwards heard he was 

taken prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and 

would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him.



They told me that when they were so knocked down, the rest of their 

company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were 

come to themselves, all but him whom they thought had been dead; 

and then they made their way with their halberds and pieces, 

standing close together in a line, through a body of above a 

thousand savages, beating down all that came in their way, got the 

victory over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it 

was with the loss of their friend, whom the other party finding 

alive, carried off with some others, as I gave an account before.  

They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with 

joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they 

thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind - wild 

men; and yet, how more and more they were surprised with the 

account he gave them of his errand, and that there was a Christian 

in any place near, much more one that was able, and had humanity 

enough, to contribute to their deliverance.



They described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief 

I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread - things they 

had not seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often 

they crossed it and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what 

a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also the 

other things I had sent for their supply; and, after all, they 

would have told me something of the joy they were in at the sight 

of a boat and pilots, to carry them away to the person and place 

from whence all these new comforts came.  But it was impossible to 

express it by words, for their excessive joy naturally driving them 

to unbecoming extravagances, they had no way to describe them but 

by telling me they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent 

to their passions suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in 

some it worked one way and in some another; and that some of them, 

through a surprise of joy, would burst into tears, others be stark 

mad, and others immediately faint.  This discourse extremely 

affected me, and called to my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his 

father, and the poor people's ecstasy when I took them up at sea 

after their ship was on fire; the joy of the mate of the ship when 

he found himself delivered in the place where he expected to 

perish; and my own joy, when, after twenty-eight years' captivity, 

I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country.  All these 

things made me more sensible of the relation of these poor men, and 

more affected with it.



Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I 

must relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the 

condition in which I left them.  It was their opinion, and mine 

too, that they would be troubled no more with the savages, or if 

they were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twice 

as many as before; so they had no concern about that.  Then I 

entered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom I call 

governor, about their stay in the island; for as I was not come to 

carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off some 

and leave others, who, perhaps, would be unwilling to stay if their 

strength was diminished.  On the other hand, I told them I came to 

establish them there, not to remove them; and then I let them know 

that I had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I 

had been at a great charge to supply them with all things 

necessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and that 

I had such and such particular persons with me, as well to increase 

and recruit their number, as by the particular necessary 

employments which they were bred to, being artificers, to assist 

them in those things in which at present they were in want.



They were all together when I talked thus to them; and before I 

delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one by 

one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities 

that had been among them, and would shake hands with one another, 

and engage in a strict friendship and union of interest, that so 

there might be no more misunderstandings and jealousies.



Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said they 

had met with affliction enough to make them all sober, and enemies 

enough to make them all friends; that, for his part, he would live 

and die with them, and was so far from designing anything against 

the Spaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what 

his own mad humour made necessary, and what he would have done, and 

perhaps worse, in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if 

I desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to 

them, and was very willing and desirous of living in terms of 

entire friendship and union with them, and would do anything that 

lay in his power to convince them of it; and as for going to 

England, he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years.



The Spaniards said they had, indeed, at first disarmed and excluded 

Will Atkins and his two countrymen for their ill conduct, as they 

had let me know, and they appealed to me for the necessity they 

were under to do so; but that Will Atkins had behaved himself so 

bravely in the great fight they had with the savages, and on 

several occasions since, and had showed himself so faithful to, and 

concerned for, the general interest of them all, that they had 

forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as much to be 

trusted with arms and supplied with necessaries as any of them; 

that they had testified their satisfaction in him by committing the 

command to him next to the governor himself; and as they had entire 

confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they 

had merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men 

could merit to be valued and trusted; and they most heartily 

embraced the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would 

never have any interest separate from one another.



Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed 

the next day to dine all together; and, indeed, we made a splendid 

feast.  I caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and 

dress our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted.  

We brought on shore six pieces of good beef and four pieces of 

pork, out of the ship's provisions, with our punch-bowl and 

materials to fill it; and in particular I gave them ten bottles of 

French claret, and ten bottles of English beer; things that neither 

the Spaniards nor the English had tasted for many years, and which 

it may be supposed they were very glad of.  The Spaniards added to 

our feast five whole kids, which the cooks roasted; and three of 

them were sent, covered up close, on board the ship to the seamen, 

that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with 

their salt meat from on board.



After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought 

my cargo of goods; wherein, that there might be no dispute about 

dividing, I showed them that there was a sufficiency for them all, 

desiring that they might all take an equal quantity, when made up, 

of the goods that were for wearing.  As, first, I distributed linen 

sufficient to make every one of them four shirts, and, at the 

Spaniard's request, afterwards made them up six; these were 

exceeding comfortable to them, having been what they had long since 

forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them.  I allotted the 

thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to make every one a 

light coat, like a frock, which I judged fittest for the heat of 

the season, cool and loose; and ordered that whenever they decayed, 

they should make more, as they thought fit; the like for pumps, 

shoes, stockings, hats, &c.  I cannot express what pleasure sat 

upon the countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care 

I had taken of them, and how well I had furnished them.  They told 

me I was a father to them; and that having such a correspondent as 

I was in so remote a part of the world, it would make them forget 

that they were left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarily 

engaged to me not to leave the place without my consent.



Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me, 

particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of 

them most necessary people; but, above all, my general artificer, 

than whom they could not name anything that was more useful to 

them; and the tailor, to show his concern for them, went to work 

immediately, and, with my leave, made them every one a shirt, the 

first thing he did; and, what was still more, he taught the women 

not only how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but made them 

assist to make the shirts for their husbands, and for all the rest.  

As to the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were; 

for they took to pieces all my clumsy, unhandy things, and made 

clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, 

shelves, and everything they wanted of that kind.  But to let them 

see how nature made artificers at first, I carried the carpenters 

to see Will Atkins' basket-house, as I called it; and they both 

owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, 

nor anything so regular and so handily built, at least of its kind; 

and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while, turning 

about to me, "I am sure," says he, "that man has no need of us; you 

need do nothing but give him tools."



Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a 

digging-spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no barrows or 

ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broad 

axe, and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any were broken 

or worn out, they should be supplied without grudging out of the 

general stores that I left behind.  Nails, staples, hinges, 

hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of ironwork, they 

had without reserve, as they required; for no man would take more 

than he wanted, and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil 

them on any account whatever; and for the use of the smith I left 

two tons of unwrought iron for a supply.



My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them was such, even 

to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now they 

could march as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if 

there was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if 

they had but some little advantages of situation, which also they 

could not miss, if they had occasion.



I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved 

to death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated, 

religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively that every one 

gave her a good word; she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us, 

there being no woman in the ship but herself, but she bore it with 

patience.  After a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in so 

fine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that they 

had neither business nor acquaintance in the East Indies, or reason 

for taking so long a voyage, both of them came to me and desired I 

would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among 

my family, as they called it.  I agreed to this readily; and they 

had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three 

tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoed 

like Atkins's, adjoining to his plantation.  Their tents were 

contrived so that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in, 

and a middle tent like a great storehouse to lay their goods in, 

and to eat and to drink in.  And now the other two Englishmen 

removed their habitation to the same place; and so the island was 

divided into three colonies, and no more - viz. the Spaniards, with 

old Friday and the first servants, at my habitation under the hill, 

which was, in a word, the capital city, and where they had so 

enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the outside 

of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full 

at large.  Never was there such a little city in a wood, and so 

hid, in any part of the world; for I verify believe that a thousand 

men might have ranged the island a month, and, if they had not 

known there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they 

would not have found it.  Indeed the trees stood so thick and so 

close, and grew so fast woven one into another, that nothing but 

cutting them down first could discover the place, except the only 

two narrow entrances where they went in and out could be found, 

which was not very easy; one of them was close down at the water's 

edge, on the side of the creek, and it was afterwards above two 

hundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice, 

as I have already described it; and they had also a large wood, 

thickly planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre, 

which grew apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there, 

with only one narrow place between two trees, not easily to be 

discovered, to enter on that side.



The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were four 

families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their 

wives and children; three savages that were slaves, the widow and 

children of the Englishman that was killed, the young man and the 

maid, and, by the way, we made a wife of her before we went away.  

There were besides the two carpenters and the tailor, whom I 

brought with me for them:  also the smith, who was a very necessary 

man to them, especially as a gunsmith, to take care of their arms; 

and my other man, whom I called Jack-of-all-trades, who was in 

himself as good almost as twenty men; for he was not only a very 

ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow, and before I went away 

we married him to the honest maid that came with the youth in the 

ship I mentioned before.



And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say 

something of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with me out 

of the ship's crew whom I took up at sea.  It is true this man was 

a Roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter if I 

leave anything extraordinary upon record of a man whom, before I 

begin, I must (to set him out in just colours) represent in terms 

very much to his disadvantage, in the account of Protestants; as, 

first, that he was a Papist; secondly, a Popish priest; and 

thirdly, a French Popish priest.  But justice demands of me to give 

him a due character; and I must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, 

and most religious person; exact in his life, extensive in his 

charity, and exemplary in almost everything he did.  What then can 

any one say against being very sensible of the value of such a man, 

notwithstanding his profession? though it may be my opinion 

perhaps, as well as the opinion of others who shall read this, that 

he was mistaken.



The first hour that I began to converse with him after he had 

agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight 

exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me about 

religion in the most obliging manner imaginable.  "Sir," says he, 

"you have not only under God" (and at that he crossed his breast) 

"saved my life, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in your 

ship, and by your obliging civility have taken me into your family, 

giving me an opportunity of free conversation.  Now, sir, you see 

by my habit what my profession is, and I guess by your nation what 

yours is; I may think it is my duty, and doubtless it is so, to use 

my utmost endeavours, on all occasions, to bring all the souls I 

can to the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace the Catholic 

doctrine; but as I am here under your permission, and in your 

family, I am bound, in justice to your kindness as well as in 

decency and good manners, to be under your government; and 

therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any debate on 

the points of religion in which we may not agree, further than you 

shall give me leave."



I told him his carriage was so modest that I could not but 

acknowledge it; that it was true we were such people as they call 

heretics, but that he was not the first Catholic I had conversed 

with without falling into inconveniences, or carrying the questions 

to any height in debate; that he should not find himself the worse 

used for being of a different opinion from us, and if we did not 

converse without any dislike on either side, it should be his 

fault, not ours.



He replied that he thought all our conversation might be easily 

separated from disputes; that it was not his business to cap 

principles with every man he conversed with; and that he rather 

desired me to converse with him as a gentleman than as a 

religionist; and that, if I would give him leave at any time to 

discourse upon religious subjects, he would readily comply with it, 

and that he did not doubt but I would allow him also to defend his 

own opinions as well as he could; but that without my leave he 

would not break in upon me with any such thing.  He told me 

further, that he would not cease to do all that became him, in his 

office as a priest, as well as a private Christian, to procure the 

good of the ship, and the safety of all that was in her; and 

though, perhaps, we would not join with him, and he could not pray 

with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which he would do upon all 

occasions.  In this manner we conversed; and as he was of the most 

obliging, gentlemanlike behaviour, so he was, if I may be allowed 

to say so, a man of good sense, and, as I believe, of great 

learning.



He gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of the many 

extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which had befallen 

him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world; and 

particularly, it was very remarkable, that in the voyage he was now 

engaged in he had had the misfortune to be five times shipped and 

unshipped, and never to go to the place whither any of the ships he 

was in were at first designed.  That his first intent was to have 

gone to Martinico, and that he went on board a ship bound thither 

at St. Malo; but being forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the ship 

received some damage by running aground in the mouth of the river 

Tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there; but finding a 

Portuguese ship there bound for the Madeiras, and ready to sail, 

and supposing he should meet with a ship there bound to Martinico, 

he went on board, in order to sail to the Madeiras; but the master 

of the Portuguese ship being but an indifferent mariner, had been 

out of his reckoning, and they drove to Fayal; where, however, he 

happened to find a very good market for his cargo, which was corn, 

and therefore resolved not to go to the Madeiras, but to load salt 

at the Isle of May, and to go away to Newfoundland.  He had no 

remedy in this exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty 

good voyage as far as the Banks (so they call the place where they 

catch the fish), where, meeting with a French ship bound from 

France to Quebec, and from thence to Martinico, to carry 

provisions, he thought he should have an opportunity to complete 

his first design, but when he came to Quebec, the master of the 

ship died, and the vessel proceeded no further; so the next voyage 

he shipped himself for France, in the ship that was burned when we 

took them up at sea, and then shipped with us for the East Indies, 

as I have already said.  Thus he had been disappointed in five 

voyages; all, as I may call it, in one voyage, besides what I shall 

have occasion to mention further of him.



But I shall not make digression into other men's stories which have 

no relation to my own; so I return to what concerns our affair in 

the island.  He came to me one morning (for he lodged among us all 

the while we were upon the island), and it happened to be just when 

I was going to visit the Englishmen's colony, at the furthest part 

of the island; I say, he came to me, and told me, with a very grave 

countenance, that he had for two or three days desired an 

opportunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped would not be 

displeasing to me, because he thought it might in some measure 

correspond with my general design, which was the prosperity of my 

new colony, and perhaps might put it, at least more than he yet 

thought it was, in the way of God's blessing.



I looked a little surprised at the last of his discourse, and 

turning a little short, "How, sir," said I, "can it be said that we 

are not in the way of God's blessing, after such visible 

assistances and deliverances as we have seen here, and of which I 

have given you a large account?"  "If you had pleased, sir," said 

he, with a world of modesty, and yet great readiness, "to have 

heard me, you would have found no room to have been displeased, 

much less to think so hard of me, that I should suggest that you 

have not had wonderful assistances and deliverances; and I hope, on 

your behalf, that you are in the way of God's blessing, and your 

design is exceeding good, and will prosper.  But, sir, though it 

were more so than is even possible to you, yet there may be some 

among you that are not equally right in their actions:  and you 

know that in the story of the children of Israel, one Achan in the 

camp removed God's blessing from them, and turned His hand so 

against them, that six-and-thirty of them, though not concerned in 

the crime, were the objects of divine vengeance, and bore the 

weight of that punishment."



I was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his 

inference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and 

was really so religious in its own nature, that I was very sorry I 

had interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and, in the meantime, 

because it seemed that what we had both to say might take up some 

time, I told him I was going to the Englishmen's plantations, and 

asked him to go with me, and we might discourse of it by the way.  

He told me he would the more willingly wait on me thither, because 

there partly the thing was acted which he desired to speak to me 

about; so we walked on, and I pressed him to be free and plain with 

me in what he had to say.



"Why, then, sir," said he, "be pleased to give me leave to lay down 

a few propositions, as the foundation of what I have to say, that 

we may not differ in the general principles, though we may be of 

some differing opinions in the practice of particulars.  First, 

sir, though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion 

(and it is very unhappy it is so, especially in the case before us, 

as I shall show afterwards), yet there are some general principles 

in which we both agree - that there is a God; and that this God 

having given us some stated general rules for our service and 

obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend Him, 

either by neglecting to do what He has commanded, or by doing what 

He has expressly forbidden.  And let our different religions be 

what they will, this general principle is readily owned by us all, 

that the blessing of God does not ordinarily follow presumptuous 

sinning against His command; and every good Christian will be 

affectionately concerned to prevent any that are under his care 

living in a total neglect of God and His commands.  It is not your 

men being Protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such, that 

discharges me from being concerned for their souls, and from 

endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as 

little distance from enmity with their Maker as possible, 

especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit."



I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him I granted 

all he had said, and thanked him that he would so far concern 

himself for us:  and begged he would explain the particulars of 

what he had observed, that like Joshua, to take his own parable, I 

might put away the accursed thing from us.



"Why, then, sir," says he, "I will take the liberty you give me; 

and there are three things, which, if I am right, must stand in the 

way of God's blessing upon your endeavours here, and which I should 

rejoice, for your sake and their own, to see removed.  And, sir, I 

promise myself that you will fully agree with me in them all, as 

soon as I name them; especially because I shall convince you, that 

every one of them may, with great ease, and very much to your 

satisfaction, be remedied.  First, sir," says he, "you have here 

four Englishmen, who have fetched women from among the savages, and 

have taken them as their wives, and have had many children by them 

all, and yet are not married to them after any stated legal manner, 

as the laws of God and man require.  To this, sir, I know, you will 

object that there was no clergyman or priest of any kind to perform 

the ceremony; nor any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a 

contract of marriage, and have it signed between them.  And I know 

also, sir, what the Spaniard governor has told you, I mean of the 

agreement that he obliged them to make when they took those women, 

viz. that they should choose them out by consent, and keep 

separately to them; which, by the way, is nothing of a marriage, no 

agreement with the women as wives, but only an agreement among 

themselves, to keep them from quarrelling.  But, sir, the essence 

of the sacrament of matrimony" (so he called it, being a Roman) 

"consists not only in the mutual consent of the parties to take one 

another as man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation 

that there is in the contract to compel the man and woman, at all 

times, to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the man to 

abstain from all other women, to engage in no other contract while 

these subsist; and, on all occasions, as ability allows, to provide 

honestly for them and their children; and to oblige the women to 

the same or like conditions, on their side.  Now, sir," says he, 

"these men may, when they please, or when occasion presents, 

abandon these women, disown their children, leave them to perish, 

and take other women, and marry them while these are living;" and 

here he added, with some warmth, "How, sir, is God honoured in this 

unlawful liberty?  And how shall a blessing succeed your endeavours 

in this place, however good in themselves, and however sincere in 

your design, while these men, who at present are your subjects, 

under your absolute government and dominion, are allowed by you to 

live in open adultery?"



I confess I was struck with the thing itself, but much more with 

the convincing arguments he supported it with; but I thought to 

have got off my young priest by telling him that all that part was 

done when I was not there:  and that they had lived so many years 

with them now, that if it was adultery, it was past remedy; nothing 

could be done in it now.



"Sir," says he, "asking your pardon for such freedom, you are right 

in this, that, it being done in your absence, you could not be 

charged with that part of the crime; but, I beseech you, flatter 

not yourself that you are not, therefore, under an obligation to do 

your utmost now to put an end to it.  You should legally and 

effectually marry them; and as, sir, my way of marrying may not be 

easy to reconcile them to, though it will be effectual, even by 

your own laws, so your way may be as well before God, and as valid 

among men.  I mean by a written contract signed by both man and 

woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws of 

Europe would decree to be valid."



I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of 

zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse as to his 

own party or church, and such true warmth for preserving people 

that he had no knowledge of or relation to from transgressing the 

laws of God.  But recollecting what he had said of marrying them by 

a written contract, which I knew he would stand to, I returned it 

back upon him, and told him I granted all that he had said to be 

just, and on his part very kind; that I would discourse with the 

men upon the point now, when I came to them; and I knew no reason 

why they should scruple to let him marry them all, which I knew 

well enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in 

England as if they were married by one of our own clergymen.



I then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint which 

he had to make, acknowledging that I was very much his debtor for 

the first, and thanking him heartily for it.  He told me he would 

use the same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped I would 

take it as well; and this was, that notwithstanding these English 

subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived with these women 

almost seven years, had taught them to speak English, and even to 

read it, and that they were, as he perceived, women of tolerable 

understanding, and capable of instruction, yet they had not, to 

this hour, taught them anything of the Christian religion - no, not 

so much as to know there was a God, or a worship, or in what manner 

God was to be served, or that their own idolatry, and worshipping 

they knew not whom, was false and absurd.  This he said was an 

unaccountable neglect, and what God would certainly call them to 

account for, and perhaps at last take the work out of their hands.  

He spoke this very affectionately and warmly.



"I am persuaded," says he, "had those men lived in the savage 

country whence their wives came, the savages would have taken more 

pains to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship the 

devil, than any of these men, so far as I can see, have taken with 

them to teach the knowledge of the true God.  Now, sir," said he, 

"though I do not acknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet we 

would be glad to see the devil's servants and the subjects of his 

kingdom taught to know religion; and that they might, at least, 

hear of God and a Redeemer, and the resurrection, and of a future 

state - things which we all believe; that they might, at least, be 

so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true Church than they 

are now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-worship."



I could hold no longer:  I took him in my arms and embraced him 

eagerly.  "How far," said I to him, "have I been from understanding 

the most essential part of a Christian, viz. to love the interest 

of the Christian Church, and the good of other men's souls!  I 

scarce have known what belongs to the being a Christian." - "Oh, 

sir! do not say so," replied he; "this thing is not your fault." - 

"No," said I; "but why did I never lay it to heart as well as you?" 

- "It is not too late yet," said he; "be not too forward to condemn 

yourself." - "But what can be done now?" said I:  "you see I am 

going away." - "Will you give me leave to talk with these poor men 

about it?" - "Yes, with all my heart," said I:  "and oblige them to 

give heed to what you say too." - "As to that," said he, "we must 

leave them to the mercy of Christ; but it is your business to 

assist them, encourage them, and instruct them; and if you give me 

leave, and God His blessing, I do not doubt but the poor ignorant 

souls shall be brought home to the great circle of Christianity, if 

not into the particular faith we all embrace, and that even while 

you stay here."  Upon this I said, "I shall not only give you 

leave, but give you a thousand thanks for it."



I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame.  

"Why, really," says he, "it is of the same nature.  It is about 

your poor savages, who are, as I may say, your conquered subjects.  

It is a maxim, sir, that is or ought to be received among all 

Christians, of what church or pretended church soever, that the 

Christian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible means 

and on all possible occasions.  It is on this principle that our 

Church sends missionaries into Persia, India, and China; and that 

our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the most 

hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence amongst 

murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true 

God, and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith.  Now, 

sir, you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven and 

thirty poor savages brought over from a state of idolatry to the 

knowledge of God, their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how you 

can pass such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth the 

expense of a man's whole life."



I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to say.  I had 

here the spirit of true Christian zeal for God and religion before 

me.  As for me, I had not so much as entertained a thought of this 

in my heart before, and I believe I should not have thought of it; 

for I looked upon these savages as slaves, and people whom, had we 

not had any work for them to do, we would have used as such, or 

would have been glad to have transported them to any part of the 

world; for our business was to get rid of them, and we would all 

have been satisfied if they had been sent to any country, so they 

had never seen their own.  I was confounded at his discourse, and 

knew not what answer to make him.



He looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion.  "Sir," says he, "I 

shall be very sorry if what I have said gives you any offence." - 

"No, no," said I,  "I am offended with nobody but myself; but I am 

perfectly confounded, not only to think that I should never take 

any notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice I am 

able to take of it now.  You know, sir," said I, "what 

circumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies in a ship 

freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferable 

piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying all 

this while at victuals and wages on the owners' account.  It is 

true, I agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more, 

I must pay three pounds sterling PER DIEM demurrage; nor can I stay 

upon demurrage above eight days more, and I have been here thirteen 

already; so that I am perfectly unable to engage in this work 

unless I would suffer myself to be left behind here again; in which 

case, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of her 

voyage, I should be just in the same condition that I was left in 

here at first, and from which I have been so wonderfully 

delivered."  He owned the case was very hard upon me as to my 

voyage; but laid it home upon my conscience whether the blessing of 

saving thirty-seven souls was not worth venturing all I had in the 

world for.  I was not so sensible of that as he was.  I replied to 

him thus:  "Why, sir, it is a valuable thing, indeed, to be an 

instrument in God's hand to convert thirty-seven heathens to the 

knowledge of Christ:  but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given 

over to the work, so it seems so naturally to fall in the way of 

your profession; how is it, then, that you do not rather offer 

yourself to undertake it than to press me to do it?"



Upon this he faced about just before me, as he walked along, and 

putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow.  "I most 

heartily thank God and you, sir," said he, "for giving me so 

evident a call to so blessed a work; and if you think yourself 

discharged from it, and desire me to undertake it, I will most 

readily do it, and think it a happy reward for all the hazards and 

difficulties of such a broken, disappointed voyage as I have met 

with, that I am dropped at last into so glorious a work."



I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this to 

me; his eyes sparkled like fire; his face glowed, and his colour 

came and went; in a word, he was fired with the joy of being 

embarked in such a work.  I paused a considerable while before I 

could tell what to say to him; for I was really surprised to find a 

man of such sincerity, and who seemed possessed of a zeal beyond 

the ordinary rate of men.  But after I had considered it a while, I 

asked him seriously if he was in earnest, and that he would 

venture, on the single consideration of an attempt to convert those 

poor people, to be locked up in an unplanted island for perhaps his 

life, and at last might not know whether he should be able to do 

them good or not?  He turned short upon me, and asked me what I 

called a venture?  "Pray, sir," said he, "what do you think I 

consented to go in your ship to the East Indies for?" - "ay," said 

I, "that I know not, unless it was to preach to the Indians." - 

"Doubtless it was," said he; "and do you think, if I can convert 

these thirty-seven men to the faith of Jesus Christ, it is not 

worth my time, though I should never be fetched off the island 

again? - nay, is it not infinitely of more worth to save so many 

souls than my life is, or the life of twenty more of the same 

profession?  Yes, sir," says he, "I would give God thanks all my 

days if I could be made the happy instrument of saving the souls of 

those poor men, though I were never to get my foot off this island 

or see my native country any more.  But since you will honour me 

with putting me into this work, for which I will pray for you all 

the days of my life, I have one humble petition to you besides." - 

"What is that?" said I. - "Why," says he, "it is, that you will 

leave your man Friday with me, to be my interpreter to them, and to 

assist me; for without some help I cannot speak to them, or they to 

me."



I was sensibly touched at his requesting Friday, because I could 

not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons:  he had 

been the companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me, 

but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and I had resolved 

to do something considerable for him if he out-lived me, as it was 

probable he would.  Then I knew that, as I had bred Friday up to be 

a Protestant, it would quite confound him to bring him to embrace 

another religion; and he would never, while his eyes were open, 

believe that his old master was a heretic, and would be damned; and 

this might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and so 

turn him back again to his first idolatry.  However, a sudden 

thought relieved me in this strait, and it was this:  I told him I 

could not say that I was willing to part with Friday on any account 

whatever, though a work that to him was of more value than his life 

ought to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with a 

servant.  On the other hand, I was persuaded that Friday would by 

no means agree to part with me; and I could not force him to it 

without his consent, without manifest injustice; because I had 

promised I would never send him away, and he had promised and 

engaged that he would never leave me, unless I sent him away.



He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rational access 

to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word of 

their language, nor they one of his.  To remove this difficulty, I 

told him Friday's father had learned Spanish, which I found he also 

understood, and he should serve him as an interpreter.  So he was 

much better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he would 

stay and endeavour to convert them; but Providence gave another 

very happy turn to all this.



I come back now to the first part of his objections.  When we came 

to the Englishmen, I sent for them all together, and after some 

account given them of what I had done for them, viz. what necessary 

things I had provided for them, and how they were distributed, 

which they were very sensible of, and very thankful for, I began to 

talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full 

account of the notice the clergyman had taken of it; and arguing 

how unchristian and irreligious a life it was, I first asked them 

if they were married men or bachelors?  They soon explained their 

condition to me, and showed that two of them were widowers, and the 

other three were single men, or bachelors.  I asked them with what 

conscience they could take these women, and call them their wives, 

and have so many children by them, and not be lawfully married to 

them?  They all gave me the answer I expected, viz. that there was 

nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep 

them as their wives, and to maintain them and own them as their 

wives; and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as 

legally married as if they had been married by a parson and with 

all the formalities in the world.



I told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of God, 

and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that 

the laws of men being otherwise, they might desert the poor women 

and children hereafter; and that their wives, being poor desolate 

women, friendless and moneyless, would have no way to help 

themselves.  I therefore told them that unless I was assured of 

their honest intent, I could do nothing for them, but would take 

care that what I did should be for the women and children without 

them; and that, unless they would give me some assurances that they 

would marry the women, I could not think it was convenient they 

should continue together as man and wife; for that it was both 

scandalous to men and offensive to God, who they could not think 

would bless them if they went on thus.



All this went on as I expected; and they told me, especially Will 

Atkins, who now seemed to speak for the rest, that they loved their 

wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country, 

and would not leave them on any account whatever; and they did 

verily believe that their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and 

did, to the utmost of their skill, as much for them and for their 

children, as any woman could possibly do:  and they would not part 

with them on any account.  Will Atkins, for his own particular, 

added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him 

home to England, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the 

navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and 

children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he 

would be married to her now with all his heart.



This was just as I would have it.  The priest was not with me at 

that moment, but he was not far off; so to try him further, I told 

him I had a clergyman with me, and, if he was sincere, I would have 

him married next morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk 

with the rest.  He said, as for himself, he need not consider of it 

at all, for he was very ready to do it, and was glad I had a 

minister with me, and he believed they would be all willing also.  

I then told him that my friend, the minister, was a Frenchman, and 

could not speak English, but I would act the clerk between them.  

He never so much as asked me whether he was a Papist or Protestant, 

which was, indeed, what I was afraid of.  We then parted, and I 

went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went in to talk with his 

companions.  I desired the French gentleman not to say anything to 

them till the business was thoroughly ripe; and I told him what 

answer the men had given me.



Before I went from their quarter they all came to me and told me 

they had been considering what I had said; that they were glad to 

hear I had a clergyman in my company, and they were very willing to 

give me the satisfaction I desired, and to be formally married as 

soon as I pleased; for they were far from desiring to part with 

their wives, and that they meant nothing but what was very honest 

when they chose them.  So I appointed them to meet me the next 

morning; and, in the meantime, they should let their wives know the 

meaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to prevent 

any scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not forsake 

them, whatever might happen.



The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing, 

and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they had reason 

to be:  so they failed not to attend all together at my apartment 

next morning, where I brought out my clergyman; and though he had 

not on a minister's gown, after the manner of England, or the habit 

of a priest, after the manner of France, yet having a black vest 

something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look 

very unlike a minister; and as for his language, I was his 

interpreter.  But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the 

scruples he made of marrying the women, because they were not 

baptized and professed Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence 

for his person; and there was no need, after that, to inquire 

whether he was a clergyman or not.  Indeed, I was afraid his 

scruples would have been carried so far as that he would not have 

married them at all; nay, notwithstanding all I was able to say to 

him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very steadily, and at 

last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked 

with the men and the women too; and though at first I was a little 

backward to it, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will, 

perceiving the sincerity of his design.



When he came to them he let them know that I had acquainted him 

with their circumstances, and with the present design; that he was 

very willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them, 

as I had desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the 

liberty to talk with them.  He told them that in the sight of all 

indifferent men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had 

lived all this while in a state of sin; and that it was true that 

nothing but the consenting to marry, or effectually separating them 

from one another, could now put an end to it; but there was a 

difficulty in it, too, with respect to the laws of Christian 

matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, that of marrying 

one that is a professed Christian to a savage, an idolater, and a 

heathen - one that is not baptized; and yet that he did not see 

that there was time left to endeavour to persuade the women to be 

baptized, or to profess the name of Christ, whom they had, he 

doubted, heard nothing of, and without which they could not be 

baptized.  He told them he doubted they were but indifferent 

Christians themselves; that they had but little knowledge of God or 

of His ways, and, therefore, he could not expect that they had said 

much to their wives on that head yet; but that unless they would 

promise him to use their endeavours with their wives to persuade 

them to become Christians, and would, as well as they could, 

instruct them in the knowledge and belief of God that made them, 

and to worship Jesus Christ that redeemed them, he could not marry 

them; for he would have no hand in joining Christians with savages, 

nor was it consistent with the principles of the Christian 

religion, and was, indeed, expressly forbidden in God's law.



They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it very 

faithfully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as I 

could; only sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them 

how just it was, and that I was of his mind; and I always very 

carefully distinguished between what I said from myself and what 

were the clergyman's words.  They told me it was very true what the 

gentleman said, that they were very indifferent Christians 

themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives about 

religion.  "Lord, sir," says Will Atkins, "how should we teach them 

religion?  Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said 

he, "should we talk to them of God and Jesus Christ, and heaven and 

hell, it would make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe 

ourselves.  And if we should tell them that we believe all the 

things we speak of to them, such as of good people going to heaven, 

and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us where we intend 

to go ourselves, that believe all this, and are such wicked fellows 

as we indeed are?  Why, sir; 'tis enough to give them a surfeit of 

religion at first hearing; folks must have some religion themselves 

before they begin to teach other people." - "Will Atkins," said I 

to him, "though I am afraid that what you say has too much truth in 

it, yet can you not tell your wife she is in the wrong; that there 

is a God and a religion better than her own; that her gods are 

idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great 

Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that He has 

made; that He rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that we 

are to be judged by Him at last for all we do here?  You are not so 

ignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is 

true; and I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it 

yourself." - "That is true, sir," said Atkins; "but with what face 

can I say anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell me 

immediately it cannot be true?" - "Not true!" said I; "what do you 

mean by that?" - "Why, sir," said he, "she will tell me it cannot 

be true that this God I shall tell her of can be just, or can 

punish or reward, since I am not punished and sent to the devil, 

that have been such a wicked creature as she knows I have been, 

even to her, and to everybody else; and that I should be suffered 

to live, that have been always acting so contrary to what I must 

tell her is good, and to what I ought to have done." - "Why, truly, 

Atkins," said I, "I am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and 

with that I informed the clergyman of what Atkins had said, for he 

was impatient to know.  "Oh," said the priest, "tell him there is 

one thing will make him the best minister in the world to his wife, 

and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true 

penitents.  He wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so 

much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then be 

able to tell her that there is not only a God, and that He is the 

just rewarder of good and evil, but that He is a merciful Being, 

and with infinite goodness and long-suffering forbears to punish 

those that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the 

death of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; and 

even reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that it 

is a clear evidence of God and of a future state that righteous men 

receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they 

come into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wife 

the doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment.  Let him 

but repent himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentance 

to his wife."



I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the 

while, and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily 

affected with it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make 

an end, "I know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more; 

but I have not the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God and 

my conscience know, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence 

against me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of a God or 

future state, or anything about it; and to talk of my repenting, 

alas!" (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and I could see that 

the tears stood in his eyes) "'tis past all that with me." - "Past 

it, Atkins?" said I:  "what dost thou mean by that?" - "I know well 

enough what I mean," says he; "I mean 'tis too late, and that is 

too true."



I told the clergyman, word for word, what he said, and this 

affectionate man could not refrain from tears; but, recovering 

himself, said to me, "Ask him but one question.  Is he easy that it 

is too late; or is he troubled, and wishes it were not so?"  I put 

the question fairly to Atkins; and he answered with a great deal of 

passion, "How could any man be easy in a condition that must 

certainly end in eternal destruction? that he was far from being 

easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time or 

other ruin him." - "What do you mean by that?" said I. - "Why," he 

said, "he believed he should one time or other cut his throat, to 

put an end to the terror of it."



The clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, when 

I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "If 

that be his case, we may assure him it is not too late; Christ will 

give him repentance.  But pray," says he, "explain this to him:  

that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of His passion 

procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man 

to receive mercy?  Does he think he is able to sin beyond the power 

or reach of divine mercy?  Pray tell him there may be a time when 

provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God may refuse to 

hear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we, 

that are Christ's servants, are commanded to preach mercy at all 

times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerely 

repent:  so that it is never too late to repent."



I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but 

it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest, for he 

said to me he would go and have some talk with his wife; so he went 

out a while, and we talked to the rest.  I perceived they were all 

stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion, as much as I was when 

I went rambling away from my father; yet there were none of them 

backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously 

promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do 

their endeavours to persuade them to turn Christians.



The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer they gave, 

but said nothing a good while; but at last, shaking his head, "We 

that are Christ's servants," says he, "can go no further than to 

exhort and instruct:  and when men comply, submit to the reproof, 

and promise what we ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept 

their good words; but believe me, sir," said he, "whatever you may 

have known of the life of that man you call Will Atkin's, I believe 

he is the only sincere convert among them:  I will not despair of 

the rest; but that man is apparently struck with the sense of his 

past life, and I doubt not, when he comes to talk of religion to 

his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it:  for attempting 

to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves.  

If that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of Jesus 

Christ to his wife, he will assuredly talk himself into a thorough 

convert, make himself a penitent, and who knows what may follow."



Upon this discourse, however, and their promising, as above, to 

endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he 

married the two other couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not 

yet come in.  After this, my clergyman, waiting a while, was 

curious to know where Atkins was gone, and turning to me, said, "I 

entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look; 

I daresay we shall find this poor man somewhere or other talking 

seriously to his wife, and teaching her already something of 

religion."  I began to be of the same mind; so we went out 

together, and I carried him a way which none knew but myself, and 

where the trees were so very thick that it was not easy to see 

through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see 

out:  when, coming to the edge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his 

tawny wife sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in 

discourse:  I stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and 

then having showed him where they were, we stood and looked very 

steadily at them a good while.  We observed him very earnest with 

her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens, 

and then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, 

then to her, to the woods, to the trees.  "Now," says the 

clergyman, "you see my words are made good, the man preaches to 

her; mark him now, he is telling her that our God has made him, 

her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees, 

&c." - "I believe he is," said I.  Immediately we perceived Will 

Atkins start upon his feet, fall down on his knees, and lift up 

both his hands.  We supposed he said something, but we could not 

hear him; it was too far for that.  He did not continue kneeling 

half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks 

to her again; we perceived then the woman very attentive, but 

whether she said anything to him we could not tell.  While the poor 

fellow was upon his knees I could see the tears run plentifully 

down my clergyman's cheeks, and I could hardly forbear myself; but 

it was a great affliction to us both that we were not near enough 

to hear anything that passed between them.  Well, however, we could 

come no nearer for fear of disturbing them:  so we resolved to see 

an end of this piece of still conversation, and it spoke loud 

enough to us without the help of voice.  He sat down again, as I 

have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two 

or three times we could see him embrace her most passionately; 

another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and wipe her 

eyes, and then kiss her again with a kind of transport very 

unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden 

jump up again, and lend her his hand to help her up, when 

immediately leading her by the hand a step or two, they both 

kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes.



My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "St. Paul!  

St. Paul! behold he prayeth."  I was afraid Atkins would hear him, 

therefore I entreated him to withhold himself a while, that we 

might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the 

most affecting that ever I saw in my life.  Well, he strove with 

himself for a while, but was in such raptures to think that the 

poor heathen woman was become a Christian, that he was not able to 

contain himself; he wept several times, then throwing up his hands 

and crossing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and 

by the way of giving God thanks for so miraculous a testimony of 

the success of our endeavours.  Some he spoke softly, and I could 

not well hear others; some things he said in Latin, some in French; 

then two or three times the tears would interrupt him, that he 

could not speak at all; but I begged that he would contain himself, 

and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, 

which he did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for 

after the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, 

we observed he stood talking still eagerly to her, and we observed 

her motion, that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her 

frequently lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and 

such other postures as express the greatest seriousness and 

attention; this continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then 

they walked away, so we could see no more of them in that 

situation.



I took this interval to say to the clergyman, first, that I was 

glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to; that, 

though I was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that I began 

to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his 

wife, however ignorant they might both be, and I hoped such a 

beginning would yet have a more happy end.  "But, my friend," added 

I, "will you give me leave to start one difficulty here?  I cannot 

tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate 

concern which you show for the turning of the poor people from 

their paganism to the Christian religion; but how does this comfort 

you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of 

the Catholic Church, without which you believe there is no 

salvation? so that you esteem these but heretics, as effectually 

lost as the pagans themselves."



To this he answered, with abundance of candour, thus:  "Sir, I am a 

Catholic of the Roman Church, and a priest of the order of St. 

Benedict, and I embrace all the principles of the Roman faith; but 

yet, if you will believe me, and that I do not speak in compliment 

to you, or in respect to my circumstances and your civilities; I 

say nevertheless, I do not look upon you, who call yourselves 

reformed, without some charity.  I dare not say (though I know it 

is our opinion in general) that you cannot be saved; I will by no 

means limit the mercy of Christ so far as think that He cannot 

receive you into the bosom of His Church, in a manner to us 

unperceivable; and I hope you have the same charity for us:  I pray 

daily for you being all restored to Christ's Church, by whatsoever 

method He, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct.  In the meantime, 

surely you will allow it consists with me as a Roman to distinguish 

far between a Protestant and a pagan; between one that calls on 

Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is according to 

the true faith, and a savage or a barbarian, that knows no God, no 

Christ, no Redeemer; and if you are not within the pale of the 

Catholic Church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than 

those who know nothing of God or of His Church:  and I rejoice, 

therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has been a 

profligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to Jesus 

Christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened; 

believing that God, from whom every such work proceeds, will 

sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge of 

that truth in His own time; and if God shall influence this poor 

man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, I can 

never believe that he shall be cast away himself.  And have I not 

reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the 

knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite home into 

the bosom of the Catholic Church just at the time when I desire it, 

leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect His work in His own 

time, and in his own way?  Certainly, I would rejoice if all the 

savages in America were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to 

God, though they were all to be Protestants at first, rather than 

they should continue pagans or heathens; firmly believing, that He 

that had bestowed the first light on them would farther illuminate 

them with a beam of His heavenly grace, and bring them into the 

pale of His Church when He should see good."









CHAPTER VII - CONVERSATION BETWIXT WILL ATKINS AND HIS WIFE







I WAS astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious Papist, 

as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and it 

presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was 

universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever Church or 

particular profession we joined in; that a spirit of charity would 

soon work us all up into right principles; and as he thought that 

the like charity would make us all Catholics, so I told him I 

believed, had all the members of his Church the like moderation, 

they would soon all be Protestants.  And there we left that part; 

for we never disputed at all.  However, I talked to him another 

way, and taking him by the hand, "My friend," says I, "I wish all 

the clergy of the Romish Church were blessed with such moderation, 

and had an equal share of your charity.  I am entirely of your 

opinion; but I must tell you that if you should preach such 

doctrine in Spain or Italy, they would put you into the 

Inquisition." - "It may be so," said he; "I know not what they 

would do in Spain or Italy; but I will not say they would be the 

better Christians for that severity; for I am sure there is no 

heresy in abounding with charity."



Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was 

over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found 

them waiting to be called in.  Observing this, I asked my clergyman 

if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or 

not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk 

to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in 

alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began by 

asking him some particulars about his parentage and education.  He 

told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would 

have taught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised all 

instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the 

thread of all his father's comforts and shortened his days, for 

that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return 

for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave.



In what he said there seemed so much sincerity of repentance, that 

it painfully affected me.  I could not but reflect that I, too, had 

shortened the life of a good, tender father by my bad conduct and 

obstinate self-will.  I was, indeed, so surprised with what he had 

told me, that I thought, instead of my going about to teach and 

instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me in a 

most unexpected manner.



I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly 

affected with it, and said to me, "Did I not say, sir, that when 

this man was converted he would preach to us all?  I tell you, sir, 

if this one man be made a true penitent, there will be no need of 

me; he will make Christians of all in the island." - But having a 

little composed myself, I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.  

"But, Will," said I, "how comes the sense of this matter to touch 

you just now?"



W.A. - Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart 

though my very soul; I have been talking about God and religion to 

my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Christian of her, 

and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall never forget 

while I live.



R.C. - No, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; but when 

you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung 

them back upon you.



W.A. - Ay, sir, with such force as is not to be resisted.



R.C. - Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and your 

wife; for I know something of it already.



W.A. - Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it; I am 

too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it; but let 

her have said what she will, though I cannot give you an account of 

it, this I can tell you, that I have resolved to amend and reform 

my life.



R.C. - But tell us some of it:  how did you begin, Will?  For this 

has been an extraordinary case, that is certain.  She has preached 

a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.



W.A. - Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage, 

and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter 

into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other 

to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be 

maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their 

children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be 

kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.



R.C. - You talk like a civilian, Will.  Could you make her 

understand what you meant by inheritance and families?  They know 

no such things among the savages, but marry anyhow, without regard 

to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as 

I have been told, even the father and the daughter, and the son and 

the mother.



W.A. - I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife assures me 

of the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps, for any further 

relations, they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me 

never in the near relationship you speak of.



R.C. - Well, what did she say to what you told her?



W.A. - She said she liked it very well, as it was much better than 

in her country.



R.C. - But did you tell her what marriage was?



W.A. - Ay, ay, there began our dialogue.  I asked her if she would 

be married to me our way.  She asked me what way that was; I told 

her marriage was appointed by God; and here we had a strange talk 

together, indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.



N.B. - This dialogue between Will Atkins and his wife, which I took 

down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:-



WIFE. - Appointed by your God! - Why, have you a God in your 

country?



W.A. - Yes, my dear, God is in every country.



WIFE. - No your God in my country; my country have the great old 

Benamuckee God.



W.A. - Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is; God is in 

heaven and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in 

them is.



WIFE. - No makee de earth; no you God makee all earth; no makee my 

country.



[Will Atkins laughed a little at her expression of God not making 

her country.]



WIFE. - No laugh; why laugh me?  This no ting to laugh.



[He was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious than 

he at first.]



W.A. - That's true, indeed; I will not laugh any more, my dear.



WIFE. - Why you say you God makee all?



W.A. - Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and you, and me, 

and all things; for He is the only true God, and there is no God 

but Him.  He lives for ever in heaven.



WIFE. - Why you no tell me long ago?



W.A. - That's true, indeed; but I have been a wicked wretch, and 

have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with anything before, but 

have lived without God in the world myself.



WIFE. - What, have you a great God in your country, you no know 

Him?  No say O to Him?  No do good ting for Him?  That no possible.



W.A. - It is true; though, for all that, we live as if there was no 

God in heaven, or that He had no power on earth.



Wife. - But why God let you do so?  Why He no makee you good live?



W.A. - It is all our own fault.



WIFE. - But you say me He is great, much great, have much great 

power; can makee kill when He will:  why He no makee kill when you 

no serve Him? no say O to Him? no be good mans?



W.A. - That is true, He might strike me dead; and I ought to expect 

it, for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true; but God is 

merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.



WIFE. - But then do you not tell God thankee for that too?



W. A. - No, indeed, I have not thanked God for His mercy, any more 

than I have feared God from His power.



WIFE. - Then you God no God; me no think, believe He be such one, 

great much power, strong:  no makee kill you, though you make Him 

much angry.



W.A. - What, will my wicked life hinder you from believing in God?  

What a dreadful creature am I! and what a sad truth is it, that the 

horrid lives of Christians hinder the conversion of heathens!



WIFE. - How me tink you have great much God up there [she points up 

to heaven], and yet no do well, no do good ting?  Can He tell?  

Sure He no tell what you do?



W.A. - Yes, yes, He knows and sees all things; He hears us speak, 

sees what we do, knows what we think though we do not speak.



WIFE. - What!  He no hear you curse, swear, speak de great damn?



W.A. - Yes, yes, He hears it all.



WIFE. - Where be then the much great power strong?



W.A. - He is merciful, that is all we can say for it; and this 

proves Him to be the true God; He is God, and not man, and 

therefore we are not consumed.



[Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror to think how he 

could tell his wife so clearly that God sees, and hears, and knows 

the secret thoughts of the heart, and all that we do, and yet that 

he had dared to do all the vile things he had done.]



WIFE. - Merciful!  What you call dat?



W.A. - He is our Father and Maker, and He pities and spares us.



WIFE. - So then He never makee kill, never angry when you do 

wicked; then He no good Himself, or no great able.



W.A. - Yes, yes, my dear, He is infinitely good and infinitely 

great, and able to punish too; and sometimes, to show His justice 

and vengeance, He lets fly His anger to destroy sinners and make 

examples; many are cut off in their sins.



WIFE. - But no makee kill you yet; then He tell you, maybe, that He 

no makee you kill:  so you makee the bargain with Him, you do bad 

thing, He no be angry at you when He be angry at other mans.



W.A. - No, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon His goodness; 

and He would be infinitely just if He destroyed me, as He has done 

other men.



WIFE. - Well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead:  what you say to 

Him for that?  You no tell Him thankee for all that too?



W.A. - I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true.



WIFE. - Why He no makee you much good better? you say He makee you.



W.A. - He made me as He made all the world:  it is I have deformed 

myself and abused His goodness, and made myself an abominable 

wretch.



WIFE. - I wish you makee God know me.  I no makee Him angry - I no 

do bad wicked thing.



[Here Will Atkins said his heart sunk within him to hear a poor 

untaught creature desire to be taught to know God, and he such a 

wicked wretch, that he could not say one word to her about God, but 

what the reproach of his own carriage would make most irrational to 

her to believe; nay, that already she had told him that she could 

not believe in God, because he, that was so wicked, was not 

destroyed.]



W.A. - My dear, you mean, you wish I could teach you to know God, 

not God to know you; for He knows you already, and every thought in 

your heart.



WIFE. - Why, then, He know what I say to you now:  He know me wish 

to know Him.  How shall me know who makee me?



W.A. - Poor creature, He must teach thee:  I cannot teach thee.  I 

will pray to Him to teach thee to know Him, and forgive me, that am 

unworthy to teach thee.



[The poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him to make 

her know God, and her wishing to know Him, that he said he fell 

down on his knees before her, and prayed to God to enlighten her 

mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to pardon his 

sins, and accept of his being the unworthy instrument of 

instructing her in the principles of religion:  after which he sat 

down by her again, and their dialogue went on.  This was the time 

when we saw him kneel down and hold up his hands.]



Wife. - What you put down the knee for?  What you hold up the hand 

for?  What you say?  Who you speak to?  What is all that?



W.A. - My dear, I bow my knees in token of my submission to Him 

that made me:  I said O to Him, as you call it, and as your old men 

do to their idol Benamuckee; that is, I prayed to Him.



WIFE. - What say you O to Him for?



W.A. - I prayed to Him to open your eyes and your understanding, 

that you may know Him, and be accepted by Him.



WIFE. - Can He do that too?



W.A. - Yes, He can:  He can do all things.



WIFE. - But now He hear what you say?



W.A. - Yes, He has bid us pray to Him, and promised to hear us.



WIFE. - Bid you pray?  When He bid you?  How He bid you?  What you 

hear Him speak?



W.A. - No, we do not hear Him speak; but He has revealed Himself 

many ways to us.



[Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that God has 

revealed Himself to us by His word, and what His word was; but at 

last he told it to her thus.]



W.A. - God has spoken to some good men in former days, even from 

heaven, by plain words; and God has inspired good men by His 

Spirit; and they have written all His laws down in a book.



WIFE. - Me no understand that; where is book?



W.A. - Alas! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I hope I 

shall one time or other get it for you, and help you to read it.



[Here he embraced her with great affection, but with inexpressible 

grief that he had not a Bible.]



WIFE. - But how you makee me know that God teachee them to write 

that book?



W.A. - By the same rule that we know Him to be God.



WIFE. - What rule?  What way you know Him?



W.A. - Because He teaches and commands nothing but what is good, 

righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as well 

as perfectly happy; and because He forbids and commands us to avoid 

all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its 

consequence.



WIFE. - That me would understand, that me fain see; if He teachee 

all good thing, He makee all good thing, He give all thing, He hear 

me when I say O to Him, as you do just now; He makee me good if I 

wish to be good; He spare me, no makee kill me, when I no be good:  

all this you say He do, yet He be great God; me take, think, 

believe Him to be great God; me say O to Him with you, my dear.



Here the poor man could forbear no longer, but raised her up, made 

her kneel by him, and he prayed to God aloud to instruct her in the 

knowledge of Himself, by His Spirit; and that by some good 

providence, if possible, she might, some time or other, come to 

have a Bible, that she might read the word of God, and be taught by 

it to know Him.  This was the time that we saw him lift her up by 

the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above.



They had several other discourses, it seems, after this; and 

particularly she made him promise that, since he confessed his own 

life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocations against 

God, that he would reform it, and not make God angry any more, lest 

He should make him dead, as she called it, and then she would be 

left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and lest 

he should be miserable, as he had told her wicked men would be 

after death.



This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but 

particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfully 

surprised with it, but under the greatest affliction imaginable 

that he could not talk to her, that he could not speak English to 

make her understand him; and as she spoke but very broken English, 

he could not understand her; however, he turned himself to me, and 

told me that he believed that there must be more to do with this 

woman than to marry her.  I did not understand him at first; but at 

length he explained himself, viz. that she ought to be baptized.  I 

agreed with him in that part readily, and wished it to be done 

presently.  "No, no; hold, sir," says he; "though I would have her 

be baptized, by all means, for I must observe that Will Atkins, her 

husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to be 

willing to embrace a religious life, and has given her just ideas 

of the being of a God; of His power, justice, and mercy:  yet I 

desire to know of him if he has said anything to her of Jesus 

Christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in 

Him, and redemption by Him; of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, 

the last judgment, and the future state."



I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell 

immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her of 

all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and 

his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life, 

that he trembled at the apprehensions that her knowledge of him 

should lessen the attention she should give to those things, and 

make her rather contemn religion than receive it; but he was 

assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due 

impressions of all those things, and that if I would but discourse 

with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that my 

labour would not be lost upon her.



Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreter 

between my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him to begin 

with her; but sure such a sermon was never preached by a Popish 

priest in these latter ages of the world; and as I told him, I 

thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity 

of a Christian, without the error of a Roman Catholic; and that I 

took him to be such a clergyman as the Roman bishops were before 

the Church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the 

consciences of men.  In a word, he brought the poor woman to 

embrace the knowledge of Christ, and of redemption by Him, not with 

wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions of a 

God, but with joy and faith; with an affection, and a surprising 

degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, much less to be 

expressed; and, at her own request, she was baptized.



When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that he would 

perform that office with some caution, that the man might not 

perceive he was of the Roman Church, if possible, because of other 

ill consequences which might attend a difference among us in that 

very religion which we were instructing the other in.  He told me 

that as he had no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the 

office, I should see he would do it in a manner that I should not 

know by it that he was a Roman Catholic myself, if I had not known 

it before; and so he did; for saying only some words over to 

himself in Latin, which I could not understand, he poured a whole 

dishful of water upon the woman's head, pronouncing in French, very 

loud, "Mary" (which was the name her husband desired me to give 

her, for I was her godfather), "I baptize thee in the name of the 

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" so that none could 

know anything by it what religion he was of.  He gave the 

benediction afterwards in Latin, but either Will Atkins did not 

know but it was French, or else did not take notice of it at that 

time.



As soon as this was over we married them; and after the marriage 

was over, he turned to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate 

manner exhorted him, not only to persevere in that good disposition 

he was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a 

resolution to reform his life:  told him it was in vain to say he 

repented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him how 

God had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife 

to the knowledge of the Christian religion, and that he should be 

careful he did not dishonour the grace of God; and that if he did, 

he would see the heathen a better Christian than himself; the 

savage converted, and the instrument cast away.  He said a great 

many good things to them both; and then, recommending them to God's 

goodness, gave them the benediction again, I repeating everything 

to them in English; and thus ended the ceremony.  I think it was 

the most pleasant and agreeable day to me that ever I passed in my 

whole life.  But my clergyman had not done yet:  his thoughts hung 

continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and 

fain be would have stayed upon the island to have undertaken it; 

but I convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable 

in itself; and, secondly, that perhaps I would put it into a way of 

being done in his absence to his satisfaction.



Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrow compass, 

I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man I had 

taken out of the famished ship's company came to me, and told me he 

understood I had a clergyman with me, and that I had caused the 

Englishmen to be married to the savages; that he had a match too, 

which he desired might be finished before I went, between two 

Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.



I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's servant, 

for there was no other Christian woman on the island:  so I began 

to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly, or because 

be found himself in this solitary circumstance.  I represented to 

him that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good 

friends, as I understood by himself, and the maid also; that the 

maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she 

being six or seven and twenty years old, and he not above seventeen 

or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my assistance, make 

a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again; 

and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his 

choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be 

disadvantageous to both.  I was going to say more, but he 

interrupted me, smiling, and told me, with a great deal of modesty, 

that I mistook in my guesses - that he had nothing of that kind in 

his thoughts; and he was very glad to hear that I had an intent of 

putting them in a way to see their own country again; and nothing 

should have made him think of staying there, but that the voyage I 

was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him 

quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to 

desire of me but that I would settle him in some little property in 

the island where he was, give him a servant or two, and some few 

necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waiting the 

good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him.  

He hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to England:  

that he would give me some letters to his friends in London, to let 

them know how good I had been to him, and in what part of the world 

and what circumstances I had left him in:  and he promised me that 

whenever I redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements 

he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be 

wholly mine.



His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth, 

and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the 

match was not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances that 

if I lived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters, 

and do his business effectually; and that he might depend I should 

never forget the circumstances I had left him in.  But still I was 

impatient to know who was the person to be married; upon which he 

told me it was my Jack-of-all-trades and his maid Susan.  I was 

most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for, indeed, I 

thought it very suitable.  The character of that man I have given 

already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, 

and religious young woman:  had a very good share of sense, was 

agreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely and to the 

purpose, always with decency and good manners, and was neither too 

backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forward when it 

was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and an excellent 

manager; fit, indeed, to have been governess to the whole island; 

and she knew very well how to behave in every respect.



The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same 

day; and as I was father at the altar, and gave her away, so I gave 

her a portion; for I appointed her and her husband a handsome large 

space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and 

the proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small property 

in the island, put me upon parcelling it out amongst them, that 

they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.



This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who was 

now grown a sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed, 

exceedingly pious and religious; and, as far as I may be allowed to 

speak positively in such a case, I verily believe he was a true 

penitent.  He divided things so justly, and so much to every one's 

satisfaction, that they only desired one general writing under my 

hand for the whole, which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and 

sealed, setting out the bounds and situation of every man's 

plantation, and testifying that I gave them thereby severally a 

right to the whole possession and inheritance of the respective 

plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them and their 

heirs, reserving all the rest of the island as my own property, and 

a certain rent for every particular plantation after eleven years, 

if I, or any one from me, or in my name, came to demand it, 

producing an attested copy of the same writing.  As to the 

government and laws among them, I told them I was not capable of 

giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; 

only I made them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood 

with one another; and so I prepared to leave them.



One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a 

kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in 

hand, it was odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of 

the island, independent, and, indeed, unemployed; for except the 

providing themselves food, which they had difficulty enough to do 

sometimes, they had no manner of business or property to manage.  I 

proposed, therefore, to the governor Spaniard that he should go to 

them, with Friday's father, and propose to them to remove, and 

either plant for themselves, or be taken into their several 

families as servants to be maintained for their labour, but without 

being absolute slaves; for I would not permit them to make them 

slaves by force, by any means; because they had their liberty given 

them by capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which they 

ought not to break.



They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very 

cheerfully along with him:  so we allotted them land and 

plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest 

chose to be employed as servants in the several families we had 

settled.  Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows:  The 

Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital 

city, and extended their plantations all along the side of the 

brook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as far 

as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always 

eastward.  The English lived in the north-east part, where Will 

Atkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-

west, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantation 

had a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, so 

that they need not jostle one another for want of room.  All the 

east end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the 

savages should come on shore there only for their customary 

barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody, 

nobody would disturb them:  and no doubt but they were often 

ashore, and went away again; for I never heard that the planters 

were ever attacked or disturbed any more.







CHAPTER VIII - SAILS FROM THE ISLAND FOR THE BRAZILS







IT now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the 

clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be 

set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told him that 

now I thought that it was put in a fair way; for the savages, being 

thus divided among the Christians, if they would but every one of 

them do their part with those which came under their hands, I hoped 

it might have a very good effect.



He agreed presently in that, if they did their part.  "But how," 

says he, "shall we obtain that of them?"  I told him we would call 

them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them, 

one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it - he to speak 

to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the 

English, who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly 

to them, and made them promise that they would never make any 

distinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages 

to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the 

true God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewise 

promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes 

one with another about religion.



When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found that the young woman I 

have mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were become 

intimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected 

the work Will Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four 

days after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman 

was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in all my 

observation or conversation in the world.  It came next into my 

mind, in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all the 

needful things I had to leave with them I had not left them a 

Bible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than my 

good friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a 

hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a 

Prayer-book.  However, the good woman's charity had a greater 

extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the 

comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them 

than I had done.



I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will 

Atkins's tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins's 

baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together - for Will 

Atkins told it me with a great deal of joy - I asked if they were 

together now, and he said, "Yes"; so I went into the house, and he 

with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse.  

"Oh, sir," says Will Atkins, "when God has sinners to reconcile to 

Himself, and aliens to bring home, He never wants a messenger; my 

wife has got a new instructor:  I knew I was unworthy, as I was 

incapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither from 

heaven - she is enough to convert a whole island of savages."  The 

young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her to 

sit-still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I 

hoped God would bless her in it.



We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any book 

among them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket, 

and pulled out my Bible.  "Here," said I to Atkins, "I have brought 

you an assistant that perhaps you had not before."  The man was so 

confounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but, 

recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning to 

his wife, "Here, my dear," says he, "did not I tell you our God, 

though He lives above, could hear what we have said?  Here's the 

book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now 

God has heard us and sent it."  When he had said so, the man fell 

into such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it, 

and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a 

child that was crying.



The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake 

that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent 

the book upon her husband's petition.  It is true that 

providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent 

sense; but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at that 

time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an 

express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that 

individual book.  But it was too serious a matter to suffer any 

delusion to take place, so I turned to the young woman, and told 

her we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her first 

and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to 

explain to her that God may be very properly said to answer our 

petitions, when, in the course of His providence, such things are 

in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we 

did not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular 

manner, and it is a mercy that it is not so.



This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there was 

no priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one of the 

most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so.  But the 

effect upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there, 

we may be sure, was no delusion.  Sure no man was ever more 

thankful in the world for anything of its kind than he was for the 

Bible, nor, I believe, never any man was glad of a Bible from a 

better principle; and though he had been a most profligate 

creature, headstrong, furious, and desperately wicked, yet this man 

is a standing rule to us all for the well instructing children, 

viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, nor 

ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children 

be ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction; 

for if ever God in His providence touches the conscience of such, 

the force of their education turns upon them, and the early 

instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been many 

years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit 

of it.  Thus it was with this poor man:  however ignorant he was of 

religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with 

now more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of the 

instruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of use 

to him.



Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to 

insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible, and the 

privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but 

he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, 

when, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted 

the help of the written oracle for his assistance.  The young woman 

was glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one, 

and so had the youth, on board our ship among their goods, which 

were not yet brought on shore.  And now, having said so many things 

of this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of her 

and myself, which has something in it very instructive and 

remarkable.



I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; 

how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board that 

unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was 

reduced to the last extremity.  The gentlewoman, and her son, and 

this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last 

totally neglected and starved - that is to say, brought to the last 

extremity of hunger.  One day, being discoursing with her on the 

extremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, by 

what she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared?  She 

said she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctly 

thus:-



"First, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and suffered 

very great hunger; but at last we were wholly without food of any 

kind except sugar, and a little wine and water.  The first day 

after I had received no food at all, I found myself towards 

evening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer night much 

inclined to yawning and sleep.  I lay down on the couch in the 

great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a 

little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down; 

after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in 

the morning, I found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and lay 

down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; 

and thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety - 

first hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit.  The second 

night, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than 

a draught of fresh water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at 

Barbadoes, and that the market was mightily stocked with 

provisions; that I bought some for my mistress, and went and dined 

very heartily.  I thought my stomach was full after this, as it 

would have been after a good dinner; but when I awaked I was 

exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of 

family.  The last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar in 

it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but 

there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to 

work upon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raise 

disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, as 

they told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for some time.  

The third day, in the morning, after a night of strange, confused, 

and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I awaked 

ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had not my 

understanding returned and conquered it, whether if I had been a 

mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have 

been safe or not.  This lasted about three hours, during which time 

I was twice raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young 

master told me, and as he can now inform you.



"In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I fell down and 

struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which my 

mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose; 

and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, I sat down and bled 

into it a great deal; and as the blood came from me I came to 

myself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was in abated, and 

so did the ravenous part of the hunger.  Then I grew sick, and 

retched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothing in my stomach to 

bring up.  After I had bled some time I swooned, and they all 

believed I was dead; but I came to myself soon after, and then had 

a most dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described - not like 

the colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food; and towards night it 

went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food.  I 

took another draught of water with sugar in it; but my stomach 

loathed the sugar and brought it all up again; then I took a 

draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me; and I laid 

me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would please 

God to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, I 

slumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, being 

light with vapours from an empty stomach.  I recommended my soul 

then to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me 

into the into the sea.



"All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as I thought, 

expiring, but she bore it with much more patience than I, and gave 

the last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master, 

who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it; and I 

believe it saved his life.  Towards the morning I slept again, and 

when I awoke I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after 

that had a second fit of violent hunger.  I got up ravenous, and in 

a most dreadful condition; and once or twice I was going to bite my 

own arm.  At last I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bled 

at my nose the day before:  I ran to it, and swallowed it with such 

haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wondered nobody had 

taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now.  After 

it was down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet 

it checked the fit of hunger, and I took another draught of water, 

and was composed and refreshed for some hours after.  This was the 

fourth day; and this I kept up till towards night, when, within the 

compass of three hours, I had all the several circumstances over 

again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain 

in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic, then 

crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, and 

my strength wasted exceedingly; at night I lay me down, having no 

comfort but in the hope that I should die before morning.



"All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned into 

a disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind instead 

of food having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition 

I lay till morning, when I was surprised by the cries and 

lamentations of my young master, who called out to me that his 

mother was dead.  I lifted myself up a little, for I had not 

strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able 

to give very little signs of life.  I had then such convulsions in 

my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot describe; with 

such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but the 

tortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I was when I 

heard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo and 

jump about as if they were distracted.  I was not able to get off 

from the bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was so 

sick that I thought he had been expiring; so we could not open the 

cabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such 

confusion; nor had we had any conversation with the ship's company 

for twelve days, they having told us that they had not a mouthful 

of anything to eat in the ship; and this they told us afterwards - 

they thought we had been dead.  It was this dreadful condition we 

were in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us, 

sir, you know as well as I, and better too."



This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of 

starving to death, as, I confess, I never met with, and was 

exceeding instructive to me.  I am the rather apt to believe it to 

be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a good 

part of it; though I must own, not so distinct and so feeling as 

the maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him at 

the price of her own life:  but the poor maid, whose constitution 

was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a 

weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless she 

might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her 

mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something 

longer than she parted with any to relieve her maid.  No question, 

as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not so 

providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all 

their lives.  I now return to my disposition of things among the 

people.  And, first, it is to be observed here, that for many 

reasons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop 

I had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for I 

found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among 

them, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among 

them, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, and 

gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so 

made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober 

and religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the two 

pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two 

quarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.  

I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war against 

any that should invade them, but not to set them up for an 

offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end, 

would only bring ruin and destruction upon them.  I reserved the 

sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I 

shall observe in its place.



Having now done with the island, I left them all in good 

circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my 

ship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-five days 

among them:  and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island 

till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relief 

from the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity.  I 

particularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep, 

hogs, and cows:  as to the two cows and calves which I brought from 

England, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill 

them at sea, for want of hay to feed them.



The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set 

sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in about 

twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but 

this:  that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed, 

and the current  setting strong to the ENE., running, as it were, 

into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out 

of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, "Land to the 

eastward!" but whether it was the continent or islands we could not 

tell by any means.  But the third day, towards evening, the sea 

smooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were covered 

towards the land with something very black; not being able to 

discover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going up 

the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a 

perspective, cried out it was an army.  I could not imagine what he 

meant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily.  "Nay, sir," 

says he, "don't be angry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too:  for I 

believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle 

along, for they are coming towards us apace."



I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the 

captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the 

island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could 

not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times, we 

should all be devoured.  I must confess, considering we were 

becalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked it 

the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship 

to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we must 

engage them.  The weather continued calm, and they came on apace 

towards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our 

sails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but 

fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten 

them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man 

them both well, and wait the issue in that posture:  this I did, 

that the men in the boats might he ready with sheets and buckets to 

put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix to the 

outside of the ship.



In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came 

up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians; 

though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their 

number, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred and 

twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in 

them, and some more, and the least six or seven.  When they came 

nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and 

astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen 

before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know 

what to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us, 

and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in 

the boats not to let them come too near them.  This very order 

brought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it; 

for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat, 

that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which 

they understood very well, and went back:  but at their retreat 

about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of 

our men in the long-boat was very much wounded.  However, I called 

to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal 

boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of 

fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the 

savages, if they should shoot again.



About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of 

us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though 

we could not tell their design; and I easily found they were some 

of my old friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used to 

engage with.  In a short time more they rowed a little farther out 

to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed 

down straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hear 

us speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they 

should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; but 

being so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon 

the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what 

they meant.  Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not; 

but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the 

foremost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and 

stooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a 

defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere 

contempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately Friday cried 

out they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, 

they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my 

inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being in 

their sight.  The poor fellow was shot with no less than three 

arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky 

marksmen they were!



I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and 

companion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with 

small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as 

they had never heard in their lives before.  They were not above 

half a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took their 

aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we 

had reason to believe, by one shot only.  The ill manners of 

turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neither 

did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the 

greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not; 

therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or 

five guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frighten 

them sufficiently:  but when they shot at us directly with all the 

fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my 

poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, 

so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before 

God and man, but would have been very glad if I could have overset 

every canoe there, and drowned every one of them.



I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at 

this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen 

among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their 

canoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming:  

the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as 

they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were 

split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of them were 

lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life, 

above an hour after they were all gone.  The small shot from our 

cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we 

never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that in 

three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four 

straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a 

breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set 

sail for the Brazils.



We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he 

would neither cat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve 

himself to death.  But I took a way to cure him:  for I had made 

them take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe 

they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they 

found him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but they 

really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him.  Then he 

followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his 

tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however at 

last they took him in again., and then he began to he more 

tractable:  nor did I ever design they should drown him.



We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolate 

creature alive for want of my man Friday, and would have been very 

glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest 

from thence for my occasion, but it could not be:  so we went on.  

We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long time before 

we could make him understand anything; but in time our men taught 

him some English, and he began to be a little tractable.  

Afterwards, we inquired what country he came from; but could make 

nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, 

and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we 

could never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion that 

they might speak that language as well if they were gagged as 

otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either 

for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as 

a hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat.  He told us, 

however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little 

English, that they were going with their kings to fight a great 

battle.  When he said kings, we asked him how many kings?  He said 

they were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural 

's), and that they all joined to go against two nation.  We asked 

him what made them come up to us?  He said, "To makee te great 

wonder look."  Here it is to be observed that all those natives, as 

also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at 

the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent 

upon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly make 

Friday leave it off, though at last he did.



And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leave 

of him.  Poor honest Friday!  We buried him with all the decency 

and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing 

him into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him.  

So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most 

affectionate servant that ever man had.



We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in about twelve 

days' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of 

the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of 

America.  We kept on S. by E., in sight of the shore four days, 

when we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to an 

anchor off the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance, 

from whence came both my good and evil fate.  Never ship came to 

this port that had less business than I had, and yet it was with 

great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least 

correspondence on shore:  not my partner himself, who was alive, 

and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees, 

not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could 

obtain me that favour.  My partner, however, remembering that I had 

given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the 

Augustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to 

the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to the 

governor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and one 

more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this 

upon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should not 

offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person 

away without licence.  They were so strict with us as to landing 

any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore 

three bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and 

some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.



He was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, like 

me, with little at first.  Though he knew not that I had the least 

design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of 

fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirty 

moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals of 

gold:  but I was even with him in my present, which, as I have 

said, consisted of fine broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine 

holland; also, I delivered him about the value of one hundred 

pounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses; and I obliged 

him to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me from England, 

as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the 

refreshments I intended to my plantation.



Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few 

days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of her such 

instructions that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as I had 

an account from my partner afterwards.  I got him soon loaded with 

the small cargo I sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been 

on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settle 

there, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot him a 

sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him 

some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he 

understood, having been an old planter at Maryland, and a buccaneer 

into the bargain.  I encouraged the fellow by granting all he 

desired; and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had 

taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governor 

Spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the 

rest.



When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was 

a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance, 

who had fallen into the displeasure of the Church.  "I know not 

what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I 

think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to 

conceal himself for fear of the Inquisition." He then told me that 

he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape, 

with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go to my 

island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small 

stock to begin with - for the officers of the Inquisition had 

seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a 

little household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though I 

hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into their 

hands, for he will be assuredly burned alive if he does."  I 

granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them:  and we 

concealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, 

till the sloop put out to go to sea; and then having put all their 

goods on board some time before, we put them on board the sloop 

after she was got out of the bay.  Our seaman was mightily pleased 

with this new partner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, 

rich in tools, in preparations, and a farm - but nothing to begin 

with, except as above:  however, they carried over with them what 

was worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes, 

with some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil planter, 

understood very well.



Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, I 

sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; about 

twenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-

horse.  For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three 

Brazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, and 

use them kindly.  I could have procured more women, but I 

remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and that 

there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted partners; the rest 

had wives of their own, though in another country.  All this cargo 

arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome to 

my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty 

and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a 

great many.  I found letters at London from them all, by way of 

Lisbon, when I came back to England.



I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about 

it:  and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to 

turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the 

follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by 

those of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years' 

miseries and disappointments - not satisfied with prosperity beyond 

expectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond 

example.







CHAPTER IX -  DREADFUL OCCURRENCES IN MADAGASCAR







I HAD no more business to go to the East Indies than a man at full 

liberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lock 

him up among the prisoners there, and starve him.  Had I taken a 

small vessel from England and gone directly to the island; had I 

loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for 

the plantation and for my people; taken a patent from the 

government here to have secured my property, in subjection only to 

that of England; had I carried over cannon and ammunition, servants 

and people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortified 

and strengthened it in the name of England, and increased it with 

people, as I might easily have done; had I then settled myself 

there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might also 

have done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to have 

fitted her out again for our supply - had I done this, and stayed 

there myself, I had at least acted like a man of common sense.  But 

I was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages:  

I pleased myself with being the patron of the people I placed 

there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like 

an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been 

father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation.  But I 

never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government 

or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people 

subjects to any one nation more than another; nay, I never so much 

as gave the place a name, but left it as I found it, belonging to 

nobody, and the people under no discipline or government but my 

own, who, though I had influence over them as a father and 

benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or 

other, further than voluntary consent moved them to comply.  Yet 

even this, had I stayed there, would have done well enough; but as 

I rambled from them, and came there no more, the last letters I had 

from any of them were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent 

another sloop to the place, and who sent me word, though I had not 

the letter till I got to London, several years after it was 

written, that they went on but poorly; were discontented with their 

long stay there; that Will Atkins was dead; that five of the 

Spaniards were come away; and though they had not been much 

molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with 

them; and that they begged of him to write to me to think of the 

promise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their 

country again before they died.



But I was gone a wildgoose chase indeed, and they that will have 

any more of me must be content to follow me into a new variety of 

follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein the justice of 

Providence may be duly observed; and we may see how easily Heaven 

can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes 

be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those very 

things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be 

allowed to possess.  Whether I had business or no business, away I 

went:  it is no time now to enlarge upon the reason or absurdity of 

my own conduct, but to come to the history - I was embarked for the 

voyage, and the voyage I went.



I shall only add a word or two concerning my honest Popish 

clergyman, for let their opinion of us, and all other heretics in 

general, as they call us, be as uncharitable as it may, I verily 

believe this man was very sincere, and wished the good of all men:  

yet I believe he used reserve in many of his expressions, to 

prevent giving me offence; for I scarce heard him once call on the 

Blessed Virgin, or mention St. Jago, or his guardian angel, though 

so common with the rest of them.  However, I say I had not the 

least doubt of his sincerity and pious intentions; and I am firmly 

of opinion, if the rest of the Popish missionaries were like him, 

they would strive to visit even the poor Tartars and Laplanders, 

where they have nothing to give them, as well as covet to flock to 

India, Persia, China, &c., the most wealthy of the heathen 

countries; for if they expected to bring no gains to their Church 

by it, it may well be admired how they came to admit the Chinese 

Confucius into the calendar of the Christian saints.



A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest asked me 

leave to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to 

finish any voyage he began.  How happy it had been for me if I had 

gone with him.  But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints 

for the best:  had I gone with him I had never had so many things 

to be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the second 

part of the travels and adventures of Robinson Crusoe:  so I must 

here leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage.  From 

the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to the Cape of 

Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generally 

south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but my 

disasters at sea were at an end - my future rubs and cross events 

were to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as 

well prepared to be our scourge as the sea.



Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, 

who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape, 

only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by 

charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to.  This was 

none of my business, neither did I meddle with it; my nephew, the 

captain, and the supercargo adjusting all those things between them 

as they thought fit.  We stayed at the Cape no longer than was 

needful to take in-fresh water, but made the best of our way for 

the coast of Coromandel.  We were, indeed, informed that a French 

man-of-war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were gone 

for the Indies; and as I knew we were at war with France, I had 

some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we 

heard no more of them.



I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places, 

journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes, 

trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which 

we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one 

to another.  We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, 

though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed 

with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, 

yet we fared very well with them a while.  They treated us very 

civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, 

scissors, &c., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, of a 

middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for 

our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use.



We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished 

ourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious to 

look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as 

often as I could.  It was on the east side of the island that we 

went on shore one evening:  and the people, who, by the way, are 

very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a 

distance.  As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly 

used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the 

people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a 

distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country not 

only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other 

side set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that they 

accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the 

truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards 

them, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you; 

so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all 

the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market 

for free converse, traffic, and commerce.  When you go there you 

must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that 

space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first 

poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them, 

and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles, and lay 

hold of their weapons, and the truce is at an end.



It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater 

number of their people came down than usual, but all very friendly 

and civil; and they brought several kinds of provisions, for which 

we satisfied them with such toys as we had; the women also brought 

us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and 

all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs 

or trees, and lay on shore all night.  I know not what was the 

occasion, but I was not so well satisfied to lie on shore as the 

rest; and the boat riding at an anchor at about a stone's cast from 

the land, with two men in her to take care of her, I made one of 

them come on shore; and getting some boughs of trees to cover us 

also in the boat, I spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and 

lay under the cover of the branches of the trees all night in the 

boat.



About two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men making a 

terrible noise on the shore, calling out, for God's sake, to bring 

the boat in and come and help them, for they were all like to be 

murdered; and at the same time I heard the fire of five muskets, 

which was the number of guns they had, and that three times over; 

for it seems the natives here were not so easily frightened with 

guns as the savages were in America, where I had to do with them.  

All this while, I knew not what was the matter, but rousing 

immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be 

thrust in, and resolved with three fusees we had on board to land 

and assist our men.  We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men 

were in too much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged 

into the water, to get to the boat with all the expedition they 

could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men.  Our 

men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees with 

them; the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were of 

small use to them.



We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too, three 

of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse was, 

that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as 

much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows 

in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricade the side of the 

boat up with the benches, and two or three loose boards which, to 

our great satisfaction, we had by mere accident in the boat.  And 

yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen, 

that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they 

would have been sure of us.  We had, by the light of the moon, a 

little sight of them, as they stood pelting us from the shore with 

darts and arrows; and having got ready our firearms, we gave them a 

volley that we could hear, by the cries of some of them, had 

wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on the 

shore till break of day, which we supposed was that they might see 

the better to take their aim at us.



In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our 

anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the 

boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a 

tree with small shot.  We made signals of distress to the ship, and 

though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing 

our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and 

that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and 

weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he 

durst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in 

her, to assist us.  We called to them not to come too near, telling 

them what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us, 

and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and 

keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not 

perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the 

boat:  upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our 

anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the 

while lying close behind the barricade we had made.  As soon as we 

were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her 

side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a 

broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small 

bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a 

terrible havoc among them.



When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine 

into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had 

been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure 

the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a 

truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it.  At 

length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some 

milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her, 

who also brought us some roots or herbs; and while the old woman 

(whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not 

tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness 

to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great 

noise:  however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried 

her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being almost 

dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose, 

made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice, 

raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was 

great odds but we had all been destroyed.



One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the 

beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had 

made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the 

occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his 

brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great 

while.  We lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind 

presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail up 

shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were 

obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the 

loss had been less.  I could not satisfy myself, however, without 

venturing on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of 

him or them; it was the third night after the action that I had a 

great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had 

done, and how the game stood on the Indians' side.  I was careful 

to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again:  but I 

ought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had been 

under my command, before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and 

mischievous as I was brought into by it, without design.



We took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides 

the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight, 

at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up in the evening 

before.  I landed here, because my design, as I have said, was 

chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left 

any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and I 

thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might 

get our man again, by way of exchange.



We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies, 

whereof the boatswain commanded one and I the other.  We neither 

saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed:  and we marched up, one 

body at a distance from another, to the place.  At first we could 

see nothing, it being very dark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who 

led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body.  This made 

them halt a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were 

at the place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming 

up there.  We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which 

we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern 

the havoc we had made among them.  We told thirty-two bodies upon 

the ground, whereof two were not quite dead; some had an arm and 

some a leg shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded, we 

supposed, they had carried away.  When we had made, as I thought, a 

full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved 

on going on board; but the boatswain and his party sent me word 

that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where 

these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along 

with them; and if they could find them, as they still fancied they 

should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it might be 

they might find Tom Jeffry there:  that was the man's name we had 

lost.



Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer 

to have given them; for I should have commanded them instantly on 

board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a 

ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyage to make which 

depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me 

word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to 

go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose up, for I was 

sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat.  One or two of 

the men began to importune me to go; and when I refused, began to 

grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go.  

"Come, Jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me?  I'll go 

for one."  Jack said he would - and then another - and, in a word, 

they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left 

in the boat.  So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went 

back to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and 

take care to take in as many of them as should be left; for I told 

them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of 

them would have the fate of Tom Jeffry.



They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come 

off again, and they would take care, &c.; so away they went.  I 

entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their 

lives were not their own, and that they were entrusted with the 

voyage, in some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be 

lost for want of their help, and that they could not answer for it 

to God or man.  But I might as well have talked to the mainmast of 

the ship:  they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good 

words, and begged I would not be angry; that they did not doubt but 

they would be back again in about an hour at furthest; for the 

Indian town, they said, was not above half-a mile off, though they 

found it above two miles before they got to it.



Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and 

such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them 

their due, they went about it as warily as boldly; they were 

gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a 

bayonet, and a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of 

them had hangers, and the boatswain and two more had poleaxes; 

besides all which they had among them thirteen hand grenadoes.  

Bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked 

work in the world.  When they went out their chief design was 

plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a 

circumstance which none of them were aware of set them on fire with 

revenge, and made devils of them all.



When they came to the few Indian houses which they thought had been 

the town, which was not above half a mile off, they were under 

great disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen 

houses, and where the town was, or how big, they knew not.  They 

consulted, therefore, what to do, and were some time before they 

could resolve; for if they fell upon these, they must cut all their 

throats; and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it 

being in the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he 

would run and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army 

upon them; on the other hand, if they went away and left those 

untouched, for the people were all asleep, they could not tell 

which way to look for the town; however, the last was the best 

advice, so they resolved to leave them, and look for the town as 

well as they could.  They went on a little way, and found a cow 

tied to a tree; this, they presently concluded, would be a good 

guide to them; for, they said, the cow certainly belonged to the 

town before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied her, 

they should see which way she went:  if she went back, they had 

nothing to say to her; but if she went forward, they would follow 

her.  So they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and 

the cow went on before them, directly to the town; which, as they 

reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in 

some of these they found several families living together.



Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could 

make them:  and first, they called another council, to consider 

what they had to do; and presently resolved to divide themselves 

into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire in three parts 

of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them 

(if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then), and so 

to search the rest of the houses for plunder:  but they resolved to 

march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it 

was of, and if they might venture upon it or no.



They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon 

them:  but while they were animating one another to the work, three 

of them, who were a little before the rest, called out aloud to 

them, and told them that they had found - Tom Jeffry:  they all ran 

up to the place, where they found the poor fellow hanging up naked 

by one arm, and his throat cut.  There was an Indian house just by 

the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal 

Indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two 

or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were 

awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their 

number.



The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, 

that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and 

that not an Indian that came into their hands should have any 

quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as 

might be expected from the rage and fury they were in.  Their first 

care was to get something that would soon take fire, but, after a 

little search, they found that would be to no purpose; for most of 

the houses were low, and thatched with flags and rushes, of which 

the country is full; so they presently made some wildfire, as we 

call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm of their hands, and 

in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five 

places, and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone 

to bed.



As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures 

began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in 

the attempt; and especially at the door, where they drove them 

back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his poleaxe.  

The house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, 

but called for a hand grenado, and threw it among them, which at 

first frightened them, but, when it burst, made such havoc among 

them that they cried out in a hideous manner.  In short, most of 

the Indians who were in the open part of the house were killed or 

hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed to the 

door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets on 

the muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their 

way; but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince 

or king, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these 

were kept in till the house, which was by this time all in a light 

flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered together.



All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken 

the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began 

to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a 

little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the 

houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could 

hardly bear the street between them.  Their business was to follow 

the fire, for the surer execution:  as fast as the fire either 

forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or 

frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors 

to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one to 

another to remember Tom Jeffry.



While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, and 

especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being 

night, seemed to be close by me.  My nephew, the captain, who was 

roused by his men seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing 

what the matter was, or what danger I was in, especially hearing 

the guns too, for by this time they began to use their firearms; a 

thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the 

supercargo, what would become of us; and at last, though he could 

ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence we might be 

in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came 

ashore to me.



He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no 

more than two men; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he 

was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing; for the 

noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to 

an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their 

curiosity to know what had happened, or their concern for the 

safety of the men:  in a word, the captain told me he would go and 

help his men, let what would come.  I argued with him, as I did 

before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of the 

voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, &c., and told 

him I and the two men would go, and only see if we could at a 

distance learn what was likely to be the event, and come back and 

tell him.  It was in vain to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk 

to the rest before; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had 

left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his 

men lost for want of help:  he had rather lose the ship, the 

voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went.



I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them 

not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, 

and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and 

that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and 

six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the 

ship:  for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men, 

whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought this 

mischief on.



Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on; 

and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to 

the place of the flame.  If the noise of the guns was surprising to 

us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another 

nature, and filled us with horror.  I must confess I was never at 

the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm.  I had heard 

of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man, 

woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of 

Magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all 

sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is 

it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our minds 

at hearing it.  However, we went on, and at length came to the 

town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire.  

The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or 

rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before 

it, plainly now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men 

and three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay in 

the heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances of 

rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was 

human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it; 

or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be 

every one of them put to the worst of deaths.  But this was not 

all:  we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as 

the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion.  We 

advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment, 

three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came 

flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen 

men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of 

our English butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake 

them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot 

fell down in our sight.  When the rest saw us, believing us to be 

their enemies, and that we would murder them as well as those that 

pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the 

women; and two of them fell down, as if already dead, with the 

fright.



My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, 

when I saw this; and, I believe, had the three English sailors that 

pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all; however, we 

took some means to let the poor flying creatures know that we would 

not hurt them; and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling 

down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to 

save them, which we let them know we would:  whereupon they crept 

all together in a huddle close behind us, as for protection.  I 

left my men drawn up together, and, charging them to hurt nobody, 

but, if possible, to get at some of our people, and see what devil 

it was possessed them, and what they intended to do, and to command 

them off; assuring them that if they stayed till daylight they 

would have a hundred thousand men about their ears:  I say I left 

them, and went among those flying people, taking only two of our 

men with me; and there was, indeed, a piteous spectacle among them.  

Some of them had their feet terribly burned with trampling and 

running through the fire; others their hands burned; one of the 

women had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned before 

she could get out again; and two or three of the men had cuts in 

their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shot 

through the body and died while I was there.



I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but I 

could not understand one word they said; though, by signs, I 

perceived some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves.  

I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt that I 

could not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to 

go into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever might 

be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would; 

accordingly, as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution, 

and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, came 

four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, roving over 

heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, 

as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to 

them as loud as they could halloo; and with much ado one of them 

made them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us.



As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of 

triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without 

waiting to hear me, "Captain," says he, "noble captain!  I am glad 

you are come; we have not half done yet.  Villainous hell-hound 

dogs!  I'll kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his 

head:  we have sworn to spare none of them; we'll root out the very 

nation of them from the earth;" and thus he ran on, out of breath, 

too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word.  At 

last, raising my voice that I might silence him a little, 

"Barbarous dog!" said I, "what are you doing!  I won't have one 

creature touched more, upon pain of death; I charge you, upon your 

life, to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead 

man this minute." - "Why, sir," says he, "do you know what you do, 

or what they have done?  If you want a reason for what we have 

done, come hither;" and with that he showed me the poor fellow 

hanging, with his throat cut.



I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time would have 

been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too 

far, and remembered Jacob's words to his sons Simeon and Levi:  

"Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it 

was cruel."  But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the 

men I had carried with me saw the sight, as I had done, I had as 

much to do to restrain them as I should have had with the others; 

nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their 

hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being 

overpowered; and as to the people, he thought not one of them ought 

to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the 

poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers.  Upon 

these words, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his 

crew, to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of 

my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I could 

not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the 

poor wretches that fell into their hands.



I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, 

and with these walked back to the boat.  It was a very great piece 

of folly in me, I confess, to venture back, as it were, alone; for 

as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the 

country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and boughs 

at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood, 

mentioned before:  but by accident I missed the place, and came 

directly to the seaside, and by the time I got to the seaside it 

was broad day:  immediately I took the pinnace and went on board, 

and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen.  I 

observed, about the time that I came to the boat-side, that the 

fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half-

an-hour after I got on board, I heard a volley of our men's 

firearms, and saw a great smoke.  This, as I understood afterwards, 

was our men falling upon the men, who, as I said, stood at the few 

houses on the way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and 

set all the houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or 

children.



By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men 

began to appear; they came dropping in, not in two bodies as they 

went, but straggling here and there in such a manner, that a small 

force of resolute men might have cut them all off.  But the dread 

of them was upon the whole country; and the men were surprised, and 

so frightened, that I believe a hundred of them would have fled at 

the sight of but five of our men.  Nor in all this terrible action 

was there a man that made any considerable defence:  they were so 

surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden attack of 

our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn 

themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one party, if 

back again by another, so that they were everywhere knocked down; 

nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except one that 

sprained his foot, and another that had one of his hands burned.







CHAPTER X - HE IS LEFT ON SHORE







I WAS very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed with all 

the men, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so out 

of his duty as a commander of the ship, and having the charge of 

the voyage upon him, as in his prompting, rather than cooling, the 

rage of his blind men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise.  My 

nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw 

the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in so cruel and 

barbarous a manner, he was not master of himself, neither could he 

govern his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he was 

commander of the ship; but as he was a man, and nature moved him, 

he could not bear it.  As for the rest of the men, they were not 

subject to me at all, and they knew it well enough; so they took no 

notice of my dislike.  The next day we set sail, so we never heard 

any more of it.  Our men differed in the account of the number they 

had killed; but according to the best of their accounts, put all 

together, they killed or destroyed about one hundred and fifty 

people, men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in 

the town.  As for the poor fellow Tom Jeffry, as he was quite dead 

(for his throat was so cut that his head was half off), it would do 

him no service to bring him away; so they only took him down from 

the tree, where he was hanging by one hand.



However just our men thought this action, I was against them in it, 

and I always, after that time, told them God would blast the 

voyage; for I looked upon all the blood they shed that night to be 

murder in them.  For though it is true that they had killed Tom 

Jeffry, yet Jeffry was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had 

ill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down to them innocently, 

and on the faith of the public capitulation.



The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on 

board.  He said it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but 

really had not; and that the war was begun the night before by the 

natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men 

without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to 

fight them now, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves 

justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poor 

man had taken a little liberty with the girl, he ought not to have 

been murdered, and that in such a villainous manner:  and that they 

did nothing but what was just and what the laws of God allowed to 

be done to murderers.  One would think this should have been enough 

to have warned us against going on shore amongst the heathens and 

barbarians; but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their 

own expense, and their experience seems to be always of most use to 

them when it is dearest bought.



We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to the 

coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of the 

supercargo's design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where, if he missed 

his business outward-bound, he was to go out to China, and return 

to the coast as he came home.  The first disaster that befell us 

was in the Gulf of Persia, where five of our men, venturing on 

shore on the Arabian side of the gulf, were surrounded by the 

Arabians, and either all killed or carried away into slavery; the 

rest of the boat's crew were not able to rescue them, and had but 

just time to get off their boat.  I began to upbraid them with the 

just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain very 

warmly told me, he thought I went further in my censures than I 

could show any warrant for in Scripture; and referred to Luke xiii. 

4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on whom the Tower of 

Siloam fell were not sinners above all the Galileans; but that 

which put me to silence in the case was, that not one of these five 

men who were now lost were of those who went on shore to the 

massacre of Madagascar, so I always called it, though our men could 

not bear to hear the word MASSACRE with any patience.



But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse 

consequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been the 

head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he 

found that I brought that affair continually upon the stage; that I 

made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on 

that account, and himself in particular; that as I was but a 

passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in the 

voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know 

but I might have some ill-design in my head, and perhaps to call 

them to an account for it when they came to England; and that, 

therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and also 

not to concern myself any further with him, or any of his affairs, 

he would leave the ship; for he did not think it safe to sail with 

me among them.



I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him 

that I confessed I had all along opposed the massacre of 

Madagascar, and that I had, on all occasions, spoken my mind freely 

about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as to 

having no command in the ship, that was true; nor did I exercise 

any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things 

which publicly concerned us all; and what concern I had in the 

voyage was none of his business; that I was a considerable owner in 

the ship.  In that claim I conceived I had a right to speak even 

further than I had done, and would not be accountable to him or any 

one else, and began to be a little warm with him.  He made but 

little reply to me at that time, and I thought the affair had been 

over.  We were at this time in the road at Bengal; and being 

willing to see the place, I went on shore with the supercargo in 

the ship's boat to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing 

to go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he 

would not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they 

had orders not to carry me on board any more.  Any one may guess 

what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the 

man who bade him deliver that message to me?  He told me the 

coxswain.



I immediately found out the supercargo, and told him the story, 

adding that I foresaw there would be a mutiny in the ship; and 

entreated him to go immediately on board and acquaint the captain 

of it.  But I might have spared this intelligence, for before I had 

spoken to him on shore the matter was effected on board.  The 

boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and all the inferior 

officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat, came up, and 

desired to speak with the captain; and then the boatswain, making a 

long harangue, and repeating all he had said to me, told the 

captain that as I was now gone peaceably on shore, they were loath 

to use any violence with me, which, if I had not gone on shore, 

they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone.  They 

therefore thought fit to tell him that as they shipped themselves 

to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it well 

and faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain 

oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no 

further with him; and at that word ALL he turned his face towards 

the main-mast, which was, it seems, a signal agreed on, when the 

seamen, being got together there, cried out, "ONE AND ALL! ONE AND 

ALL!"



My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence 

of mind; and though he was surprised, yet he told them calmly that 

he would consider of the matter, but that he could do nothing in it 

till he had spoken to me about it.  He used some arguments with 

them, to show them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, 

but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round before 

his face, that they would all go on shore unless he would engage to 

them not to suffer me to come any more on board the ship.



This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, 

and did not know how I might take it.  So he began to talk smartly 

to them; told them that I was a very considerable owner of the 

ship, and that if ever they came to England again it would cost 

them very dear; that the ship was mine, and that he could not put 

me out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and the 

voyage too, than disoblige me so much:  so they might do as they 

pleased.  However, he would go on shore and talk with me, and 

invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might 

accommodate the matter with me.  But they all rejected the 

proposal, and said they would have nothing to do with me any more; 

and if I came on board they would all go on shore.  "Well," said 

the captain, "if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore and 

talk with him."  So away he came to me with this account, a little 

after the message had been brought to me from the coxswain.



I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess; for I was not 

without apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set 

sail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been stripped 

naked in a remote country, having nothing to help myself; in short, 

I had been in a worse case than when I was alone in the island.  

But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my satisfaction; 

and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how they 

had sworn and shook hands that they would, one and all, leave the 

ship if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should not 

be concerned at it at all, for I would stay on shore.  I only 

desired he would take care and send me all my necessary things on 

shore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my 

way to England as well as I could.  This was a heavy piece of news 

to my nephew, but there was no way to help it but to comply; so, in 

short, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that 

his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent for his 

goods from on board the ship; so that the matter was over in a few 

hours, the men returned to their duty, and I began to consider what 

course I should steer.



I was now alone in a most remote part of the world, for I was near 

three thousand leagues by sea farther off from England than I was 

at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here by land over 

the Great Mogul's country to Surat, might go from thence to Bassora 

by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and take the way of the caravans, 

over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scanderoon; from thence by 

sea again to Italy, and so overland into France.  I had another way 

before me, which was to wait for some English ships, which were 

coming to Bengal from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, and get 

passage on board them from England.  But as I came hither without 

any concern with the East Indian Company, so it would be difficult 

to go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of 

the captains of the ships, or the company's factors:  and to both I 

was an utter stranger.



Here I had the mortification to see the ship set sail without me; 

however, my nephew left me two servants, or rather one companion 

and one servant; the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged 

to go with me, and the other was his own servant.  I then took a 

good lodging in the house of an Englishwoman, where several 

merchants lodged, some French, two Italians, or rather Jews, and 

one Englishman.  Here I stayed above nine months, considering what 

course to take.  I had some English goods with me of value, and a 

considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand 

pieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more if I had occasion, 

that I might not be straitened, whatever might happen.  I quickly 

disposed of my goods to advantage; and, as I originally intended, I 

bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all other things, 

were the most proper for me in my present circumstances, because I 

could always carry my whole estate about me.



During my stay here many proposals were made for my return to 

England, but none falling out to my mind, the English merchant who 

lodged with me, and whom I had contracted an intimate acquaintance 

with, came to me one morning, saying:  "Countryman, I have a 

project to communicate, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, 

for aught I know, suit with yours also, when you shall have 

thoroughly considered it.  Here we are posted, you by accident and 

I by my own choice, in a part of the world very remote from our own 

country; but it is in a country where, by us who understand trade 

and business, a great deal of money is to be got.  If you will put 

one thousand pounds to my one thousand pounds, we will hire a ship 

here, the first we can get to our minds.  You shall be captain, 

I'll be merchant, and we'll go a trading voyage to China; for what 

should we stand still for?  The whole world is in motion; why 

should we be idle?"



I liked this proposal very well; and the more so because it seemed 

to be expressed with so much goodwill.  In my loose, unhinged 

circumstances, I was the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, or 

indeed anything else.  I might perhaps say with some truth, that if 

trade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeing 

any part of the world which I had never seen before could possibly 

come amiss to me.  It was, however, some time before we could get a 

ship to our minds, and when we had got a vessel, it was not easy to 

get English sailors - that is to say, so many as were necessary to 

govern the voyage and manage the sailors which we should pick up 

there.  After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, 

English; a Dutch carpenter, and three foremast men.  With these we 

found we could do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as they 

were, to make up.



When all was ready we set sail for Achin, in the island of Sumatra, 

and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for 

opium and some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great 

price among the Chinese, and which at that time was much wanted 

there.  Then we went up to Saskan, were eight months out, and on 

our return to Bengal I was very well satisfied with my adventure.  

Our people in England often admire how officers, which the company 

send into India, and the merchants which generally stay there, get 

such very great estates as they do, and sometimes come home worth 

sixty or seventy thousand pounds at a time; but it is little matter 

for wonder, when we consider the innumerable ports and places where 

they have a free commerce; indeed, at the ports where the English 

ships come there is such great and constant demands for the growth 

of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the 

returns, as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out.



I got so much money by my first adventure, and such an insight into 

the method of getting more, that had I been twenty years younger, I 

should have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther 

for making my fortune; but what was all this to a man upwards of 

threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience 

to a restless desire of seeing the world than a covetous desire of 

gaining by it?  A restless desire it really was, for when I was at 

home I was restless to go abroad; and when I was abroad I was 

restless to be at home.  I say, what was this gain to me?  I was 

rich enough already, nor had I any uneasy desires about getting 

more money; therefore the profit of the voyage to me was of no 

great force for the prompting me forward to further undertakings.  

Hence, I thought that by this voyage I had made no progress at all, 

because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from 

whence I came, as to a home:  whereas, my eye, like that which 

Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing.  I was come 

into a part of the world which I was never in before, and that 

part, in particular, which I heard much of, and was resolved to see 

as much of it as I could:  and then I thought I might say I had 

seen all the world that was worth seeing.



But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions:  I acknowledge 

his were the more suited to the end of a merchant's life:  who, 

when he is abroad upon adventures, is wise to stick to that, as the 

best thing for him, which he is likely to get the most money by.  

On the other hand, mine was the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that 

never cares to see a thing twice over.  But this was not all:  I 

had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet an 

unsettled resolution which way to go.  In the interval of these 

consultations, my friend, who was always upon the search for 

business, proposed another voyage among the Spice Islands, to bring 

home a loading of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts.



We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty 

was in bringing me to come into it.  However, at last, nothing else 

offering, and as sitting still, to me especially, was the 

unhappiest part of life, I resolved on this voyage too, which we 

made very successfully, touching at Borneo and several other 

islands, and came home in about five months, when we sold our 

spices, with very great profit, to the Persian merchants, who 

carried them away to the Gulf.  My friend, when we made up this 

account, smiled at me:  "Well, now," said he, with a sort of 

friendly rebuke on my indolent temper, "is not this better than 

walking about here, like a man with nothing to do, and spending our 

time in staring at the nonsense and ignorance of the Pagans?" - 

"Why, truly," said I, "my friend, I think it is, and I begin to be 

a convert to the principles of merchandising; but I must tell you, 

by the way, you do not know what I am doing; for if I once conquer 

my backwardness, and embark heartily, old as I am, I shall harass 

you up and down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue it so 

eagerly, I shall never let you lie still."







CHAPTER XI - WARNED OF DANGER BY A COUNTRYMAN







A LITTLE while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; 

she was a coaster, not an European trader, of about two hundred 

tons burden; the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly that 

the captain had not hands enough to go to sea with, so he lay by at 

Bengal; and having, it seems, got money enough, or being willing, 

for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public notice he would 

sell his ship.  This came to my ears before my new partner heard of 

it, and I had a great mind to buy it; so I went to him and told him 

of it.  He considered a while, for he was no rash man neither; and 

at last replied, "She is a little too big - however, we will have 

her."  Accordingly, we bought the ship, and agreeing with the 

master, we paid for her, and took possession.  When we had done so 

we resolved to engage the men, if we could, to join with those we 

had, for the pursuing our business; but, on a sudden, they having 

received not their wages, but their share of the money, as we 

afterwards learned, not one of them was to be found; we inquired 

much about them, and at length were told that they were all gone 

together by land to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence, 

to proceed from thence to Surat, and then go by sea to the Gulf of 

Persia.



Nothing had so much troubled me a good while as that I should miss 

the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought, 

and in such company as would both have guarded and diverted me, 

would have suited mightily with my great design; and I should have 

both seen the world and gone homeward too.  But I was much better 

satisfied a few days after, when I came to know what sort of 

fellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this man 

they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that 

they had been a trading voyage, in which they had been attacked on 

shore by some of the Malays, who had killed the captain and three 

of his men; and that after the captain was killed, these men, 

eleven in number, having resolved to run away with the ship, 

brought her to Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore.



Well, let them get the ship how they would, we came honestly by 

her, as we thought, though we did not, I confess, examine into 

things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired anything of 

the seamen, who would certainly have faltered in their account, and 

contradicted one another.  Somehow or other we should have had 

reason to have suspected, them; but the man showed us a bill of 

sale for the ship, to one Emanuel Clostershoven, or some such name, 

for I suppose it was all a forgery, and called himself by that 

name, and we could not contradict him:  and withal, having no 

suspicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain.  We 

picked up some more English sailors here after this, and some 

Dutch, and now we resolved on a second voyage to the south-east for 

cloves, &c. - that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca 

isles.  In short, not to fill up this part of my story with trifles 

when what is to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, 

six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and 

forward, and with very good success, and was now the last year with 

my new partner, going in the ship above mentioned, on a voyage to 

China, but designing first to go to Siam to buy rice.



In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down 

a great while in the Straits of Malacca and among the islands, we 

were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas than we found our 

ship had sprung a leak, but could not discover where it was.  This 

forced us to make some port; and my partner, who knew the country 

better than I did, directed the captain to put into the river of 

Cambodia; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompson, 

captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon 

myself.  This river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf 

which goes up to Siam.  While we were here, and going often on 

shore for refreshment, there comes to me one day an Englishman, a 

gunner's mate on board an English East India ship, then riding in 

the same river.  "Sir," says he, addressing me, "you are a stranger 

to me, and I to you; but I have something to tell you that very 

nearly concerns you.  I am moved by the imminent danger you are in, 

and, for aught I see, you have no knowledge of it." - "I know no 

danger I am in," said I, "but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot 

find it out; but I intend to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I 

can find it." - "But, sir," says he, "leaky or not leaky, you will 

be wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow when you hear 

what I have to say to you.  Do you know, sir," said he, "the town 

of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up the river; and there are 

two large English ships about five leagues on this side, and three 

Dutch?" - "Well," said I, "and what is that to me?" - "Why, sir," 

said be, "is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are 

to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are 

there, and whether he is able to deal with them?  I suppose you do 

not think you are a match for them?"  I could not conceive what he 

meant; and I turned short upon him, and said:  "I wish you would 

explain yourself; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid 

of any of the company's ships, or Dutch ships.  I am no interloper.  

What can they have to say to me?" - "Well, sir," says he, with a 

smile, "if you think yourself secure you must take your chance; but 

take my advice, if you do not put to sea immediately, you will the 

very next tide be attacked by five longboats full of men, and 

perhaps if you are taken you will be hanged for a pirate, and the 

particulars be examined afterwards.  I thought, sir," added he, "I 

should have met with a better reception than this for doing you a 

piece of service of such importance." - "I can never be 

ungrateful," said I, "for any service, or to any man that offers me 

any kindness; but it is past my comprehension what they should have 

such a design upon me for:  however, since you say there is no time 

to be lost, and that there is some villainous design on hand 

against me, I will go on board this minute, and put to sea 

immediately, if my men can stop the leak; but, sir," said I, "shall 

I go away ignorant of the cause of all this?  Can you give me no 

further light into it?"



"I can tell you but part of the story, sir," says he; "but I have a 

Dutch seaman here with me, and I believe I could persuade him to 

tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it.  But the short 

of the story is this - the first part of which I suppose you know 

well enough - that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there 

your captain was murdered by the Malays, with three of his men; and 

that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away 

with the ship, and are since turned pirates.  This is the sum of 

the story, and you will all be seized as pirates, I can assure you, 

and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant ships 

show but little law to pirates if they get them into their power." 

- "Now you speak plain English," said I, "and I thank you; and 

though I know nothing that we have done like what you talk of, for 

I am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such 

a work is doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I 

will be upon my guard." - "Nay, sir," says he, "do not talk of 

being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of danger.  If 

you have any regard for your life and the lives of all your men, 

put to sea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide 

before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down; 

for they will come away at high-water, and as they have twenty 

miles to come, you will get near two hours of them by the 

difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way:  

besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not 

venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows." - 

"Well," said I, "you have been very kind in this:  what shall I do 

to make you amends?" - "Sir," says he, "you may not be willing to 

make me any amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth 

of it.  I will make an offer to you:  I have nineteen months' pay 

due to me on board the ship -, which I came out of England in; and 

the Dutchman that is with me has seven months' pay due to him.  If 

you will make good our pay to us we will go along with you; if you 

find nothing more in it we will desire no more; but if we do 

convince you that we have saved your lives, and the ship, and the 

lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you."



I consented to this readily, and went immediately on board, and the 

two men with me.  As soon as I came to the ship's side, my partner, 

who was on board, came out on the quarter-deck, and called to me, 

with a great deal of joy, "We have stopped the leak - we have 

stopped the leak!" - "Say you so?" said I; "thank God; but weigh 

anchor, then, immediately." - "Weigh!" says he; "what do you mean 

by that?  What is the matter?" - "Ask no questions," said I; "but 

set all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute."  He was 

surprised; however, he called the captain, and he immediately 

ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite 

down, yet a little land-breeze blowing, we stood out to sea.  Then 

I called him into the cabin, and told him the story; and we called 

in the men, and they told us the rest of it; but as it took up a 

great deal of time, before we had done a seaman comes to the cabin 

door, and called out to us that the captain bade him tell us we 

were chased by five sloops, or boats, full of men.  "Very well," 

said I, "then it is apparent there is something in it."  I then 

ordered all our men to be called up, and told them there was a 

design to seize the ship, and take us for pirates, and asked them 

if they would stand by us, and by one another; the men answered 

cheerfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us.  

Then I asked the captain what way he thought best for us to manage 

a fight with them; for resist them I was resolved we would, and 

that to the last drop.  He said readily, that the way was to keep 

them off with our great shot as long as we could, and then to use 

our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of 

these would do any longer, we would retire to our close quarters, 

for perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulkheads, or 

get in upon us.



The gunner had in the meantime orders to bring two guns, to bear 

fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them 

with musket-bullets, and small pieces of old iron, and what came 

next to hand.  Thus we made ready for fight; but all this while we 

kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a 

distance, being five large longboats, following us with all the 

sail they could make.



Two of those boats (which by our glasses we could see were English) 

outsailed the rest, were near two leagues ahead of them, and gained 

upon us considerably, so that we found they would come up with us; 

upon which we fired a gun without ball, to intimate that they 

should bring to:  and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for 

parley:  but they came crowding after us till within shot, when we 

took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it, and hung 

out a red flag, and fired at them with a shot.  Notwithstanding 

this, they came on till they were near enough to call to them with 

a speaking-trumpet, bidding them keep off at their peril.



It was all one; they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come 

under our stern, so as to board us on our quarter; upon which, 

seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the 

strength that followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, so 

that they lay upon our broadside; when immediately we fired five 

guns at them, one of which had been levelled so true as to carry 

away the stern of the hindermost boat, and we then forced them to 

take down their sail, and to run all to the head of the boat, to 

keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; but 

seeing the foremost boat crowd on after us, we made ready to fire 

at her in particular.  While this was doing one of the three boats 

that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve 

her, and we could see her take out the men.  We then called again 

to the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parley again, and to 

know what her business was with us; but had no answer, only she 

crowded close under our stern.  Upon this, our gunner who was a 

very dexterous fellow ran out his two case-guns, and fired again at 

her, but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their 

caps, and came on.  The gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired 

among them a second time, one shot of which, though it missed the 

boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see did 

a great deal of mischief among them.  We now wore the ship again, 

and brought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three guns 

more, we found the boat was almost split to pieces; in particular, 

her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot quite away; so they 

handed her sail immediately, and were in great disorder.  To 

complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them 

again; where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat 

was sinking, and some of the men already in the water:  upon this, 

I immediately manned out our pinnace, with orders to pick up some 

of the men if they could, and save them from drowning, and 

immediately come on board ship with them, because we saw the rest 

of the boats began to come up.  Our men in the pinnace followed 

their orders, and took up three men, one of whom was just drowning, 

and it was a good while before we could recover him.  As soon as 

they were on board we crowded all the sail we could make, and stood 

farther out to the sea; and we found that when the other boats came 

up to the first, they gave over their chase.



Being thus delivered from a danger which, though I knew not the 

reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I 

resolved that we should change our course, and not let any one know 

whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out 

of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound to 

China or anywhere else, within the commerce of the European 

nations.  When we were at sea we began to consult with the two 

seamen, and inquire what the meaning of all this should be; and the 

Dutchman confirmed the gunner's story about the false sale of the 

ship and of the murder of the captain, and also how that he, this 

Dutchman, and four more got into the woods, where they wandered 

about a great while, till at length he made his escape, and swam 

off to a Dutch ship, which was sailing near the shore in its way 

from China.



He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen 

belonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the rest in their 

travels, and gave an account that the fellow who had run away with 

the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, who were gone a-

cruising in her, and that they had already taken an English ship 

and two Dutch ships very richly laden.  This latter part we found 

to concern us directly, though we knew it to be false; yet, as my 

partner said, very justly, if we had fallen into their hands, and 

they had had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had 

been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any 

good quarter at their hands; especially considering that our 

accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected 

nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and an 

ungoverned passion have executed.  Therefore it was his opinion we 

should go directly back to Bengal, from whence we came, without 

putting in at any port whatever - because where we could give a 

good account of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship 

put in, of whom we bought her, and the like; and what was more than 

all the rest, if we were put upon the necessity of bringing it 

before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice, 

and not to be hanged first and judged afterwards.



I was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more 

serious thinking, I told him I thought it was a very great hazard 

for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the 

wrong side of the Straits of Malacca, and that if the alarm was 

given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side - that if we 

should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn 

ourselves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us.  I 

also asked the English sailor's opinion, who said he was of my 

mind, and that we certainly should be taken.  This danger a little 

startled my partner and all the ship's company, and we immediately 

resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to the coast 

of China - and pursuing the first design as to trade, find some way 

or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the 

vessels of the country such as we could get.  This was approved of 

as the best method for our security, and accordingly we steered 

away NNE., keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to 

the eastward.  This, however, put us to some inconvenience:  for, 

first, the winds, when we came that distance from the shore, seemed 

to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call 

it, from the E. and ENE., so that we were a long while upon our 

voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a 

run; and what was still worse, there was some danger that those 

English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were 

bound that way, might have got in before us, and if not, some other 

ship bound to China might have information of us from them, and 

pursue us with the same vigour.



I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including 

the late escape from the longboats, to have been in the most 

dangerous condition that ever I was in through my past life; for 

whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a 

thief before; nor had I ever done anything that merited the name of 

dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish.  I had chiefly been my 

own enemy, or, as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy but 

my own; but now I was woefully embarrassed:  for though I was 

perfectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence 

appear; and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt 

of the worst kind.  This made me very anxious to make an escape, 

though which way to do it I knew not, or what port or place we 

could go to.  My partner endeavoured to encourage me by describing 

the several ports of that coast, and told me he would put in on the 

coast of Cochin China, or the bay of Tonquin, intending afterwards 

to go to Macao, where a great many European families resided, and 

particularly the missionary priests, who usually went thither in 

order to their going forward to China.



Hither then we resolved to go; and, accordingly, though after a 

tedious course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came 

within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon 

reflection on the past circumstances of danger we were in, we 

resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth 

enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland or 

by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port 

thereabouts.  This happy step was, indeed, our deliverance:  for 

though we did not immediately see any European ships in the bay of 

Tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two Dutch 

ships; and a third without any colours spread out, but which we 

believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about two leagues' 

distance, steering for the coast of China; and in the afternoon 

went by two English ships steering the same course; and thus we 

thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies both one way and the 

other.  The place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people 

thieves by occupation; and though it is true we had not much to 

seek of them, and, except getting a few provisions, cared not how 

little we had to do with them, yet it was with much difficulty that 

we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways.  We 

were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of its 

utmost limits northward; and by our boat we coasted north-east to 

the point of land which opens the great bay of Tonquin; and it was 

in this beating up along the shore that we discovered we were 

surrounded with enemies.  The people we were among were the most 

barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; and among other 

customs they have this one:  that if any vessel has the misfortune 

to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they make the men all prisoners 

or slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of their 

kindness this way, on the occasion following.



I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that 

we could not find it out; and it happened that, as I have said, it 

was stopped unexpectedly, on the eve of our being pursued by the 

Dutch and English ships in the bay of Siam; yet, as we did not find 

the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved 

while we were at this place to lay her on shore, and clean her 

bottom, and, if possible, to find out where the leaks were.  

Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns 

and other movables to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we 

might come at her bottom; but, on second thoughts, we did not care 

to lay her on dry ground, neither could we find out a proper place 

for it.







CHAPTER XII - THE CARPENTER'S WHIMSICAL CONTRIVANCE







THE inhabitants came wondering down the shore to look at us; and 

seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling 

in towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on 

her bottom with stages, and with their boats on the off-side, they 

presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay fast on 

the ground.  On this supposition they came about us in two or three 

hours' time with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them 

eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on 

board and plundered the ship, and if they found us there, to have 

carried us away for slaves.



When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they 

discovered us all hard at work on the outside of the ship's bottom 

and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring 

man knows how.  They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who 

were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; 

but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some 

of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to 

those that were at work, to defend themselves with if there should 

be occasion.  And it was no more than need:  for in less than a 

quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the 

ship was really a wreck, and that we were all at work endeavouring 

to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and 

when we handed our arms into the boat, they concluded, by that act, 

that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods.  Upon this, 

they took it for granted we all belonged to them, and away they 

came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line-of-battle.



Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frightened, for we lay 

but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what 

they should do.  I immediately called to the men that worked upon 

the stages to slip them down, and get up the side into the ship, 

and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board.  The few 

who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to 

bring the ship to rights; however, neither the men upon the stages 

nor those in the boats could do as they were ordered before the 

Cochin Chinese were upon them, when two of their boats boarded our 

longboat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.



The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a stout, 

strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to 

fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought; 

but he understood his business better than I could teach him, for 

he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their 

boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head so 

against the boat's gunnel that the fellow died in his hands.  In 

the meantime, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and 

with the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down 

five of them who attempted to enter the boat.  But this was doing 

little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless because 

ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the 

longboat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but the 

following accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a 

complete victory.



Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as 

well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the 

leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat, one filled 

with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and 

such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that 

attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with 

which he supplied the men that were at work with the hot stuff.  

Two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow 

stood in the foresheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladle 

full of the stuff, boiling hot which so burned and scalded them, 

being half-naked that they roared out like bulls, and, enraged with 

the fire, leaped both into the sea.  The carpenter saw it, and 

cried out, "Well done, Jack! give them some more of it!" and 

stepping forward himself, takes one of the mops, and dipping it in 

the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully 

that, in short, of all the men in the three boats, there was not 

one that escaped being scalded in a most frightful manner, and made 

such a howling and crying that I never heard a worse noise.



I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not only as 

it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent 

before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of 

that man the seaman killed with his naked hands, and which I was 

very much concerned at.  Although it maybe a just thing, because 

necessary (for there is no necessary wickedness in nature), yet I 

thought it was a sad sort of life, when we must be always obliged 

to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, 

indeed, I think so still; and I would even now suffer a great deal 

rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person 

injuring me; and I believe all considering people, who know the 

value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously 

into the consideration of it.



All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the 

rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity brought the ship 

almost to rights, and having got the guns into their places again, 

the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he 

would let fly among them.  I called back again to him, and bid him 

not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; 

but bid him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on 

broad, took care of.  However, the enemy was so terrified with what 

they had met with in their first attack, that they would not come 

on again; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the ship 

swim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see their 

mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they 

expected.  Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having got 

some rice and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs, on 

board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go 

forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be 

surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our 

pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.  We therefore got all our 

things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready 

to sail:  in the meantime, lying at anchor at some distance from 

the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting 

posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had 

presented.  The next day, having finished our work within board, 

and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set 

sail.  We would have gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to 

inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships 

that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we 

had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; 

so we kept on NE. towards the island of Formosa, as much afraid of 

being seen by a Dutch or English merchant ship as a Dutch or 

English merchant ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man-

of-war.



When we were thus got to sea, we kept on NE., as if we would go to 

the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we did that we 

might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then 

we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 30 

seconds, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly, 

where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh 

provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous in their 

manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and 

punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains.  This is 

what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the 

remains of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch 

missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have 

often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises 

the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, 

whether it works saving effects upon them or no.



From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an 

equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China 

where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, 

not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, 

where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being 

entirely ruined.  Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we 

resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and 

standing in for the shore, a boat came of two leagues to us with an 

old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European 

ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of and 

took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would 

go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.  I thought 

it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us 

whither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us to 

the Gulf of Nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast of 

China.  The old man said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well; but 

smiling, asked us what we would do there?  I told him we would sell 

our cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, 

wrought silks, &c.; and so we would return by the same course we 

came.  He told us our best port would have been to put in at Macao, 

where we could not have failed of a market for our opium to our 

satisfaction, and might for our money have purchased all sorts of 

China goods as cheap as we could at Nankin.



Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was 

very opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well 

as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city 

of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China.  "Why, 

then," says the old man, "you should go to Ningpo, where, by the 

river which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five 

leagues of the great canal.  This canal is a navigable stream, 

which goes through the heart of that vast empire of China, crosses 

all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of 

sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in 

length near two hundred and seventy leagues." - "Well," said I, 

"Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great 

question is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nankin, from 

whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?"  He said he could do so 

very well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way 

just before.  This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship was now 

our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if 

he had not come in too frightful a figure; and we depended upon it 

that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no 

condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those 

parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we 

were.



The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern when 

he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, "Sir, you need be under no 

apprehensions of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at war with 

your nation?" - "No," said I, "that's true; but I know not what 

liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws 

of their own country." - "Why," says he, "you are no pirates; what 

need you fear?  They will not meddle with peaceable merchants, 

sure."  These words put me into the greatest disorder and confusion 

imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but the 

old man easily perceived it.



"Sir," says he, "I find you are in some disorder in your thoughts 

at my talk:  pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and 

depend upon it, I'll do you all the service I can."  Upon this we 

fell into further discourse, in which, to my alarm and amazement, 

he spoke of the villainous doings of a certain pirate ship that had 

long been the talk of mariners in those seas; no other, in a word, 

than the very ship he was now on board of, and which we had so 

unluckily purchased.  I presently saw there was no help for it but 

to tell him the plain truth, and explain all the danger and trouble 

we had suffered through this misadventure, and, in particular, our 

earnest wish to be speedily quit of the ship altogether; for which 

reason we had resolved to carry her up to Nankin.



The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us we were in the 

right to go away to the north; and that, if he might advise us, it 

should be to sell the ship in China, which we might well do, and 

buy, or build another in the country; adding that I should meet 

with customers enough for the ship at Nankin, that a Chinese junk 

would serve me very well to go back again, and that he would 

procure me people both to buy one and sell the other.  "Well, but, 

seignior," said I, "as you say they know the ship so well, I may, 

perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some 

honest, innocent men into a terrible broil; for wherever they find 

the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this 

was the ship." - "Why," says the old man, "I'll find out a way to 

prevent that; for as I know all those commanders you speak of very 

well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure to set 

them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been 

so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at 

first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they 

had turned pirates; and that, in particular, these were not the men 

that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for 

their trade; and I am persuaded they will so far believe me as at 

least to act more cautiously for the time to come."



In about thirteen days' sail we came to an anchor, at the south-

west point of the great Gulf of Nankin; where I learned by accident 

that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me, and that I 

should certainly fall into their hands.  I consulted my partner 

again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was.  I 

then asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour which I 

might put into and pursue my business with the Chinese privately, 

and be in no danger of the enemy.  He told me if I would sail to 

the southward about forty-two leagues, there was a little port 

called Quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed 

from Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to 

the Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in; and if I 

thought to put in there, I might consider what further course to 

take when I was on shore.  He confessed, he said, it was not a 

place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a 

kind of a fair there, when the merchants from Japan came over 

thither to buy Chinese merchandises.  The name of the port I may 

perhaps spell wrong, having lost this, together with the names of 

many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was 

spoiled by the water by an accident; but this I remember, that the 

Chinese merchants we corresponded with called it by a different 

name from that which our Portuguese pilot gave it, who pronounced 

it Quinchang.  As we were unanimous in our resolution to go to this 

place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore 

where we were, to get fresh water; on both which occasions the 

people of the country were very civil, and brought abundance of 

provisions to sell to us; but nothing without money.



We did not come to the other port (the wind being contrary) for 

five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was 

thankful when I set my foot on shore, resolving, and my partner 

too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects 

any other way, though not profitably, we would never more set foot 

on board that unhappy vessel.  Indeed, I must acknowledge, that of 

all the circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of, 

nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in 

constant fear.  Well does the Scripture say, "The fear of man 

brings a snare"; it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely 

oppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief.



Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by 

heightening every danger; representing the English and Dutch 

captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or of 

distinguishing between honest men and rogues; or between a story 

calculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to 

deceive, and a true, genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, 

and design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable 

creatures that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board, the 

course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into 

such and such ports; and even our very manner, the force we had, 

the number of men, the few arms, the little ammunition, short 

provisions; all these would have served to convince any men that we 

were no pirates.  The opium and other goods we had on board would 

make it appear the ship had been at Bengal.  The Dutchmen, who, it 

was said, had the names of all the men that were in the ship, might 

easily see that we were a mixture of English, Portuguese, and 

Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board.  These, and many other 

particular circumstances, might have made it evident to the 

understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, 

that we were no pirates.



But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, and 

threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and 

set the imagination at work to form a thousand terrible things that 

perhaps might never happen.  We first supposed, as indeed everybody 

had related to us, that the seamen on board the English and Dutch 

ships, but especially the Dutch, were so enraged at the name of a 

pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats and escaping, 

that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we 

were pirates or no, but would execute us off-hand, without giving 

us any room for a defence.  We reflected that there really was so 

much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire 

after any more; as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, 

and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on 

board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the 

river of Cambodia that they were coming down to examine us, we 

fought their boats and fled.  Therefore we made no doubt but they 

were as fully satisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied 

of the contrary; and, as I often said, I know not but I should have 

been apt to have taken those circumstances for evidence, if the 

tables were turned, and my case was theirs; and have made no 

scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or 

perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their 

defence.



But let that be how it will, these were our apprehensions; and both 

my partner and I scarce slept a night without dreaming of halters 

and yard-arms; of fighting, and being taken; of killing, and being 

killed:  and one night I was in such a fury in my dream, fancying 

the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one of their seamen 

down, that I struck my doubled fist against the side of the cabin I 

lay in with such a force as wounded my hand grievously, broke my 

knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, so that it awaked me out 

of my sleep.  Another apprehension I had was, the cruel usage we 

might meet with from them if we fell into their hands; then the 

story of Amboyna came into my head, and how the Dutch might perhaps 

torture us, as they did our countrymen there, and make some of our 

men, by extremity of torture, confess to crimes they never were 

guilty of, or own themselves and all of us to be pirates, and so 

they would put us to death with a formal appearance of justice; and 

that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and 

cargo, worth altogether four or five thousand pounds.  We did not 

consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act thus; 

and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer 

the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it 

when they came to their country.  However, if they were to act thus 

with us, what advantage would it be to us that they should be 

called to an account for it? - or if we were first to be murdered, 

what satisfaction would it be to us to have them punished when they 

came home?



I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon 

the vast variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I thought 

it that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continual 

difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, to the port or 

haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should 

be a volunteer in new sorrows by my own unhappy choice, and that I, 

who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to be 

hanged in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime which I 

was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of.  After these 

thoughts something of religion would come in; and I would be 

considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate 

Providence, and I ought to look upon it and submit to it as such.  

For, although I was innocent as to men, I was far from being 

innocent as to my Maker; and I ought to look in and examine what 

other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which 

Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; 

and thus I ought to submit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, 

if it had pleased God to have brought such a disaster upon me.



In its turn natural courage would sometimes take its place, and 

then I would be talking myself up to vigorous resolutions; that I 

would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of merciless 

wretches in cold blood; that it were much better to have fallen 

into the hands of the savages, though I were sure they would feast 

upon me when they had taken me, than those who would perhaps glut 

their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and barbarities; that in the 

case of the savages, I always resolved to die fighting to the last 

gasp, and why should I not do so now?  Whenever these thoughts 

prevailed, I was sure to put myself into a kind of fever with the 

agitation of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes 

sparkle, as if I was engaged, and I always resolved to take no 

quarter at their hands; but even at last, if I could resist no 

longer, I would blow up the ship and all that was in her, and leave 

them but little booty to boast of.







CHAPTER XIII - ARRIVAL IN CHINA







THE greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of these things 

were to our thoughts while we were at sea, the greater was our 

satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partner told me 

he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he 

was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to stand 

longer under it; but that the Portuguese pilot came and took it off 

his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him appearing 

all smooth and plain:  and truly it was so; they were all like men 

who had a load taken off their backs.  For my part I had a weight 

taken off from my heart that it was not able any longer to bear; 

and as I said above we resolved to go no more to sea in that ship.  

When we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got 

us a lodging, together with a warehouse for our goods; it was a 

little hut, with a larger house adjoining to it, built and also 

palisadoed round with canes, to keep out pilferers, of which there 

were not a few in that country:  however, the magistrates allowed 

us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of half-pike, 

who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice 

and a piece of money about the value of three-pence per day, so 

that our goods were kept very safe.



The fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over some 

time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the 

river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought 

in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants on 

shore.



The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to get us 

acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were in the 

town, and who had been there some time converting the people to 

Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and 

made them but sorry Christians when they had done.  One of these 

was a Frenchman, whom they called Father Simon; another was a 

Portuguese; and a third a Genoese.  Father Simon was courteous, and 

very agreeable company; but the other two were more reserved, 

seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work they 

came about, viz. to talk with and insinuate themselves among the 

inhabitants wherever they had opportunity.  We often ate and drank 

with those men; and though I must confess the conversion, as they 

call it, of the Chinese to Christianity is so far from the true 

conversion required to bring heathen people to the faith of Christ, 

that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the 

name of Christ, and say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and her 

Son, in a tongue which they understood not, and to cross 

themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that the 

religionists, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that 

these people will be saved, and that they are the instruments of 

it; and on this account they undergo not only the fatigue of the 

voyage, and the hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes 

death itself, and the most violent tortures, for the sake of this 

work.



Father Simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the 

mission, to go up to Pekin, and waited only for another priest, who 

was ordered to come to him from Macao, to go along with him.  We 

scarce ever met together but he was inviting me to go that journey; 

telling me how he would show me all the glorious things of that 

mighty empire, and, among the rest, Pekin, the greatest city in the 

world:  "A city," said he, "that your London and our Paris put 

together cannot be equal to."  But as I looked on those things with 

different eyes from other men, so I shall give my opinion of them 

in a few words, when I come in the course of my travels to speak 

more particularly of them.



Dining with Father Simon one day, and being very merry together, I 

showed some little inclination to go with him; and he pressed me 

and my partner very hard to consent.  "Why, father," says my 

partner, "should you desire our company so much? you know we are 

heretics, and you do not love us, nor cannot keep us company with 

any pleasure." - "Oh," says he, "you may perhaps be good Catholics 

in time; my business here is to convert heathens, and who knows but 

I may convert you too?" - "Very well, father," said I, "so you will 

preach to us all the way?" - "I will not be troublesome to you," 

says he; "our religion does not divest us of good manners; besides, 

we are here like countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place 

we are in; and if you are Huguenots, and I a Catholic, we may all 

be Christians at last; at least, we are all gentlemen, and we may 

converse so, without being uneasy to one another."  I liked this 

part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of 

my priest that I had left in the Brazils; but Father Simon did not 

come up to his character by a great deal; for though this friar had 

no appearance of a criminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund 

of Christian zeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion 

that my other good ecclesiastic had.



But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor solicited 

us to go with him; we had something else before us at first, for we 

had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of, and 

we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in 

a place of very little business.  Once I was about to venture to 

sail for the river of Kilam, and the city of Nankin; but Providence 

seemed now more visibly, as I thought, than ever to concern itself 

in our affairs; and I was encouraged, from this very time, to think 

I should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance, 

and be brought home to my own country again, though I had not the 

least view of the manner.  Providence, I say, began here to clear 

up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our 

old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who inquired 

what goods we had:  and, in the first place, he bought all our 

opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by 

weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small 

wedges, of about ten or twelves ounces each.  While we were dealing 

with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might perhaps 

deal for the ship too, and I ordered the interpreter to propose it 

to him.  He shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first 

proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of 

the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a 

proposal to make to me, which was this:  he had bought a great 

quantity of our goods, when he had no thoughts of proposals made to 

him of buying the ship; and that, therefore, he had not money to 

pay for the ship:  but if I would let the same men who were in the 

ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan; and would 

send them from thence to the Philippine Islands with another 

loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from 

Japan:  and that at their return he would buy the ship.  I began to 

listen to his proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon 

rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going 

myself with him, and so to set sail from the Philippine Islands 

away to the South Seas; accordingly, I asked the Japanese merchant 

if he would not hire us to the Philippine Islands and discharge us 

there.  He said No, he could not do that, for then he could not 

have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan, 

at the ship's return.  Well, still I was for taking him at that 

proposal, and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, 

persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas 

as of the Japanese, who are a false, cruel, and treacherous people; 

likewise those of the Spaniards at the Philippines, more false, 

cruel, and treacherous than they.



But to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion; the 

first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the 

ship, and with his men, and know if they were willing to go to 

Japan.  While I was doing this, the young man whom my nephew had 

left with me as my companion came up, and told me that he thought 

that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect 

of advantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it; but that 

if I would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a 

merchant, or as I pleased to order him; that if ever he came to 

England, and I was there and alive, he would render me a faithful 

account of his success, which should be as much mine as I pleased.  

I was loath to part with him; but considering the prospect of 

advantage, which really was considerable, and that he was a young 

fellow likely to do well in it, I inclined to let him go; but I 

told him I would consult my partner, and give him an answer the 

next day.  I discoursed about it with my partner, who thereupon 

made a most generous offer:  "You know it has been an unlucky 

ship," said he, "and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again; 

if your steward" (so he called my man) "will venture the voyage, I 

will leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best 

of it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with success 

abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's 

freight to us; the other shall be his own."



If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him 

such an offer, I could not do less than offer him the same; and all 

the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made over half 

the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging 

him to account for the other, and away he went to Japan.  The Japan 

merchant proved a very punctual, honest man to him:  protected him 

at Japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the 

Europeans in general have not lately obtained.  He paid him his 

freight very punctually; sent him to the Philippines loaded with 

Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who, 

trafficking with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again, 

and a great quantity of spices; and there he was not only paid his 

freight very well, and at a very good price, but not being willing 

to sell the ship, then the merchant furnished him goods on his own 

account; and with some money, and some spices of his own which he 

brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, where he sold his 

cargo very well.  Here, having made a good acquaintance at Manilla, 

he got his ship made a free ship, and the governor of Manilla hired 

him to go to Acapulco, on the coast of America, and gave him a 

licence to land there, and to travel to Mexico, and to pass in any 

Spanish ship to Europe with all his men.  He made the voyage to 

Acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship:  and having 

there also obtained allowance to travel by land to Porto Bello, he 

found means to get to Jamaica, with all his treasure, and about 

eight years after came to England exceeding rich.



But to return to our particular affairs, being now to part with the 

ship and ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider 

what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such 

timely notice of the design against us in the river Cambodia.  The 

truth was, they had done us a very considerable service, and 

deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple 

of rogues, too; for, as they believed the story of our being 

pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came 

down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against 

us, but to go to sea with us as pirates.  One of them confessed 

afterwards that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing 

brought him to do it:  however, the service they did us was not the 

less, and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to them, I 

first ordered the money to be paid them which they said was due to 

them on board their respective ships:  over and above that, I gave 

each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them 

very well.  I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, the 

gunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I made 

boatswain; so they were both very well pleased, and proved very 

serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.



We were now on shore in China; if I thought myself banished, and 

remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to get 

home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I was 

about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and destitute of 

all manner of prospect of return?  All we had for it was this:  

that in about four months' time there was to be another fair at the 

place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase various 

manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some 

Chinese junks from Tonquin for sail, that would carry us and our 

goods whither we pleased.  This I liked very well, and resolved to 

wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if 

any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an 

opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place 

in India nearer home.  Upon these hopes we resolved to continue 

here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into 

the country.



First, we went ten days' journey to Nankin, a city well worth 

seeing; they say it has a million of people in it:  it is regularly 

built, and the streets are all straight, and cross one another in 

direct lines.  But when I come to compare the miserable people of 

these countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living, 

their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, as 

some call it, I must confess that I scarcely think it worth my 

while to mention them here.  We wonder at the grandeur, the riches, 

the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the 

commerce, and conduct of these people; not that there is really any 

matter for wonder, but because, having a true notion of the 

barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that 

prevail there, we do not expect to find any such thing so far off.  

Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal 

buildings of Europe?  What their trade to the universal commerce of 

England, Holland, France, and Spain?  What are their cities to 

ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and 

infinite variety?  What are their ports, supplied with a few junks 

and barks, to our navigation, our merchant fleets, our large and 

powerful navies?  Our city of London has more trade than half their 

mighty empire:  one English, Dutch, or French man-of-war of eighty 

guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging to 

China:  but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power 

of their government, and the strength of their armies, may be a 

little surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them 

as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did 

not expect such things among them.  But all the forces of their 

empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the 

field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country 

and starve themselves; a million of their foot could not stand 

before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be 

surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number; 

nay, I do not boast if I say that thirty thousand German or English 

foot, and ten thousand horse, well managed, could defeat all the 

forces of China.  Nor is there a fortified town in China that could 

hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European 

army.  They have firearms, it is true, but they are awkward and 

uncertain in their going off; and their powder has but little 

strength.  Their armies are badly disciplined, and want skill to 

attack, or temper to retreat; and therefore, I must confess, it 

seemed strange to me, when I came home, and heard our people say 

such fine things of the power, glory, magnificence, and trade of 

the Chinese; because, as far as I saw, they appeared to be a 

contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to 

a government qualified only to rule such a people; and were not its 

distance inconceivably, great from Muscovy, and that empire in a 

manner as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the Czar of 

Muscovy might with ease drive them all out of their country, and 

conquer them in one campaign; and had the Czar (who is now a 

growing prince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike 

Swedes, and equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say 

he has done; and if none of the powers of Europe had envied or 

interrupted him, he might by this time have been Emperor of China, 

instead of being beaten by the King of Sweden at Narva, when the 

latter was not one to six in number.



As their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation, 

commerce, and husbandry are very imperfect, compared to the same 

things in Europe; also, in their knowledge, their learning, and in 

their skill in the sciences, they are either very awkward or 

defective, though they have globes or spheres, and a smattering of 

the mathematics, and think they know more than all the world 

besides.  But they know little of the motions of the heavenly 

bodies; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant are their common 

people, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think a great dragon 

has assaulted it, and is going to run away with it; and they fall a 

clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright 

the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees!



As this is the only excursion of the kind which I have made in all 

the accounts I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more 

such.  It is none of my business, nor any part of my design; but to 

give an account of my own adventures through a life of inimitable 

wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, few that 

come after me will have heard the like of:  I shall, therefore, say 

very little of all the mighty places, desert countries, and 

numerous people I have yet to pass through, more than relates to my 

own story, and which my concern among them will make necessary.



I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about 

thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nankin.  

I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin, which I had heard so 

much of, and Father Simon importuned me daily to do it.  At length 

his time of going away being set, and the other missionary who was 

to go with him being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we 

should resolve either to go or not; so I referred it to my partner, 

and left it wholly to his choice, who at length resolved it in the 

affirmative, and we prepared for our journey.  We set out with very 

good advantage as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in 

the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy or 

principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and who 

take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and 

great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly 

impoverished by them, being obliged to furnish provisions for them 

and all their attendants in their journeys.  I particularly 

observed in our travelling with his baggage, that though we 

received sufficient provisions both for ourselves and our horses 

from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged 

to pay for everything we had, after the market price of the 

country, and the mandarin's steward collected it duly from us.  

Thus our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a 

great act of kindness, was not such a mighty favour to us, but was 

a great advantage to him, considering there were above thirty other 

people travelled in the same manner besides us, under the 

protection of his retinue; for the country furnished all the 

provisions for nothing to him, and yet he took our money for them.



We were twenty-five days travelling to Pekin, through a country 

exceeding populous, but I think badly cultivated; the husbandry, 

the economy, and the way of living miserable, though they boast so 

much of the industry of the people:  I say miserable, if compared 

with our own, but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other.  

The pride of the poor people is infinitely great, and exceeded by 

nothing but their poverty, in some parts, which adds to that which 

I call their misery; and I must needs think the savages of America 

live much more happy than the poorer sort of these, because as they 

have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and 

insolent and in the main are in many parts mere beggars and 

drudges.  Their ostentation is inexpressible; and, if they can, 

they love to keep multitudes of servants or slaves, which is to the 

last degree ridiculous, as well as their contempt of all the world 

but themselves.



I must confess I travelled more pleasantly afterwards in the 

deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary than here, and yet 

the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient 

for travellers; but nothing was more awkward to me than to see such 

a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest 

simplicity and ignorance; and my friend Father Simon and I used to 

be very merry upon these occasions, to see their beggarly pride.  

For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman, as Father 

Simon called him, about ten leagues off the city of Nankin, we had 

first of all the honour to ride with the master of the house about 

two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being 

a mixture of pomp and poverty.  His habit was very proper for a 

merry-andrew, being a dirty calico, with hanging sleeves, tassels, 

and cuts and slashes almost on every side:  it covered a taffety 

vest, so greasy as to testify that his honour must be a most 

exquisite sloven.  His horse was a poor, starved, hobbling 

creature, and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poor 

creature along; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the 

beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and 

thus he rode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going from 

the city to his country seat, about half a league before us.  We 

travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away 

before us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh 

us, when we came by the country seat of this great man, we saw him 

in a little place before his door, eating a repast.  It was a kind 

of garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given to 

understand that the more we looked at him the better he would be 

pleased.  He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto, which 

effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but 

under the tree was placed a large umbrella, which made that part 

look well enough.  He sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, 

being a heavy corpulent man, and had his meat brought him by two 

women slaves.  He had two more, one of whom fed the squire with a 

spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped off 

what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taffety vest.



Leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him, 

as if we admired his idle pomp, we pursued our journey.  Father 

Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the 

country justice had to feed on in all his state, which he had the 

honour to taste of, and which was, I think, a mess of boiled rice, 

with a great piece of garlic in it, and a little bag filled with 

green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something 

like our ginger, but smelling like musk, and tasting like mustard; 

all this was put together, and a small piece of lean mutton boiled 

in it, and this was his worship's repast.  Four or five servants 

more attended at a distance, who we supposed were to eat of the 

same after their master.  As for our mandarin with whom we 

travelled, he was respected as a king, surrounded always with his 

gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that 

I saw little of him but at a distance.  I observed that there was 

not a horse in his retinue but that our carrier's packhorses in 

England seemed to me to look much better; though it was hard to 

judge rightly, for they were so covered with equipage, mantles, 

trappings, &c., that we could scarce see anything but their feet 

and their heads as they went along.



I was now light-hearted, and all my late trouble and perplexity 

being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me, which made this 

journey the pleasanter to me; in which no ill accident attended me, 

only in passing or fording a small river, my horse fell and made me 

free of the country, as they call it - that is to say, threw me in.  

The place was not deep, but it wetted me all over.  I mention it 

because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein I had set down the names 

of several people and places which I had occasion to remember, and 

which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were 

never after to be read.



At length we arrived at Pekin.  I had nobody with me but the youth 

whom my nephew had given me to attend me as a servant and who 

proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him 

but one servant, who was a kinsman.  As for the Portuguese pilot, 

he being desirous to see the court, we bore his charges for his 

company, and for our use of him as an interpreter, for he 

understood the language of the country, and spoke good French and a 

little English.  Indeed, this old man was most useful to us 

everywhere; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, when he came 

laughing.  "Ah, Seignior Inglese," says he, "I have something to 

tell will make your heart glad." - "My heart glad," says I; "what 

can that be?  I don't know anything in this country can either give 

me joy or grief to any great degree." - "Yes, yes," said the old 

man, in broken English, "make you glad, me sorry." - "Why," said I, 

"will it make you sorry?" - "Because," said he, "you have brought 

me here twenty-five days' journey, and will leave me to go back 

alone; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without a 

ship, without a horse, without PECUNE?" so he called money, being 

his broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with.  

In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and 

Polish merchants in the city, preparing to set out on their journey 

by land to Muscovy, within four or five weeks; and he was sure we 

would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind, 

to go back alone.



I confess I was greatly surprised with this good news, and had 

scarce power to speak to him for some time; but at last I said to 

him, "How do you know this? are you sure it is true?" - "Yes," says 

he; "I met this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, 

an Armenian, who is among them.  He came last from Astrakhan, and 

was designed to go to Tonquin, where I formerly knew him, but has 

altered his mind, and is now resolved to go with the caravan to 

Moscow, and so down the river Volga to Astrakhan." - "Well, 

Seignior," says I, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back 

alone; if this be a method for my return to England, it shall be 

your fault if you go back to Macao at all."  We then went to 

consult together what was to be done; and I asked my partner what 

he thought of the pilot's news, and whether it would suit with his 

affairs?  He told me he would do just as I would; for he had 

settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left his effects in 

such good hands, that as we had made a good voyage, if he could 

invest it in China silks, wrought and raw, he would be content to 

go to England, and then make a voyage back to Bengal by the 

Company's ships.



Having resolved upon this, we agreed that if our Portuguese pilot 

would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or to 

England, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-

generous in that either, if we had not rewarded him further, the 

service he had done us being really worth more than that; for he 

had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been like a 

broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us a Japan merchant 

was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets.  So, being willing to 

gratify him, which was but doing him justice, and very willing also 

to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all 

occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, 

as I computed it, was worth one hundred and seventy-five pounds 

sterling, between us, and to bear all his charges, both for himself 

and horse, except only a horse to carry his goods.  Having settled 

this between ourselves, we called him to let him know what we had 

resolved.  I told him he had complained of our being willing to let 

him go back alone, and I was now about to tell him we designed he 

should not go back at all.  That as we had resolved to go to Europe 

with the caravan, we were very willing he should go with us; and 

that we called him to know his mind.  He shook his head and said it 

was a long journey, and that he had no PECUNE to carry him thither, 

or to subsist himself when he came there.  We told him we believed 

it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do something for him 

that should let him see how sensible we were of the service he had 

done us, and also how agreeable he was to us:  and then I told him 

what we had resolved to give him here, which he might lay out as we 

would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go with 

us we would set him safe on shore (life and casualties excepted), 

either in Muscovy or England, as he would choose, at our own 

charge, except only the carriage of his goods.  He received the 

proposal like a man transported, and told us he would go with us 

over all the whole world; and so we all prepared for our journey.  

However, as it was with us, so it was with the other merchants:  

they had many things to do, and instead of being ready in five 

weeks, it was four months and some days before all things were got 

together.







CHAPTER XIV - ATTACKED BY TARTARS







IT was the beginning of February, new style, when we set out from 

Pekin.  My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the 

port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which we 

had left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant whom I had some 

knowledge of at Nankin, and who came to Pekin on his own affairs, 

went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with 

about two hundred pieces of other very fine silk of several sorts, 

some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against my 

partner's return.  Besides this, we bought a large quantity of raw 

silk, and some other goods, our cargo amounting, in these goods 

only, to about three thousand five hundred pounds sterling; which, 

together with tea and some fine calicoes, and three camels' loads 

of nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, 

besides those we rode upon; these, with two or three spare horses, 

and two horses loaded with provisions, made together twenty-six 

camels and horses in our retinue.



The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember, made 

between three and four hundred horses, and upwards of one hundred 

and twenty men, very well armed and provided for all events; for as 

the Eastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the Arabs, so 

are these by the Tartars.  The company consisted of people of 

several nations, but there were above sixty of them merchants or 

inhabitants of Moscow, though of them some were Livonians; and to 

our particular satisfaction, five of them were Scots, who appeared 

also to be men of great experience in business, and of very good 

substance.



When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were five 

in number, called all the passengers, except the servants, to a 

great council, as they called it.  At this council every one 

deposited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for the 

necessary expense of buying forage on the way, where it was not 

otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses, 

and the like.  Here, too, they constituted the journey, as they 

call it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up, 

and give the word of command, in case of an attack, and give every 

one their turn of command; nor was this forming us into order any 

more than what we afterwards found needful on the way.



The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is 

full of potters and earth-makers - that is to say, people, that 

temper the earth for the China ware.  As I was coming along, our 

Portuguese pilot, who had always something or other to say to make 

us merry, told me he would show me the greatest rarity in all the 

country, and that I should have this to say of China, after all the 

ill-humoured things that I had said of it, that I had seen one 

thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside.  I was very 

importunate to know what it was; at last he told me it was a 

gentleman's house built with China ware.  "Well," says I, "are not 

the materials of their buildings the products of their own country, 

and so it is all China ware, is it not?" - "No, no," says he, "I 

mean it is a house all made of China ware, such as you call it in 

England, or as it is called in our country, porcelain." - "Well," 

says I, "such a thing may be; how big is it?  Can we carry it in a 

box upon a camel?  If we can we will buy it." - "Upon a camel!" 

says the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is a 

family of thirty people lives in it."



I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to it, it 

was nothing but this:  it was a timber house, or a house built, as 

we call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all this 

plastering was really China ware - that is to say, it was plastered 

with the earth that makes China ware.  The outside, which the sun 

shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white, 

and painted with blue figures, as the large China ware in England 

is painted, and hard as if it had been burnt.  As to the inside, 

all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened and 

painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call galley-tiles in 

England, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding 

fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with 

gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially, 

the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to 

see where the tiles met.  The floors of the rooms were of the same 

composition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use in 

several parts of England; as hard as stone, and smooth, but not 

burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, which 

were all, as it were, paved with the same tile; the ceiling and all 

the plastering work in the whole house were of the same earth; and, 

after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of a 

deep shining black.  This was a China warehouse indeed, truly and 

literally to be called so, and had I not been upon the journey, I 

could have stayed some days to see and examine the particulars of 

it.  They told me there were fountains and fishponds in the garden, 

all paved on the bottom and sides with the same; and fine statues 

set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain 

earth, burnt whole.



As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be 

allowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in their 

accounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their 

performance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to 

relate, as knowing it could not be true.  They told me, in 

particular, of one workman that made a ship with all its tackle and 

masts and sails in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men.  If 

they had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to Japan in it, 

I might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, I knew the 

whole of the story, which was, in short, that the fellow lied:  so 

I smiled, and said nothing to it.  This odd sight kept me two hours 

behind the caravan, for which the leader of it for the day fined me 

about the value of three shillings; and told me if it had been 

three days' journey without the wall, as it was three days' within, 

he must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardon 

the next council-day.  I promised to be more orderly; and, indeed, 

I found afterwards the orders made for keeping all together were 

absolutely necessary for our common safety.



In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for a 

fortification against the Tartars:  and a very great work it is, 

going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks 

are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly 

enter, or indeed climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could 

hinder them.  They tell us its length is near a thousand English 

miles, but that the country is five hundred in a straight measured 

line, which the wall bounds without measuring the windings and 

turnings it takes; it is about four fathoms high, and as many thick 

in some places.



I stood still an hour or thereabouts without trespassing on our 

orders (for so long the caravan was in passing the gate), to look 

at it on every side, near and far off; I mean what was within my 

view:  and the guide, who had been extolling it for the wonder of 

the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it.  I told him 

it was a most excellent thing to keep out the Tartars; which he 

happened not to understand as I meant it and so took it for a 

compliment; but the old pilot laughed!  "Oh, Seignior Inglese," 

says he, "you speak in colours." - "In colours!" said I; "what do 

you mean by that?" - "Why, you speak what looks white this way and 

black that way - gay one way and dull another.  You tell him it is 

a good wall to keep out Tartars; you tell me by that it is good for 

nothing but to keep out Tartars.  I understand you, Seignior 

Inglese, I understand you; but Seignior Chinese understood you his 

own way." - "Well," says I, "do you think it would stand out an 

army of our country people, with a good train of artillery; or our 

engineers, with two companies of miners?  Would not they batter it 

down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia; or blow it 

up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign of 

it left?" - "Ay, ay," says he, "I know that."  The Chinese wanted 

mightily to know what I said to the pilot, and I gave him leave to 

tell him a few days after, for we were then almost out of their 

country, and he was to leave us a little time after this; but when 

he knew what I said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we 

heard no more of his fine story of the Chinese power and greatness 

while he stayed.



After we passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something like 

the Picts' walls so famous in Northumberland, built by the Romans, 

we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people 

rather confined to live in fortified towns, as being subject to the 

inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies, 

and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of an 

open country.  And here I began to find the necessity of keeping 

together in a caravan as we travelled, for we saw several troops of 

Tartars roving about; but when I came to see them distinctly, I 

wondered more that the Chinese empire could be conquered by such 

contemptible fellows; for they are a mere horde of wild fellows, 

keeping no order and understanding no discipline or manner of it.  

Their horses are poor lean creatures, taught nothing, and fit for 

nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which was 

after we entered the wilder part of the country.  Our leader for 

the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting as they 

call it; and what was this but a hunting of sheep! - however, it 

may be called hunting too, for these creatures are the wildest and 

swiftest of foot that ever I saw of their kind! only they will not 

run a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the 

chase, for they appear generally thirty or forty in a flock, and, 

like true sheep, always keep together when they fly.



In pursuit of this odd sort of game it was our hap to meet with 

about forty Tartars:  whether they were hunting mutton, as we were, 

or whether they looked for another kind of prey, we know not; but 

as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a hideous blast on a kind 

of horn.  This was to call their friends about them, and in less 

than ten minutes a troop of forty or fifty more appeared, at about 

a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it happened.



One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst us; and 

as soon as he heard the horn, he told us that we had nothing to do 

but to charge them without loss of time; and drawing us up in a 

line, he asked if we were resolved.  We told him we were ready to 

follow him; so he rode directly towards them.  They stood gazing at 

us like a mere crowd, drawn up in no sort of order at all; but as 

soon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows, which 

missed us, very happily.  Not that they mistook their aim, but 

their distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but 

with so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer we 

must have had several men wounded, if not killed.



Immediately we halted, and though it was at a great distance, we 

fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following 

our shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword in hand - for so 

our bold Scot that led us directed.  He was, indeed, but a 

merchant, but he behaved with such vigour and bravery on this 

occasion, and yet with such cool courage too, that I never saw any 

man in action fitter for command.  As soon as we came up to them we 

fired our pistols in their faces and then drew; but they fled in 

the greatest confusion imaginable.  The only stand any of them made 

was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called 

the rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their 

hands, and their bows hanging to their backs.  Our brave commander, 

without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them, and 

with his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed the second 

with his pistol, and the third ran away.  Thus ended our fight; but 

we had this misfortune attending it, that all our mutton we had in 

chase got away.  We had not a man killed or hurt; as for the 

Tartars, there were about five of them killed - how many were 

wounded we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party were so 

frightened with the noise of our guns that they fled, and never 

made any attempt upon us.



We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore the 

Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days we 

entered a vast wild desert, which held us three days' and nights' 

march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great 

leathern bottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heard 

they do in the desert of Arabia.  I asked our guides whose dominion 

this was in, and they told me this was a kind of border that might 

be called no man's land, being a part of Great Karakathy, or Grand 

Tartary:  that, however, it was all reckoned as belonging to China, 

but that there was no care taken here to preserve it from the 

inroads of thieves, and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert 

in the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger.



In passing this frightful wilderness we saw, two or three times, 

little parties of the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own 

affairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, like the man who 

met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to 

say to them:  we let them go.  Once, however, a party of them came 

so near as to stand and gaze at us.  Whether it was to consider if 

they should attack us or not, we knew not; but when we had passed 

at some distance by them, we made a rear-guard of forty men, and 

stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile or 

thereabouts before us.  After a while they marched off, but they 

saluted us with five arrows at their parting, which wounded a horse 

so that it disabled him, and we left him the next day, poor 

creature, in great need of a good farrier.  We saw no more arrows 

or Tartars that time.



We travelled near a month after this, the ways not being so good as 

at first, though still in the dominions of the Emperor of China, 

but lay for the most part in the villages, some of which were 

fortified, because of the incursions of the Tartars.  When we were 

come to one of these towns (about two days and a half's journey 

before we came to the city of Naum), I wanted to buy a camel, of 

which there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and 

horses also, such as they are, because, so many caravans coming 

that way, they are often wanted.  The person that I spoke to to get 

me a camel would have gone and fetched one for me; but I, like a 

fool, must be officious, and go myself along with him; the place 

was about two miles out of the village, where it seems they kept 

the camels and horses feeding under a guard.



I walked it on foot, with my old pilot and a Chinese, being very 

desirous of a little variety.  When we came to the place it was a 

low, marshy ground, walled round with stones, piled up dry, without 

mortar or earth among them, like a park, with a little guard of 

Chinese soldiers at the door.  Having bought a camel, and agreed 

for the price, I came away, and the Chinese that went with me led 

the camel, when on a sudden came up five Tartars on horseback.  Two 

of them seized the fellow and took the camel from him, while the 

other three stepped up to me and my old pilot, seeing us, as it 

were, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my sword, which 

could but ill defend me against three horsemen.  The first that 

came up stopped short upon my drawing my sword, for they are arrant 

cowards; but a second, coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the 

head, which I never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I came 

to myself, what was the matter, and where I was, for he laid me 

flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portuguese, 

had a pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of, nor the 

Tartars either:  if they had, I suppose they would not have 

attacked us, for cowards are always boldest when there is no 

danger.  The old man seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up 

to the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with 

one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him, 

with the other shot him into the head, and laid him dead upon the 

spot.  He then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as 

I said, and before he could come forward again, made a blow at him 

with a scimitar, which he always wore, but missing the man, struck 

his horse in the side of his head, cut one of the ears off by the 

root, and a great slice down by the side of his face.  The poor 

beast, enraged with the wound, was no more to be governed by his 

rider, though the fellow sat well enough too, but away he flew, and 

carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and at some distance, 

rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell upon 

him.



In this interval the poor Chinese came in who had lost the camel, 

but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, and his 

horse fallen upon him, away he runs to him, and seizing upon an 

ugly weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, he 

wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian brains 

out with it.  But my old man had the third Tartar to deal with 

still; and seeing he did not fly, as he expected, nor come on to 

fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still, the old man 

stood still too, and fell to work with his tackle to charge his 

pistol again:  but as soon as the Tartar saw the pistol away he 

scoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, a 

complete victory.



By this time I was a little recovered.  I thought, when I first 

began to wake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but, as I said 

above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground, and what 

was the matter.  A few moments after, as sense returned, I felt 

pain, though I did not know where; so I clapped my hand to my head, 

and took it away bloody; then I felt my head ache:  and in a moment 

memory returned, and everything was present to me again.  I jumped 

upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword, but no enemies 

were in view:  I found a Tartar lying dead, and his horse standing 

very quietly by him; and, looking further, I saw my deliverer, who 

had been to see what the Chinese had done, coming back with his 

hanger in his hand.  The old man, seeing me on my feet, came 

running to me, and joyfully embraced me, being afraid before that I 

had been killed.  Seeing me bloody, he would see how I was hurt; 

but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did I 

afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, for it was 

well again in two or three days.



We made no great gain, however, by this victory, for we lost a 

camel and gained a horse.  I paid for the lost camel, and sent for 

another; but I did not go to fetch it myself:  I had had enough of 

that.



The city of Naum, which we were approaching, is a frontier of the 

Chinese empire, and is fortified in their fashion.  We wanted, as I 

have said, above two days' journey of this city when messengers 

were sent express to every part of the road to tell all travellers 

and caravans to halt till they had a guard sent for them; for that 

an unusual body of Tartars, making ten thousand in all, had 

appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city.



This was very bad news to travellers:  however, it was carefully 

done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have 

a guard.  Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers 

sent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and three 

hundred more from the city of Naum, and with these we advanced 

boldly.  The three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front, 

the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our 

camels, with our baggage and the whole caravan in the centre; in 

this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a 

match for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they had 

appeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quite 

another thing.







CHAPTER XV - DESCRIPTION OF AN IDOL, WHICH THEY DESTROY







EARLY in the morning, when marching from a little town called 

Changu, we had a river to pass, which we were obliged to ferry; 

and, had the Tartars had any intelligence, then had been the time 

to have attacked us, when the caravan being over, the rear-guard 

was behind; but they did not appear there.  About three hours 

after, when we were entered upon a desert of about fifteen or 

sixteen miles over, we knew by a cloud of dust they raised, that 

the enemy was at hand, and presently they came on upon the spur.



Our Chinese guards in the front, who had talked so big the day 

before, began to stagger; and the soldiers frequently looked behind 

them, a certain sign in a soldier that he is just ready to run 

away.  My old pilot was of my mind; and being near me, called out, 

"Seignior Inglese, these fellows must be encouraged, or they will 

ruin us all; for if the Tartars come on they will never stand it." 

- "If am of your mind," said I; "but what must be done?" - "Done?" 

says he, "let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each 

wing, and encourage them.  They will fight like brave fellows in 

brave company; but without this they will every man turn his back."  

Immediately I rode up to our leader and told him, who was exactly 

of our mind; accordingly, fifty of us marched to the right wing, 

and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line of rescue; and so 

we marched, leaving the last two hundred men to make a body of 

themselves, and to guard the camels; only that, if need were, they 

should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty.



At last the Tartars came on, and an innumerable company they were; 

how many we could not tell, but ten thousand, we thought, at the 

least.  A party of them came on first, and viewed our posture, 

traversing the ground in the front of our line; and, as we found 

them within gunshot, our leader ordered the two wings to advance 

swiftly, and give them a salvo on each wing with their shot, which 

was done.  They then went off, I suppose to give an account of the 

reception they were like to meet with; indeed, that salute cloyed 

their stomachs, for they immediately halted, stood a while to 

consider of it, and wheeling off to the left, they gave over their 

design for that time, which was very agreeable to our 

circumstances.



Two days after we came to the city of Naun, or Naum; we thanked the 

governor for his care of us, and collected to the value of a 

hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers sent 

to guard us; and here we rested one day.  This is a garrison 

indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers kept here; but the 

reason of it was, that formerly the Muscovite frontiers lay nearer 

to them than they now do, the Muscovites having abandoned that part 

of the country, which lies from this city west for about two 

hundred miles, as desolate and unfit for use; and more especially 

being so very remote, and so difficult to send troops thither for 

its defence; for we were yet above two thousand miles from Muscovy 

properly so called.  After this we passed several great rivers, and 

two dreadful deserts; one of which we were sixteen days passing 

over; and on the 13th of April we came to the frontiers of the 

Muscovite dominions.  I think the first town or fortress, whichever 

it may he called, that belonged to the Czar, was called Arguna, 

being on the west side of the river Arguna.



I could not but feel great satisfaction that I was arrived in a 

country governed by Christians; for though the Muscovites do, in my 

opinion, but just deserve the name of Christians, yet such they 

pretend to be, and are very devout in their way.  It would 

certainly occur to any reflecting man who travels the world as I 

have done, what a blessing it is to be brought into the world where 

the name of God and a Redeemer is known, adored, and worshipped; 

and not where the people, given up to strong delusions, worship the 

devil, and prostrate themselves to monsters, elements, horrid-

shaped animals, and monstrous images.  Not a town or city we passed 

through but had their pagodas, their idols, and their temples, and 

ignorant people worshipping even the works of their own hands.  Now 

we came where, at least, a face of the Christian worship appeared; 

where the knee was bowed to Jesus:  and whether ignorantly or not, 

yet the Christian religion was owned, and the name of the true God 

was called upon and adored; and it made my soul rejoice to see it.  

I saluted the brave Scots merchant with my first acknowledgment of 

this; and taking him by the hand, I said to him, "Blessed be God, 

we are once again amongst Christians."  He smiled, and answered, 

"Do not rejoice too soon, countryman; these Muscovites are but an 

odd sort of Christians; and but for the name of it you may see very 

little of the substance for some months further of our journey." - 

"Well," says I, "but still it is better than paganism, and 

worshipping of devils." - "Why, I will tell you," says he; "except 

the Russian soldiers in the garrisons, and a few of the inhabitants 

of the cities upon the road, all the rest of this country, for 

above a thousand miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most 

ignorant of pagans."  And so, indeed, we found it.



We now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that is to 

be found in any part of the world; we had, at least, twelve 

thousand miles to the sea eastward; two thousand to the bottom of 

the Baltic Sea westward; and above three thousand, if we left that 

sea, and went on west, to the British and French channels:  we had 

full five thousand miles to the Indian or Persian Sea south; and 

about eight hundred to the Frozen Sea north.



We advanced from the river Arguna by easy and moderate journeys, 

and were very visibly obliged to the care the Czar has taken to 

have cities and towns built in as many places as it is possible to 

place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, something like the 

stationary soldiers placed by the Romans in the remotest countries 

of their empire; some of which I had read of were placed in 

Britain, for the security of commerce, and for the lodging of 

travellers.  Thus it was here; for wherever we came, though at 

these towns and stations the garrisons and governors were Russians, 

and professed Christians, yet the inhabitants were mere pagans, 

sacrificing to idols, and worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or 

all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the 

heathens and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, 

except only that they did not eat men's flesh.



Some instances of this we met with in the country between Arguna, 

where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city of Tartars and 

Russians together, called Nortziousky, in which is a continued 

desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over.  In a 

village near the last of these places I had the curiosity to go and 

see their way of living, which is most brutish and unsufferable.  

They had, I suppose, a great sacrifice that day; for there stood 

out, upon an old stump of a tree, a diabolical kind of idol made of 

wood; it was dressed up, too, in the most filthy manner; its upper 

garment was of sheepskins, with the wool outward; a great Tartar 

bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it; it was about 

eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, nor any other proportion 

of parts.



This scarecrow was set up at the outer side of the village; and 

when I came near to it there were sixteen or seventeen creatures 

all lying flat upon the ground round this hideous block of wood; I 

saw no motion among them, any more than if they had been all logs, 

like the idol, and at first I really thought they had been so; but, 

when I came a little nearer, they started up upon their feet, and 

raised a howl, as if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, and 

walked away, as if they were displeased at our disturbing them.  A 

little way off from the idol, and at the door of a hut, made of 

sheep and cow skins dried, stood three men with long knives in 

their hands; and in the middle of the tent appeared three sheep 

killed, and one young bullock.  These, it seems, were sacrifices to 

that senseless log of an idol; the three men were priests belonging 

to it, and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who 

brought the offering, and were offering their prayers to that 

stock.



I confess I was more moved at their stupidity and brutish worship 

of a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything in my life, and, 

overcome with rage, I rode up to the hideous idol, and with my 

sword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, and cut it 

in two; and one of our men that was with me, taking hold of the 

sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a most 

hideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundred 

people came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for it, for 

some had bows and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visit 

them again.  Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was 

about four miles off, in order to provide some horses which they 

wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the 

long march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to put 

my design in execution.  I communicated it to the Scots merchant, 

of whose courage I had sufficient testimony; I told him what I had 

seen, and with what indignation I had since thought that human 

nature could be so degenerate; I told him if I could get but four 

or five men well armed to go with me, I was resolved to go and 

destroy that vile, abominable idol, and let them see that it had no 

power to help itself, and consequently could not be an object of 

worship, or to be prayed to, much less help them that offered 

sacrifices to it.



He at first objected to my plan as useless, seeing that, owing to 

the gross ignorance of the people, they could not be brought to 

profit by the lesson I meant to teach them; and added that, from 

his knowledge of the country and its customs, he feared we should 

fall into great peril by giving offence to these brutal idol 

worshippers.  This somewhat stayed my purpose, but I was still 

uneasy all that day to put my project in execution; and that 

evening, meeting the Scots merchant in our walk about the town, I 

again called upon him to aid me in it.  When he found me resolute 

he said that, on further thoughts, he could not but applaud the 

design, and told me I should not go alone, but he would go with me; 

but he would go first and bring a stout fellow, one of his 

countrymen, to go also with us; "and one," said he, "as famous for 

his zeal as you can desire any one to be against such devilish 

things as these."  So we agreed to go, only we three and my man-

servant, and resolved to put it in execution the following night 

about midnight, with all possible secrecy.



We thought it better to delay it till the next night, because the 

caravan being to set forward in the morning, we suppose the 

governor could not pretend to give them any satisfaction upon us 

when we were out of his power.  The Scots merchant, as steady in 

his resolution for the enterprise as bold in executing, brought me 

a Tartar's robe or gown of sheepskins, and a bonnet, with a bow and 

arrows, and had provided the same for himself and his countryman, 

that the people, if they saw us, should not determine who we were.  

All the first night we spent in mixing up some combustible matter, 

with aqua vitae, gunpowder, and such other materials as we could 

get; and having a good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an 

hour after night we set out upon our expedition.



We came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and found that 

the people had not the least suspicion of danger attending their 

idol.  The night was cloudy:  yet the moon gave us light enough to 

see that the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it 

did before.  The people seemed to be all at their rest; only that 

in the great hut, where we saw the three priests, we saw a light, 

and going up close to the door, we heard people talking as if there 

were five or six of them; we concluded, therefore, that if we set 

wildfire to the idol, those men would come out immediately, and run 

up to the place to rescue it from destruction; and what to do with 

them we knew not.  Once we thought of carrying it away, and setting 

fire to it at a distance; but when we came to handle it, we found 

it too bulky for our carriage, so we were at a loss again.  The 

second Scotsman was for setting fire to the hut, and knocking the 

creatures that were there on the head when they came out; but I 

could not join with that; I was against killing them, if it were 

possible to avoid it.  "Well, then," said the Scots merchant, "I 

will tell you what we will do:  we will try to make them prisoners, 

tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol destroyed."



As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, which 

we used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolved to 

attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could.  

The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the 

priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his 

mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol, 

where we gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feet 

also together, and left him on the ground.



Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would 

come out to see what the matter was; but we waited so long till the 

third man came back to us; and then nobody coming out, we knocked 

again gently, and immediately out came two more, and we served them 

just in the same manner, but were obliged to go all with them, and 

lay them down by the idol some distance from one another; when, 

going back, we found two more were come out of the door, and a 

third stood behind them within the door.  We seized the two, and 

immediately tied them, when the third, stepping back and crying 

out, my Scots merchant went in after them, and taking out a 

composition we had made that would only smoke and stink, he set 

fire to it, and threw it in among them.  By that time the other 

Scotsman and my man, taking charge of the two men already bound, 

and tied together also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and 

left them there, to see if their idol would relieve them, making 

haste back to us.



When the fuze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much 

smoke that they were almost suffocated, we threw in a small leather 

bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle, and, following it 

in, we found there were but four people, who, as we supposed, had 

been about some of their diabolical sacrifices.  They appeared, in 

short, frightened to death, at least so as to sit trembling and 

stupid, and not able to speak either, for the smoke.



We quickly took them from the hut, where the smoke soon drove us 

out, bound them as we had done the other, and all without any 

noise.  Then we carried them all together to the idol; when we came 

there, we fell to work with him.  First, we daubed him all over, 

and his robes also, with tar, and tallow mixed with brimstone; then 

we stopped his eyes and ears and mouth full of gunpowder, and 

wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet; then sticking 

all the combustibles we had brought with us upon him, we looked 

about to see if we could find anything else to help to burn him; 

when my Scotsman remembered that by the hut, where the men were, 

there lay a heap of dry forage; away he and the other Scotsman ran 

and fetched their arms full of that.  When we had done this, we 

took all our prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet 

and ungagged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them 

before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.



We stayed by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till the 

powder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and, as 

we could perceive, had split altogether; and in a word, till we saw 

it burned so that it would soon be quite consumed.  We then began 

to think of going away; but the Scotsman said, "No, we must not go, 

for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the 

fire, and burn themselves with the idol."  So we resolved to stay 

till the forage has burned down too, and then came away and left 

them.  After the feat was performed, we appeared in the morning 

among our fellow-travellers, exceedingly busy in getting ready for 

our journey; nor could any man suppose that we had been anywhere 

but in our beds.



But the affair did not end so; the next day came a great number of 

the country people to the town gates, and in a most outrageous 

manner demanded satisfaction of the Russian governor for the 

insulting their priests and burning their great Cham Chi-Thaungu.  

The people of Nertsinkay were at first in a great consternation, 

for they said the Tartars were already no less than thirty thousand 

strong.  The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease them, 

assuring them that he knew nothing of it, and that there had not a 

soul in his garrison been abroad, so that it could not be from 

anybody there:  but if they could let him know who did it, they 

should be exemplarily punished.  They returned haughtily, that all 

the country reverenced the great Cham Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the 

sun, and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image 

but some Christian miscreant; and they therefore resolved to 

denounce war against him and all the Russians, who, they said, were 

miscreants and Christians.



The governor, unwilling to make a breach, or to have any cause of 

war alleged to be given by him, the Czar having strictly charged 

him to treat the conquered country with gentleness, gave them all 

the good words he could.  At last he told them there was a caravan 

gone towards Russia that morning, and perhaps it was some of them 

who had done them this injury; and that if they would be satisfied 

with that, he would send after them to inquire into it.  This 

seemed to appease them a little; and accordingly the governor sent 

after us, and gave us a particular account how the thing was; 

intimating withal, that if any in our caravan had done it they 

should make their escape; but that whether we had done it or no, we 

should make all the haste forward that was possible:  and that, in 

the meantime, he would keep them in play as long as he could.



This was very friendly in the governor; however, when it came to 

the caravan, there was nobody knew anything of the matter; and as 

for us that were guilty, we were least of all suspected.  However, 

the captain of the caravan for the time took the hint that the 

governor gave us, and we travelled two days and two nights without 

any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called Plothus:  

nor did we make any long stop here, but hastened on towards 

Jarawena, another Muscovite colony, and where we expected we should 

be safe.  But upon the second day's march from Plothus, by the 

clouds of dust behind us at a great distance, it was plain we were 

pursued.  We had entered a vast desert, and had passed by a great 

lake called Schanks Oser, when we perceived a large body of horse 

appear on the other side of the lake, to the north, we travelling 

west.  We observed they went away west, as we did, but had supposed 

we would have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very happily 

took the south side; and in two days more they disappeared again:  

for they, believing we were still before them, pushed on till they 

came to the Udda, a very great river when it passes farther north, 

but when we came to it we found it narrow and fordable.



The third day they had either found their mistake, or had 

intelligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards dusk.  We 

had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a convenient 

place for our camp; for as we had just entered upon a desert above 

five hundred miles over, where we had no towns to lodge at, and, 

indeed, expected none but the city Jarawena, which we had yet two 

days' march to; the desert, however, had some few woods in it on 

this side, and little rivers, which ran all into the great river 

Udda; it was in a narrow strait, between little but very thick 

woods, that we pitched our camp that night, expecting to be 

attacked before morning.  As it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to 

go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify 

themselves every night against them, as against armies of robbers; 

and it was, therefore, no new thing to be pursued.  But we had this 

night a most advantageous camp:  for as we lay between two woods, 

with a little rivulet running just before our front, we could not 

be surrounded, or attacked any way but in our front or rear.  We 

took care also to make our front as strong as we could, by placing 

our packs, with the camels and horses, all in a line, on the inside 

of the river, and felling some trees in our rear.



In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was upon 

us before we had finished.  They did not come on like thieves, as 

we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to 

be delivered to them that had abused their priests and burned their 

idol, that they might burn them with fire; and upon this, they 

said, they would go away, and do us no further harm, otherwise they 

would destroy us all.  Our men looked very blank at this message, 

and began to stare at one another to see who looked with the most 

guilt in their faces; but nobody was the word - nobody did it.  The 

leader of the caravan sent word he was well assured that it was not 

done by any of our camp; that we were peaceful merchants, 

travelling on our business; that we had done no harm to them or to 

any one else; and that, therefore, they must look further for the 

enemies who had injured them, for we were not the people; so they 

desired them not to disturb us, for if they did we should defend 

ourselves.



They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer:  and a 

great crowd of them came running down in the morning, by break of 

day, to our camp; but seeing us so well posted, they durst come no 

farther than the brook in our front, where they stood in such 

number as to terrify us very much; indeed, some spoke of ten 

thousand.  Here they stood and looked at us a while, and then, 

setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows among us; but we 

were well enough sheltered under our baggage, and I do not remember 

that one of us was hurt.



Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and 

expected them on the rear:  when a cunning fellow, a Cossack of 

Jarawena, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, "I 

will send all these people away to Sibeilka."  This was a city four 

or five days' journey at least to the right, and rather behind us.  

So he takes his bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he rides 

away from our rear directly, as it were back to Nertsinskay; after 

this he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on the army 

of the Tartars as if he had been sent express to tell them a long 

story that the people who had burned the Cham Chi-Thaungu were gone 

to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them - that 

is to say, Christians; and that they had resolved to burn the god 

Scal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses.  As this fellow was himself a 

Tartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited so 

well that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violent 

hurry to Sibeilka.  In less than three hours they were entirely out 

of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether they 

went to Sibeilka or no.  So we passed away safely on to Jarawena, 

where there was a Russian garrison, and there we rested five days.



From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us twenty-

three days' march.  We furnished ourselves with some tents here, 

for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader 

of the caravan procured sixteen waggons of the country, for 

carrying our water or provisions, and these carriages were our 

defence every night round our little camp; so that had the Tartars 

appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would not 

have been able to hurt us.  We may well be supposed to have wanted 

rest again after this long journey; for in this desert we neither 

saw house nor tree, and scarce a bush; though we saw abundance of 

the sable-hunters, who are all Tartars of Mogul Tartary; of which 

this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans, 

but we saw no numbers of them together.



After we had passed this desert we came into a country pretty well 

inhabited - that is to say, we found towns and castles, settled by 

the Czar with garrisons of stationary soldiers, to protect the 

caravans and defend the country against the Tartars, who would 

otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish 

majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding the 

caravans, that, if there are any Tartars heard of in the country, 

detachments of the garrison are always sent to see the travellers 

safe from station to station.  Thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom 

I had an opportunity to make a visit to, by means of the Scots 

merchant, who was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty 

men, if we thought there was any danger, to the next station.



I thought, long before this, that as we came nearer to Europe we 

should find the country better inhabited, and the people more 

civilised; but I found myself mistaken in both:  for we had yet the 

nation of the Tonguses to pass through, where we saw the same 

tokens of paganism and barbarity as before; only, as they were 

conquered by the Muscovites, they were not so dangerous, but for 

rudeness of manners and idolatry no people in the world ever went 

beyond them.  They are all clothed in skins of beasts, and their 

houses are built of the same; you know not a man from a woman, 

neither by the ruggedness of their countenances nor their clothes; 

and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they live 

underground in vaults, which have cavities going from one to 

another.  If the Tartars had their Cham Chi-Thaungu for a whole 

village or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave.  

This country, I reckon, was, from the desert I spoke of last, at 

least four hundred miles, half of it being another desert, which 

took us up twelve days' severe travelling, without house or tree; 

and we were obliged again to carry our own provisions, as well 

water as bread.  After we were out of this desert and had travelled 

two days, we came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the 

great river Janezay, which, they told us there, parted Europe from 

Asia.



All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as 

entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the 

Tartars.  I also found, which I observed to the Muscovite governors 

whom I had an opportunity to converse with, that the poor pagans 

are not much wiser, or nearer Christianity, for being under the 

Muscovite government, which they acknowledged was true enough - but 

that, as they said, was none of their business; that if the Czar 

expected to convert his Siberian, Tonguse, or Tartar subjects, it 

should be done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and 

they added, with more sincerity than I expected, that it was not so 

much the concern of their monarch to make the people Christians as 

to make them subjects.



From this river to the Oby we crossed a wild uncultivated country, 

barren of people and good management, otherwise it is in itself a 

pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country.  What inhabitants we 

found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from 

Russia; for this is the country - I mean on both sides the river 

Oby - whither the Muscovite criminals that are not put to death are 

banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever 

get away.  I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs 

till I came to Tobolski, the capital city of Siberia, where I 

continued some time on the following account.



We had now been almost seven months on our journey, and winter 

began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a council 

about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, as we 

were bound for England, to consider how to dispose of ourselves.  

They told us of sledges and reindeer to carry us over the snow in 

the winter time, by which means, indeed, the Russians travel more 

in winter than they can in summer, as in these sledges they are 

able to run night and day:  the snow, being frozen, is one 

universal covering to nature, by which the hills, vales, rivers, 

and lakes are all smooth and hard is a stone, and they run upon the 

surface, without any regard to what is underneath.



But I had no occasion to urge a winter journey of this kind.  I was 

bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways:  either 

I must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Jarislaw, and then 

go off west for Narva and the Gulf of Finland, and so on to 

Dantzic, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to good 

advantage; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the 

Dwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, and 

from thence might be sure of shipping either to England, Holland, 

or Hamburg.



Now, to go any one of these journeys in the winter would have been 

preposterous; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would have been frozen 

up and I could not get passage; and to go by land in those 

countries was far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars; likewise, 

as to Archangel in October, all the ships would be gone from 

thence, and even the merchants who dwell there in summer retire 

south to Moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that I 

could have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a 

scarcity of provisions, and must lie in an empty town all the 

winter.  Therefore, upon the whole, I thought it much my better way 

to let the caravan go, and make provision to winter where I was, at 

Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of about sixty degrees, where 

I was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz. 

plenty of provisions, such as the country afforded, a warm house, 

with fuel enough, and excellent company.



I was now in quite a different climate from my beloved island, 

where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the 

contrary, I had much to do to bear any clothes on my back, and 

never made any fire but without doors, which was necessary for 

dressing my food, &c.  Now I had three good vests, with large robes 

or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to 

the wrists; and all these lined with furs, to make them 

sufficiently warm.  As to a warm house, I must confess I greatly 

dislike our way in England of making fires in every room of the 

house in open chimneys, which, when the fire is out, always keeps 

the air in the room cold as the climate.  So I took an apartment in 

a good house in the town, and ordered a chimney to be built like a 

furnace, in the centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the 

funnel to carry the smoke went up one way, the door to come at the 

fire went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but 

no fire seen, just as they heat baths in England.  By this means we 

had always the same climate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was 

preserved, and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with 

smoke.



The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible to 

meet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as this - 

one of the most northerly parts of Europe.  But this being the 

country where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I observed before, 

are all banished, the city was full of Russian noblemen, gentlemen, 

soldiers, and courtiers.  Here was the famous Prince Galitzin, the 

old German Robostiski, and several other persons of note, and some 

ladies.  By means of my Scotch merchant, whom, nevertheless, I 

parted with here, I made an acquaintance with several of these 

gentlemen; and from these, in the long winter nights in which I 

stayed here, I received several very agreeable visits.







CHAPTER XVI - SAFE ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND







IT was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished 

ministers of state belonging to the Czar, that the discourse of my 

particular case began.  He had been telling me abundance of fine 

things of the greatness, the magnificence, the dominions, and the 

absolute power of the Emperor of the Russians:  I interrupted him, 

and told him I was a greater and more powerful prince than ever the 

Czar was, though my dominion were not so large, or my people so 

many.  The Russian grandee looked a little surprised, and, fixing 

his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what I meant.  I said 

his wonder would cease when I had explained myself, and told him 

the story at large of my living in the island; and then how I 

managed both myself and the people that were under me, just as I 

have since minuted it down.  They were exceedingly taken with the 

story, and especially the prince, who told me, with a sigh, that 

the true greatness of life was to be masters of ourselves; that he 

would not have exchanged such a state of life as mine to be Czar of 

Muscovy; and that he found more felicity in the retirement he 

seemed to be banished to there, than ever he found in the highest 

authority he enjoyed in the court of his master the Czar; that the 

height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our 

circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the 

greatest storms without.  When he came first hither, he said, he 

used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, 

as others had done before him; but a little time and consideration 

had made him look into himself, as well as round him to things 

without; that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought 

to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this 

world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of 

making a felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and 

suitable to its own best ends and desires, with but very little 

assistance from the world.  That being now deprived of all the 

fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of worldly 

pleasures, he said he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of 

them, where he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced 

that virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and 

preserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; 

and in this, he said, they were more happy in their banishment than 

all their enemies were, who had the full possession of all the 

wealth and power they had left behind them.  "Nor, sir," says he, 

"do I bring my mind to this politically, from the necessity of my 

circumstances, which some call miserable; but, if I know anything 

of myself, I would not now go back, though the Czar my master 

should call me, and reinstate me in all my former grandeur."



He spoke this with so much warmth in his temper, so much 

earnestness and motion of his spirits, that it was evident it was 

the true sense of his soul; there was no room to doubt his 

sincerity.  I told him I once thought myself a kind of monarch in 

my old station, of which I had given him an account; but that I 

thought he was not only a monarch, but a great conqueror; for he 

that had got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and the 

absolute dominion over himself, he whose reason entirely governs 

his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city.



I had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter I thought 

it; the cold so intense that I could not so much as look abroad 

without being wrapped in furs, and a kind of mask of fur before my 

face, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight:  the little 

daylight we had was for three months not above five hours a day, 

and six at most; only that the snow lying on the ground 

continually, and the weather being clear, it was never quite dark.  

Our horses were kept, or rather starved, underground; and as for 

our servants, whom we hired here to look after ourselves and 

horses, we had, every now and then, their fingers and toes to thaw 

and take care of, lest they should mortify and fall off.



It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the 

walls thick, the windows small, and the glass all double.  Our food 

was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; bread 

good enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, 

and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good 

meat.  All the stores of provisions for the winter are laid up in 

the summer, and well cured:  our drink was water, mixed with aqua 

vitae instead of brandy; and for a treat, mead instead of wine, 

which, however, they have very good.  The hunters, who venture 

abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fine venison, and 

sometimes bear's flesh, but we did not much care for the last.  We 

had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends, and we 

lived cheerfully and well, all things considered.



It was now March, the days grown considerably longer, and the 

weather at least tolerable; so the other travellers began to 

prepare sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things 

ready to be going; but my measures being fixed, as I have said, for 

Archangel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion; 

knowing very well that the ships from the south do not set out for 

that part of the world till May or June, and that if I was there by 

the beginning of August, it would be as soon as any ships would be 

ready to sail.  Therefore I made no haste to be gone, as others 

did:  in a word, I saw a great many people, nay, all the 

travellers, go away before me.  It seems every year they go from 

thence to Muscovy, for trade, to carry furs, and buy necessaries, 

which they bring back with them to furnish their shops:  also 

others went on the same errand to Archangel.



In the month of May I began to make all ready to pack up; and, as I 

was doing this, it occurred to me that, seeing all these people 

were banished by the Czar to Siberia, and yet, when they came 

there, were left at liberty to go whither they would, why they did 

not then go away to any part of the world, wherever they thought 

fit:  and I began to examine what should hinder them from making 

such an attempt.  But my wonder was over when I entered upon that 

subject with the person I have mentioned, who answered me thus:  

"Consider, first, sir," said he, "the place where we are; and, 

secondly, the condition we are in; especially the generality of the 

people who are banished thither.  We are surrounded with stronger 

things than bars or bolts; on the north side, an unnavigable ocean, 

where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; every other way we 

have above a thousand miles to pass through the Czar's own 

dominion, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made 

by the government, and through the towns garrisoned by his troops; 

in short, we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, nor 

subsist any other way, so that it is in vain to attempt it."



I was silenced at once, and found that they were in a prison every 

jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle at 

Moscow:  however, it came into my thoughts that I might certainly 

be made an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent 

person; and that, whatever hazard I ran, I would certainly try if I 

could carry him off.  Upon this, I took an occasion one evening to 

tell him my thoughts.  I represented to him that it was very easy 

for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the 

country; and as I was not going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and 

that I went in the retinue of a caravan, by which I was not obliged 

to lie in the stationary towns in the desert, but could encamp 

every night where I would, we might easily pass uninterrupted to 

Archangel, where I would immediately secure him on board an English 

ship, and carry him safe along with me; and as to his subsistence 

and other particulars, it should be my care till he could better 

supply himself.



He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the 

while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face that what I said 

put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently 

changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, till it 

might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could he 

immediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, hesitated 

what he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, he 

embraced me, and said, "How unhappy are we, unguarded creatures as 

we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares 

unto us, and we are made tempters of one another!"  He then 

heartily thanked me for my offers of service, but withstood 

resolutely the arguments I used to urge him to set himself free.  

He declared, in earnest terms, that he was fully bent on remaining 

where he was rather than seek to return to his former miserable 

greatness, as he called it:  where the seeds of pride, ambition, 

avarice, and luxury might revive, take root, and again overwhelm 

him.  "Let me remain, dear sir," he said, in conclusion - "let me 

remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of 

life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the 

liberty of my reason, and at the future happiness which I now have 

in my view, but should then, I fear, quickly lose sight of; for I 

am but flesh; a man, a mere man; and have passions and affections 

as likely to possess and overthrow me as any man:  Oh, be not my 

friend and tempter both together!"



If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent, 

looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw.  The struggle in 

his soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold, 

it put him into a most violent heat; so I said a word or two, that 

I would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, and 

then I withdrew to my own apartment.



About two hours after I heard somebody at or near the door of my 

room, and I was going to open the door, but he had opened it and 

come in.  "My dear friend," says he, "you had almost overset me, 

but I am recovered.  Do not take it ill that I do not close with 

your offer.  I assure you it is not for want of sense of the 

kindness of it in you; and I came to make the most sincere 

acknowledgment of it to you; but I hope I have got the victory over 

myself." - "My lord," said I, "I hope you are fully satisfied that 

you do not resist the call of Heaven." - "Sir," said he, "if it had 

been from Heaven, the same power would have influenced me to have 

accepted it; but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from 

Heaven that I decline it, and I have infinite satisfaction in the 

parting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a 

free man."



I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make professions to him 

of my having no end in it but a sincere desire to serve him.  He 

embraced me very passionately, and assured me he was sensible of 

that, and should always acknowledge it; and with that he offered me 

a very fine present of sables - too much, indeed, for me to accept 

from a man in his circumstances, and I would have avoided them, but 

he would not be refused.  The next morning I sent my servant to his 

lordship with a small present of tea, and two pieces of China 

damask, and four little wedges of Japan gold, which did not all 

weigh above six ounces or thereabouts, but were far short of the 

value of his sables, which, when I came to England, I found worth 

near two hundred pounds.  He accepted the tea, and one piece of the 

damask, and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon 

it, of the Japan coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of 

it, but would not take any more:  and he sent word by my servant 

that he desired to speak with me.



When I came to him he told me I knew what had passed between us, 

and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair; but that, 

since I had made such a generous offer to him, he asked me if I had 

kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he would 

name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern.  In a word, he 

told me it was his only son; who, though I had not seen him, was in 

the same condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from 

him, on the other side of the Oby; but that, if I consented, he 

would send for him.



I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it.  I made some 

ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his 

account; and that, seeing I could not prevail on him, I would show 

my respect to him by my concern for his son.  He sent the next day 

for his son; and in about twenty days he came back with the 

messenger, bringing six or seven horses, loaded with very rich 

furs, which, in the whole, amounted to a very great value.  His 

servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young lord 

at a distance till night, when he came incognito into our 

apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we 

concerted the manner of our travelling, and everything proper for 

the journey.



I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins, 

fine ermines, and such other furs as are very rich in that city, in 

exchange for some of the goods I had brought from China; in 

particular for the cloves and nutmegs, of which I sold the greatest 

part here, and the rest afterwards at Archangel, for a much better 

price than I could have got at London; and my partner, who was 

sensible of the profit, and whose business, more particularly than 

mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our stay, on 

account of the traffic we made here.



It was the beginning of June when I left this remote place.  We 

were now reduced to a very small caravan, having only thirty-two 

horses and camels in all, which passed for mine, though my new 

guest was proprietor of eleven of them.  It was natural also that I 

should take more servants with me than I had before; and the young 

lord passed for my steward; what great man I passed for myself I 

know not, neither did it concern me to inquire.  We had here the 

worst and the largest desert to pass over that we met with in our 

whole journey; I call it the worst, because the way was very deep 

in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had to say 

for it was, that we thought we had no troops of Tartars or robbers 

to fear, as they never came on this side of the river Oby, or at 

least very seldom; but we found it otherwise.



My young lord had a faithful Siberian servant, who was perfectly 

acquainted with the country, and led us by private roads, so that 

we avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon the 

great road, such as Tumen, Soloy Kamaskoy, and several others; 

because the Muscovite garrisons which are kept there are very 

curious and strict in their observation upon travellers, and 

searching lest any of the banished persons of note should make 

their escape that way into Muscovy; but, by this means, as we were 

kept out of the cities, so our whole journey was a desert, and we 

were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents, when we might have had 

very good accommodation in the cities on the way; this the young 

lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie abroad 

when we came to several cities on the way, but lay abroad himself, 

with his servant, in the woods, and met us always at the appointed 

places.



We had just entered Europe, having passed the river Kama, which in 

these parts is the boundary between Europe and Asia, and the first 

city on the European side was called Soloy Kamaskoy, that is, the 

great city on the river Kama.  And here we thought to see some 

evident alteration in the people; but we were mistaken, for as we 

had a vast desert to pass, which is near seven hundred miles long 

in some places, but not above two hundred miles over where we 

passed it, so, till we came past that horrible place, we found very 

little difference between that country and Mogul Tartary.  The 

people are mostly pagans; their houses and towns full of idols; and 

their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities and 

villages near them, where they are Christians, as they call 

themselves, of the Greek Church:  but have their religion mingled 

with so many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known 

in some places from mere sorcery and witchcraft.



In passing this forest (after all our dangers were, to our 

imagination, escaped), I thought, indeed, we must have been 

plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves:  

of what country they were I am yet at a loss to know; but they were 

all on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and were at first about 

forty-five in number.  They came so near to us as to be within two 

musket-shot, and, asking no questions, surrounded us with their 

horses, and looked very earnestly upon us twice; at length, they 

placed themselves just in our way; upon which we drew up in a 

little line, before our camels, being not above sixteen men in all.  

Thus drawn up, we halted, and sent out the Siberian servant, who 

attended his lord, to see who they were; his master was the more 

willing to let him go, because he was not a little apprehensive 

that they were a Siberian troop sent out after him.  The man came 

up near them with a flag of truce, and called to them; but though 

he spoke several of their languages, or dialects of languages 

rather, he could not understand a word they said; however, after 

some signs to him not to come near them at his peril, the fellow 

came back no wiser than he went; only that by their dress, he said, 

he believed them to be some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of the 

Circassian hordes, and that there must be more of them upon the 

great desert, though he never heard that any of them were seen so 

far north before.



This was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy:  there was 

on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile distance, a little 

grove, and very near the road.  I immediately resolved we should 

advance to those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could 

there; for, first, I considered that the trees would in a great 

measure cover us from their arrows; and, in the next place, they 

could not come to charge us in a body:  it was, indeed, my old 

Portuguese pilot who proposed it, and who had this excellency 

attending him, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct 

and encourage us in cases of the most danger.  We advanced 

immediately, with what speed we could, and gained that little wood; 

the Tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keeping 

their stand, and not attempting to hinder us.  When we came 

thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy 

piece of ground, and on the one side a very great spring of water, 

which, running out in a little brook, was a little farther joined 

by another of the like size; and was, in short, the source of a 

considerable river, called afterwards the Wirtska; the trees which 

grew about this spring were not above two hundred, but very large, 

and stood pretty thick, so that as soon as we got in, we saw 

ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy unless they attacked us on 

foot.



While we stayed here waiting the motion of the enemy some hours, 

without perceiving that they made any movement, our Portuguese, 

with some help, cut several arms of trees half off, and laid them 

hanging across from one tree to another, and in a manner fenced us 

in.  About two hours before night they came down directly upon us; 

and though we had not perceived it, we found they had been joined 

by some more, so that they were near fourscore horse; whereof, 

however, we fancied some were women.  They came on till they were 

within half-shot of our little wood, when we fired one musket 

without ball, and called to them in the Russian tongue to know what 

they wanted, and bade them keep off; but they came on with a double 

fury up to the wood-side, not imagining we were so barricaded that 

they could not easily break in.  Our old pilot was our captain as 

well as our engineer, and desired us not to fire upon them till 

they came within pistol-shot, that we might be sure to kill, and 

that when we did fire we should be sure to take good aim; we bade 

him give the word of command, which he delayed so long that they 

were some of them within two pikes' length of us when we let fly.  

We aimed so true that we killed fourteen of them, and wounded 

several others, as also several of their horses; for we had all of 

us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apiece at least.



They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated 

immediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we loaded 

our pieces again, and seeing them keep that distance, we sallied 

out, and caught four or five of their horses, whose riders we 

supposed were killed; and coming up to the dead, we judged they 

were Tartars, but knew not how they came to make an excursion such 

an unusual length.



About an hour after they again made a motion to attack us, and rode 

round our little wood to see where they might break in; but finding 

us always ready to face them, they went off again; and we resolved 

not to stir for that night.



We slept little, but spent the most part of the night in 

strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the 

wood, and keeping a strict watch.  We waited for daylight, and when 

it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed; for the 

enemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception they met 

with, were now greatly increased, and had set up eleven or twelve 

huts or tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and this 

little camp they had pitched upon the open plain, about three-

quarters of a mile from us.  I confess I now gave myself over for 

lost, and all that I had; the loss of my effects did not lie so 

near me, though very considerable, as the thoughts of falling into 

the hands of such barbarians at the latter end of my journey, after 

so many difficulties and hazards as I had gone through, and even in 

sight of our port, where we expected safety and deliverance.  As to 

my partner, he was raging, and declared that to lose his goods 

would be his ruin, and that he would rather die than be starved, 

and he was for fighting to the last drop.



The young lord, a most gallant youth, was for fighting to the last 

also; and my old pilot was of opinion that we were able to resist 

them all in the situation we were then in.  Thus we spent the day 

in debates of what we should do; but towards evening we found that 

the number of our enemies still increased, and we did not know but 

by the morning they might still be a greater number:  so I began to 

inquire of those people we had brought from Tobolski if there were 

no private ways by which we might avoid them in the night, and 

perhaps retreat to some town, or get help to guard us over the 

desert.  The young lord's Siberian servant told us, if we designed 

to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off in 

the night, to a way that went north, towards the river Petruz, by 

which he made no question but we might get away, and the Tartars 

never discover it; but, he said, his lord had told him he would not 

retreat, but would rather choose to fight.  I told him he mistook 

his lord:  for that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the 

sake of it; that I knew he was brave enough by what he had showed 

already; but that he knew better than to desire seventeen or 

eighteen men to fight five hundred, unless an unavoidable necessity 

forced them to it; and that if he thought it possible for us to 

escape in the night, we had nothing else to do but to attempt it.  

He answered, if his lordship gave him such orders, he would lose 

his life if he did not perform it; we soon brought his lord to give 

that order, though privately, and we immediately prepared for 

putting it in practice.



And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in our 

little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to make it 

burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we were still 

there; but as soon as it was dark, and we could see the stars (for 

our guide would not stir before), having all our horses and camels 

ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who I soon found steered 

himself by the north star, the country being level for a long way.



After we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to be lighter 

still; not that it was dark all night, but the moon began to rise, 

so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; 

but by six o'clock the next morning we had got above thirty miles, 

having almost spoiled our horses.  Here we found a Russian village, 

named Kermazinskoy, where we rested, and heard nothing of the 

Kalmuck Tartars that day.  About two hours before night we set out 

again, and travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite 

so hard as before; and about seven o'clock we passed a little 

river, called Kirtza, and came to a good large town inhabited by 

Russians, called Ozomys; there we heard that several troops of 

Kalmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were now 

completely out of danger of them, which was to our great 

satisfaction.  Here we were obliged to get some fresh horses, and 

having need enough of rest, we stayed five days; and my partner and 

I agreed to give the honest Siberian who conducted us thither the 

value of ten pistoles.



In five days more we came to Veussima, upon the river Witzogda, and 

running into the Dwina:  we were there, very happily, near the end 

of our travels by land, that river being navigable, in seven days' 

passage, to Archangel.  From hence we came to Lawremskoy, the 3rd 

of July; and providing ourselves with two luggage boats, and a 

barge for our own convenience, we embarked the 7th, and arrived all 

safe at Archangel the 18th; having been a year, five months, and 

three days on the journey, including our stay of about eight months 

at Tobolski.



We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of 

the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a Hamburgher come 

in above a month sooner than any of the English ships; when, after 

some consideration that the city of Hamburgh might happen to be as  

good a market for our goods as London, we all took freight with 

him; and, having put our goods on board, it was most natural for me 

to put my steward on board to take care of them; by which means my 

young lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal himself, never 

coming on shore again all the time we stayed there; and this he did 

that he might not be seen in the city, where some of the Moscow 

merchants would certainly have seen and discovered him.



We then set sail from Archangel the 20th of August, the same year; 

and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived safe in the Elbe 

the 18th of September.  Here my partner and I found a very good 

sale for our goods, as well those of China as the sables, &c., of 

Siberia:  and, dividing the produce, my share amounted to 3475 

pounds, 17s 3d., including about six hundred pounds' worth of 

diamonds, which I purchased at Bengal.



Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the Elbe, in 

order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved to seek 

protection and could correspond with those of his father's friends 

who were left alive.  He did not part without testimonials of 

gratitude for the service I had done him, and for my kindness to 

the prince, his father.



To conclude:  having stayed near four months in Hamburgh, I came 

from thence by land to the Hague, where I embarked in the packet, 

and arrived in London the 10th of January 1705, having been absent 

from England ten years and nine months.  And here, resolving to 

harass myself no more, I am preparing for a longer journey than all 

these, having lived seventy-two years a life of infinite variety, 

and learned sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the 

blessing of ending our days in peace.