THE LIFE ADVENTURES AND PIRACIES
OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN SINGLETON
BY DANIEL DEFOE

PREFACE

That all Defoe's novels, with the exception of "Robinson Crusoe," should
have been covered with the dust of neglect for many generations, is a plain
proof of how much fashions in taste affect the popularity of the British
classics. It is true that three generations or so ago, Defoe's works were
edited by both Sir Walter Scott and Hazlitt, and that this masterly piece
of realism, "Captain Singleton," was reprinted a few years back in "The
Camelot Classics," but it is safe to say that out of every thousand readers
of "Robinson Crusoe" only one or two will have even heard of the "Memoirs
of a Cavalier," "Colonel Jack," "Moll Flanders," or "Captain Singleton." It
is indeed distressing to think that while many scores of thousands of
copies of Lord Lytton's flashy romance, "Paul Clifford," have been devoured
by the public, "Captain Singleton" has remained unread and almost
forgotten. But the explanation is simple. Defoe's plain and homely realism
soon grew to be thought vulgar by people who themselves aspired to be
refined and genteel. The rapid spread of popular education, in the middle
of last century, was responsible for a great many aberrations of taste, and
the works of the two most English of Englishmen, Defoe and Hogarth, were
judged to be hardly fitting for polite society, as we may see from Lamb's
Essay on Hogarth, and from an early edition of Chambers's "Cyclopaedia of
English Literature" (1843), where we are told: "Nor is it needful to show
how elegant and reflective literature, especially, tends to moralise, to
soften, and to adorn the soul and life of man." "Unfortunately the taste or
_circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life_, and his characters
are such _as we cannot sympathise with_. The whole arcana of roguery
and villany seems to have been open to him.... It might be thought that the
good taste which led Defoe to write in a style of such pure and
unpretending English, instead of the inflated manner of vulgar writers,
_would have dictated a more careful selection of his subjects_, and
kept him from wandering so frequently into the low and disgusting purlieus
of vice. But this moral and tasteful discrimination seems to have been
wholly wanting," &c. The 'forties were the days when critics still talked
learnedly of the "noble style," &c., "the vulgar," of "sinking" or "rising"
with "the subject," the days when Books of Beauty were in fashion, and
Rembrandt's choice of beggars, wrinkled faces and grey hairs, for his
favourite subjects seemed a low and reprehensible taste in "high art."
Though critics to-day still ingenuously confound an artist's subject with
his treatment of it, and prefer scenes of life to be idealised rather than
realised by writers, we have advanced a little since the days of the poet
Montgomery, and it would be difficult now to find anybody writing so
confidently--"Unfortunately the taste or circumstances of Defoe led him
mostly into low life," however much the critic might believe it. But let us
glance at a few passages in "Captain Singleton," which may show us why
Defoe excels as a realist, and why his descriptions of "low life" are
artistically as perfect as any descriptions of "higher life" in the works
of the English novelists. Take the following description of kidnapping:--

"The woman pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and
play with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at
last she makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to
the maid, and tell her where she was with the child; that a
gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child and was kissing it, but
she should not be frightened, or to that purpose; for they were
but just there; and so while the girl went, she carried me quite
away.--Page 2.

Now here, in a single sentence, Defoe catches for us the whole soul and
character of the situation. It _seems_ very simple, but it sums up
marvellously an exact observation and knowledge of the arts of the gipsy
child-stealer, of her cunning flattery and brassy boldness, and we can
see the simple little girl running back to the house to tell the nurse
that a fine lady was kissing the child, and had told her to tell where
they were and she should not be frightened, &c.; and this picture again
calls up the hue and cry after the kidnappers and the fruitless hopes of
the parents. In a word, Defoe has condensed in the eight simple lines of
his little scene all that is essential to its living truth; and let the
young writer note that it is ever the sign of the master to do in three
words, or with three strokes, what the ordinary artist does in thirty.
Defoe's imagination is so extraordinarily comprehensive in picking out
just those little matter-of-fact details that suggest all the other
aspects, and that emphasise the character of the scene or situation,
that he makes us believe in the actuality of whatever he is describing.
So real, so living in every detail is this apocryphal narrative, in
"Captain Singleton," of the crossing of Africa by a body of marooned
sailors from the coast of Mozambique to the Gold Coast, that one would
firmly believe Defoe was committing to writing the verbal narrative of
some adventurer in the flesh, if it were not for certain passages--such
as the description of the impossible desert on page 90, which proves
that Defoe was piecing together his description of an imaginary journey
from the geographical records and travellers' tales of his contemporaries,
aided perhaps by the confused yarns of some sailor friends. How
substantially truthful in spirit and in detail is Defoe's account of
Madagascar is proved by the narrative of Robert Drury's "Captivity in
Madagascar," published in 1729. The natives themselves, as described
intimately by Drury, who lived amongst them for many years, would produce
just such an effect as Defoe describes on rough sailors in their perilous
position. The method by which Defoe compels us to accept improbabilities,
and lulls our critical sense asleep, is well shown in the following
passages:--

"Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most
abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew;
adding to it, that with the most unsufferable boasts of their own
courage, they were, generally speaking, the most complete cowards
that I ever met with."--Page 7.

"All the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck,
where the captain was walking with some of his officers, and
appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling
on his knees to the captain, begged of him in the humblest manner
possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer
for their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains, till they came
to Lisbon, and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as
they said, to have them left, to be murdered by savages, or devoured
by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took any notice
of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and
threatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them....
Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but
still with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour,
as he called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to
go on shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible, to
assist them to resist the barbarians."--Page 18.

Now the first passage we have quoted about the cowardice, &c., of the
Portuguese crew is not in keeping with the second passage, which shows the
men as "wishing to die with their companions"; but so actual is the scene
of the seamen "in a body coming up to the rail of the quarter-deck," that
we cannot but believe the thing happened so, just as we believe in all the
thousand little details of the imaginary narrative of "Robinson Crusoe."
This feat of the imagination Defoe strengthens in the most artful manner,
by putting in the mouths of his characters various reflections to
substantiate the narrative. For example, in the description, on page 263,
of the savages who lined the perilous channel in a half-moon, where the
European ship lay, we find the afterthoughts are added so naturally, that
they would carry conviction to any judge or jury:--

"They little thought what service they had done us, and how
unwittingly, and by the greatest ignorance, they had made
themselves pilots to us, while we, having not sounded the place,
might have been lost before we were aware. _It is true we might
have sounded our new harbour, before we had ventured out; but I
cannot say for certain, whether we should or not; for I, for my
part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case was;
however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have
looked about us a little._"

Turning to the other literary qualities that make Defoe's novels great,
if little read, classics, how delightful are the little satiric touches
that add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My good
gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened in
process of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soon
for me to be perfected in the strolling trade," &c.(p. 3). Every other
word here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and careless
brutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals is
conveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation is
summed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said he
was satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soon
trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whose
principle binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark:
"_Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent?_ At this he
started a little and returned, _At the gallows_ I have known
_one_ repent, and I _hope_ thou wilt be the second." The
character of William the Quaker pirate is a masterpiece of shrewd
humour. He is the first Quaker brought into English fiction, and we
know of no other Friend in latter-day fiction to equal him. Defoe in
his inimitable manner has defined surely and deftly the peculiar
characteristics of the sect in this portrait. On three separate occasions
we find William saving unfortunate natives or defenceless prisoners from
the cruel and wicked barbarity of the sailors. At page 183, for example,
the reader will find a most penetrating analysis of the dense stupidity
which so often accompanies man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the
second lieutenant, who was for "murdering the negroes to make them tell,"
when he could not make them even understand what he wanted, is worthy of
Tolstoy. We have not space here to dwell upon the scores of passages of
similar deep insight which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid
commentary on the life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention
to the passage on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the
planters; to the description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain
Singleton through terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to the
extraordinarily picturesque conversation between William and the captive
Dutchman (page 264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour
in its perfection let him examine carefully those passages in the
concluding twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown
as awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dry
reasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committing
suicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with a resolution
to do what right with it we are able; and who knows what opportunity
Providence may put into our hands.... As it is without doubt, our present
business is to go to some place of safety, where we may wait His will."
How admirable is the passage about William's sister, the widow with four
children who kept a little shop in the Minories, and that in which the
penitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating in Venice for two years
before they durst venture to England for fear of the gallows.

"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "Robinson Crusoe,"
when Defoe was fifty-nine. Twenty years before had seen "The True-Born
Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and we are told
that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in 1731 a stream
of controversial books and pamphlets poured from his pen commenting upon
and marking every important passing event." The fecundity of Defoe as a
journalist alone surpasses that of any great journalist we can name,
William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add that the style of "Captain
Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe," is so perfect that there is not
a single ineffective passage, or indeed a weak sentence, to be found in the
book.

EDWARD GARNETT.

The following is a list of Defoe's works: "New Discovery of Old Intrigue"
(verse), 1691. "Character of Dr. Samuel Annesley" (verse), 1697. "The
Pacificator" (verse), 1700. "True-Born Englishman" (verse), 1701. "The Mock
Mourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners" (verse), 1702. "New Test
of Church of England's Loyalty," 1702. "Shortest Way with the Dissenters,"
1702. "Ode to the Athenian Society," 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's General
Translation," 1703. "More Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to the
Pillory," 1703. "The Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the Late
Storm," 1704. "The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from
the World in the Moon," 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True-Born Englishman,'"
1704. "Hymn to Victory," 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704. "The Dyet of
Poland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal," 1706. "Sermon on the
Filling-up of Dr. Burgess's Meeting-house," 1706. "Jure Divino" (verse),
1706. "Caledonia" (verse), 1706. "History of the Union of Great Britain,"
1709. "Short Enquiry into a Late Duel," 1713. "A General History of Trade,"
1713. "Wars of Charles III.," 1715. "The Family Instruction" (two eds.),
1715. "Hymn to the Mob," 1715. "Memoirs of the Church of Scotland," 1717.
"Life and Death of Count Patkul," 1717. "Memoirs of Duke of Shrewsbury,"
1718. "Memoirs of Daniel Williams," 1718. "The Life and Strange Surprising
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner," 1719. "The Farther
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1719. "The Dumb Philosopher: or, Great
Britain's Wonder," 1719. "The King of Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Life
of Baron de Goertz," 1719. "Life and Adventures of Duncan Campbell," 1720.
"Mr. Campbell's Pacquet," 1720. "Memoirs of a Cavalier," 1720. "Life of
Captain Singleton," 1720. "Serious Reflections during the Life and
Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1720. "The Supernatural
Philosopher; or, The Mysteries of Magick," 1720. Translation of Du
Fresnoy's "Compleat Art of Painting" (verse), 1720. "Moll Flanders," 1722,
"Journal of the Plague Year," 1722. "Due Preparations for the Plague,"
1722. "Life of Cartouche," 1722. "History of Colonel Jacque," 1722.
"Religious Courtship," 1722. "History of Peter the Great," 1723. "The
Highland Rogue" (Rob Roy), 1723. "The Fortunate Mistress" (Roxana), 1724.
"Narrative of Murders at Calais," 1724. "Life of John Sheppard," 1724.
"Robberies, Escapes, &c., of John Sheppard," 1724. "The Great Law of
Subordination; or, The Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants in
England," 1724. "A Tour through Great Britain," 1724-6. "New Voyage Round
the World," 1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild," 1725. "Account of John Gow,"
1725. "Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "The
Complete English Tradesman," 1725; vol. ii., 1727. "The Friendly Demon,"
1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "Political
History of the Devil," 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original of
Letters," 1726. "History of Discoveries," 1726-7. "The Protestant
Monastery," 1726. "A System of Magic," 1726. "Parochial Tyranny," 1727.
"Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage," 1727. "Secrets of
Invisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions," 1727,
1728. "A New Family Instructor," 1728. "Augusta Triumphans," 1728. "Plan of
English Commerce," 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street Robberies),
1728. "Street Robberies Considered," 1728. "Humble Proposal to People of
England for Increase of Trade, &c.," 1729. "Preface to R. Dodsley's Poem
'Servitude'" 1729. "Effectual Scheme for Preventing Street Robberies,"
1731.

Besides the above-named publications a large number of further tracts by
Defoe are extant, on matters of Politics and Church.

THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES
OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON

As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, and
whose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon their
originals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of their
ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same, though I can
look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will see presently.

If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call mother, I was a little
boy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had a nursery-maid to
attend me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening into the fields
towards Islington, as she pretended, to give the child some air; a little
girl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old, that lived in the
neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or otherwise, meets with a
fellow, her sweetheart, as I suppose; he carries her into a public-house,
to give her a pot and a cake; and while they were toying in the house the
girl plays about, with me in her hand, in the garden and at the door,
sometimes in sight, sometimes out of sight, thinking no harm.

At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems, made
it their business to spirit away little children. This was a hellish trade
in those days, and chiefly practised where they found little children very
well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell them to the plantations.

The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and play with
me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she makes a fine
story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and tell her where she
was with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child, and
was kissing of it, but she should not be frighted, or to that purpose; for
they were but just there; and so, while the girl went, she carries me quite
away.

From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman that wanted a
pretty little child to set out her case; and after that, to a gipsy, under
whose government I continued till I was about six years old. And this
woman, though I was continually dragged about with her from one part of the
country to another, yet never let me want for anything; and I called her
mother; though she told me at last she was not my mother, but that she
bought me for twelve shillings of another woman, who told her how she came
by me, and told her that my name was Bob Singleton, not Robert, but plain
Bob; for it seems they never knew by what name I was christened.

It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright the careless hussy
was in that lost me; what treatment she received from my justly enraged
father and mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts of their
child being thus carried away; for as I never knew anything of the matter,
but just what I have related, nor who my father and mother were, so it
would make but a needless digression to talk of it here.

My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions no doubt, happened in
process of time to be hanged; and as this fell out something too soon for
me to be perfected in the strolling trade, the parish where I was left,
which for my life I can't remember, took some care of me, to be sure; for
the first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that I went to a
parish school, and the minister of the parish used to talk to me to be a
good boy; and that, though I was but a poor boy, if I minded my book, and
served God, I might make a good man.

I believe I was frequently removed from one town to another, perhaps as the
parishes disputed my supposed mother's last settlement. Whether I was so
shifted by passes, or otherwise, I know not; but the town where I last was
kept, whatever its name was, must be not far off from the seaside; for a
master of a ship who took a fancy to me, was the first that brought me to a
place not far from Southampton, which I afterwards knew to be Bussleton;
and there I attended the carpenters, and such people as were employed in
building a ship for him; and when it was done, though I was not above
twelve years old, he carried me to sea with him on a voyage to
Newfoundland.

I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well that he called me his
own boy; and I would have called him father, but he would not allow it, for
he had children of his own. I went three or four voyages with him, and grew
a great sturdy boy, when, coming home again from the banks of Newfoundland,
we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man-of-war; which, if my account
stands right, was about the year 1695, for you may be sure I kept no
journal.

I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw my master, after
having been wounded by a splinter in the head during the engagement, very
barbarously used by the Turks; I say, I was not much concerned, till, upon
some unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was about abusing my
master, they took me and beat me most unmercifully with a flat stick on the
soles of my feet, so that I could neither go or stand for several days
together.

But my good fortune was my friend upon this occasion; for, as they were
sailing away with our ship in tow as a prize, steering for the Straits, and
in sight of the bay of Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked by two great
Portuguese men-of-war, and taken and carried into Lisbon.

As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed understanding the
consequences of it, if it had continued, so I was not suitably sensible of
my deliverance; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliverance to me as it would
otherwise have been, for my master, who was the only friend I had in the
world, died at Lisbon of his wounds; and I being then almost reduced to my
primitive state, viz., of starving, had this addition to it, that it was in
a foreign country too, where I knew nobody and could not speak a word of
their language. However, I fared better here than I had reason to expect;
for when all the rest of our men had their liberty to go where they would,
I, that knew not whither to go, stayed in the ship for several days, till
at length one of the lieutenants seeing me, inquired what that young
English dog did there, and why they did not turn him on shore.

I heard him, and partly understood what he meant, though not what he said,
and began then to be in a terrible fright; for I knew not where to get a
bit of bread; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman, seeing me look
very dull, came to me, and speaking broken English to me, told me I must be
gone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you will," said he, "home to your
own country, if you will." "How must I go thither?" said I. "Why, have you
no friend?" said he. "No," said I, "not in the world, but that dog,"
pointing to the ship's dog (who, having stolen a piece of meat just before,
had brought it close by me, and I had taken it from him, and ate it), "for
he has been a good friend, and brought me my dinner."

"Well, well," says he, "you must have your dinner. Will you go with me?"
"Yes," says I, "with all my heart." In short, the old pilot took me home
with him, and used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough; and I
lived with him about two years, during which time he was soliciting his
business, and at length got to be master or pilot under Don Garcia de
Pimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a Portuguese galleon or carrack,
which was bound to Goa, in the East Indies; and immediately having gotten
his commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, in which he had
stored himself with abundance of liquors, succades, sugar, spices, and
other things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laid in afterwards a
considerable quantity of European goods, fine lace and linen; and also
baize, woollen cloth, stuffs, &c., under the pretence of his clothes.

I was too young in the trade to keep any journal of this voyage, though my
master, who was, for a Portuguese, a pretty good artist, prompted me to it;
but my not understanding the language was one hindrance; at least it served
me for an excuse. However, after some time, I began to look into his charts
and books; and, as I could write a tolerable hand, understood some Latin,
and began to have a little smattering of the Portuguese tongue, so I began
to get a superficial knowledge of navigation, but not such as was likely to
be sufficient to carry me through a life of adventure, as mine was to be.
In short, I learned several material things in this voyage among the
Portuguese; I learned particularly to be an arrant thief and a bad sailor;
and I think I may say they are the best masters for teaching both these of
any nation in the world.

We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast of Brazil; not that it is
in the course of sailing the way thither, but our captain, either on his
own account, or by the direction of the merchants, went thither first,
where at All Saints' Bay, or, as they call it in Portugal, the Rio de Todos
los Santos, we delivered near a hundred tons of goods, and took in a
considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, and seventy or
eighty great rolls of tobacco, every roll weighing at least a
hundredweight.

Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order, I had the charge of the
captain's business, he having seen me very diligent for my own master; and
in requital for his mistaken confidence, I found means to secure, that is
to say, to steal, about twenty moidores out of the gold that was shipped on
board by the merchants, and this was my first adventure.

We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape de Bona Speranza; and I
was reputed as a mighty diligent servant to my master, and very faithful. I
was diligent indeed, but I was very far from honest; however, they thought
me honest, which, by the way, was their very great mistake. Upon this very
mistake the captain took a particular liking to me, and employed me
frequently on his own occasion; and, on the other hand, in recompense for
my officious diligence, I received several particular favours from him;
particularly, I was, by the captain's command, made a kind of a steward
under the ship's steward, for such provisions as the captain demanded for
his own table. He had another steward for his private stores besides, but
my office concerned only what the captain called for of the ship's stores
for his private use.

However, by this means I had opportunity particularly to take care of my
master's man, and to furnish myself with sufficient provisions to make me
live much better than the other people in the ship; for the captain seldom
ordered anything out of the ship's stores, as above, but I snipt some of it
for my own share. We arrived at Goa, in the East Indies, in about seven
months from Lisbon, and remained there eight more; during which time I had
indeed nothing to do, my master being generally on shore, but to learn
everything that is wicked among the Portuguese, a nation the most
perfidious and the most debauched, the most insolent and cruel, of any that
pretend to call themselves Christians, in the world.

Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most abominable
lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew; adding to it, that,
with the most insufferable boasts of their own courage, they were,
generally speaking, the most complete cowards that I ever met with; and the
consequence of their cowardice was evident upon many occasions. However,
there was here and there one among them that was not so bad as the rest;
and, as my lot fell among them, it made me have the most contemptible
thoughts of the rest, as indeed they deserved.

I was exactly fitted for their society indeed; for I had no sense of virtue
or religion upon me. I had never heard much of either, except what a good
old parson had said to me when I was a child of about eight or nine years
old; nay, I was preparing and growing up apace to be as wicked as anybody
could be, or perhaps ever was. Fate certainly thus directed my beginning,
knowing that I had work which I had to do in the world, which nothing but
one hardened against all sense of honesty or religion could go through; and
yet, even in this state of original wickedness, I entertained such a
settled abhorrence of the abandoned vileness of the Portuguese, that I
could not but hate them most heartily from the beginning, and all my life
afterwards. They were so brutishly wicked, so base and perfidious, not only
to strangers but to one another, so meanly submissive when subjected, so
insolent, or barbarous and tyrannical, when superior, that I thought there
was something in them that shocked my very nature. Add to this that it is
natural to an Englishman to hate a coward, it all joined together to make
the devil and a Portuguese equally my aversion.

However, according to the English proverb, he that is shipped with the
devil must sail with the devil; I was among them, and I managed myself as
well as I could. My master had consented that I should assist the captain
in the office, as above; but, as I understood afterwards that the captain
allowed my master half a moidore a month for my service, and that he had my
name upon the ship's books also, I expected that when the ship came to be
paid four months' wages at the Indies, as they, it seems, always do, my
master would let me have something for myself.

But I was wrong in my man, for he was none of that kind; he had taken me up
as in distress, and his business was to keep me so, and make his market of
me as well as he could, which I began to think of after a different manner
than I did at first, for at first I thought he had entertained me in mere
charity, upon seeing my distressed circumstances, but did not doubt but
when he put me on board the ship, I should have some wages for my service.

But he thought, it seems, quite otherwise; and when I procured one to
speak to him about it, when the ship was paid at Goa, he flew into the
greatest rage imaginable, and called me English dog, young heretic, and
threatened to put me into the Inquisition. Indeed, of all the names the
four-and-twenty letters could make up, he should not have called me
heretic; for as I knew nothing about religion, neither Protestant from
Papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I could never be a heretic.
However, it passed but a little, but, as young as I was, I had been
carried into the Inquisition, and there, if they had asked me if I was a
Protestant or a Catholic, I should have said yes to that which came
first. If it had been the Protestant they had asked first, it had
certainly made a martyr of me for I did not know what.

But the very priest they carried with them, or chaplain of the ship, as we
called him, saved me; for seeing me a boy entirely ignorant of religion,
and ready to do or say anything they bid me, he asked me some questions
about it, which he found I answered so very simply, that he took it upon
him to tell them he would answer for my being a good Catholic, and he hoped
he should be the means of saving my soul, and he pleased himself that it
was to be a work of merit to him; so he made me as good a Papist as any of
them in about a week's time.

I then told him my case about my master; how, it is true, he had taken me
up in a miserable case on board a man-of-war at Lisbon; and I was indebted
to him for bringing me on board this ship; that if I had been left at
Lisbon, I might have starved, and the like; and therefore I was willing to
serve him, but that I hoped he would give me some little consideration for
my service, or let me know how long he expected I should serve him for
nothing.

It was all one; neither the priest nor any one else could prevail with him,
but that I was not his servant but his slave, that he took me in the
Algerine, and that I was a Turk, only pretended to be an English boy to get
my liberty, and he would carry me to the Inquisition as a Turk.

This frighted me out of my wits, for I had nobody to vouch for me what I
was, or from whence I came; but the good Padre Antonio, for that was his
name, cleared me of that part by a way I did not understand; for he came to
me one morning with two sailors, and told me they must search me, to bear
witness that I was not a Turk. I was amazed at them, and frighted, and did
not understand them, nor could I imagine what they intended to do to me.
However, stripping me, they were soon satisfied, and Father Antony bade me
be easy, for they could all witness that I was no Turk. So I escaped that
part of my master's cruelty.

And now I resolved from that time to run away from him if I could, but
there was no doing of it there, for there were not ships of any nation in
the world in that port, except two or three Persian vessels from Ormus, so
that if I had offered to go away from him, he would have had me seized on
shore, and brought on board by force; so that I had no remedy but patience.
And this he brought to an end too as soon as he could, for after this he
began to use me ill, and not only to straiten my provisions, but to beat
and torture me in a barbarous manner for every trifle, so that, in a word,
my life began to be very miserable.

The violence of this usage of me, and the impossibility of my escape from
his hands, set my head a-working upon all sorts of mischief, and in
particular I resolved, after studying all other ways to deliver myself, and
finding all ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder him. With this hellish
resolution in my head, I spent whole nights and days contriving how to put
it in execution, the devil prompting me very warmly to the fact. I was
indeed entirely at a loss for the means, for I had neither gun or sword,
nor any weapon to assault him with; poison I had my thoughts much upon, but
knew not where to get any; or, if I might have got it, I did not know the
country word for it, or by what name to ask for it.

In this manner I quitted the fact, intentionally, a hundred and a hundred
times; but Providence, either for his sake or for mine, always frustrated
my designs, and I could never bring it to pass; so I was obliged to
continue in his chains till the ship, having taken in her loading, set sail
for Portugal.

I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage, for, as I said, I kept
no journal; but this I can give an account of, that having been once as
high as the Cape of Good Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Bona Speranza, as
they call it, we were driven back again by a violent storm from the W.S.W.,
which held us six days and nights a great way to the eastward, and after
that, standing afore the wind for several days more, we at last came to an
anchor on the coast of Madagascar.

The storm had been so violent that the ship had received a great deal of
damage, and it required some time to repair her; so, standing in nearer the
shore, the pilot, my master, brought the ship into a very good harbour,
where we rid in twenty-six fathoms water, about half a mile from the shore.

While the ship rode here there happened a most desperate mutiny among the
men, upon account of some deficiency in their allowance, which came to that
height that they threatened the captain to set him on shore, and go back
with the ship to Goa. I wished they would with all my heart, for I was full
of mischief in my head, and ready enough to do any. So, though I was but a
boy, as they called me, yet I prompted the mischief all I could, and
embarked in it so openly, that I escaped very little being hanged in the
first and most early part of my life; for the captain had some notice that
there was a design laid by some of the company to murder him; and having,
partly by money and promises, and partly by threatening and torture,
brought two fellows to confess the particulars, and the names of the
persons concerned, they were presently apprehended, till, one accusing
another, no less than sixteen men were seized and put into irons, whereof I
was one.

The captain, who was made desperate by his danger, resolving to clear the
ship of his enemies, tried us all, and we were all condemned to die. The
manner of his process I was too young to take notice of; but the purser and
one of the gunners were hanged immediately, and I expected it with the
rest. I do not remember any great concern I was under about it, only that I
cried very much, for I knew little then of this world, and nothing at all
of the next.

However, the captain contented himself with executing these two, and some
of the rest, upon their humble submission and promise of future good
behaviour, were pardoned; but five were ordered to be set on shore on the
island and left there, of which I was one. My master used all his interest
with the captain to have me excused, but could not obtain it; for somebody
having told him that I was one of them who was singled out to have killed
him, when my master desired I might not be set on shore, the captain told
him I should stay on board if he desired it, but then I should be hanged,
so he might choose for me which he thought best. The captain, it seems, was
particularly provoked at my being concerned in the treachery, because of
his having been so kind to me, and of his having singled me out to serve
him, as I have said above; and this, perhaps, obliged him to give my master
such a rough choice, either to set me on shore or to have me hanged on
board. And had my master, indeed, known what good-will I had for him, he
would not have been long in choosing for me; for I had certainly determined
to do him a mischief the first opportunity I had for it. This was,
therefore, a good providence for me to keep me from dipping my hands in
blood, and it made me more tender afterwards in matters of blood than I
believe I should otherwise have been. But as to my being one of them that
was to kill the captain, that I was wronged in, for I was not the person,
but it was really one of them that were pardoned, he having the good luck
not to have that part discovered.

I was now to enter upon a part of independent life, a thing I was indeed
very ill prepared to manage, for I was perfectly loose and dissolute in my
behaviour, bold and wicked while I was under government, and now perfectly
unfit to be trusted with liberty, for I was as ripe for any villainy as a
young fellow that had no solid thought ever placed in his mind could be
supposed to be. Education, as you have heard, I had none; and all the
little scenes of life I had passed through had been full of dangers and
desperate circumstances; but I was either so young or so stupid, that I
escaped the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having a sense of their
tendency and consequences.

This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity indeed in it, that it
made me daring and ready for doing any mischief, and kept off the sorrow
which otherwise ought to have attended me when I fell into any mischief;
that this stupidity was instead of a happiness to me, for it left my
thoughts free to act upon means of escape and deliverance in my distress,
however great it might be; whereas my companions in the misery were so sunk
by their fear and grief, that they abandoned themselves to the misery of
their condition, and gave over all thought but of their perishing and
starving, being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and perhaps eaten by
cannibals, and the like.

I was but a young fellow, about seventeen or eighteen; but hearing what was
to be my fate, I received it with no appearance of discouragement; but I
asked what my master said to it, and being told that he had used his utmost
interest to save me, but the captain had answered I should either go on
shore or be hanged on board, which he pleased, I then gave over all hope of
being received again. I was not very thankful in my thoughts to my master
for his soliciting the captain for me, because I knew that what he did was
not in kindness to me so much as in kindness to himself; I mean, to
preserve the wages which he got for me, which amounted to above six dollars
a month, including what the captain allowed him for my particular service
to him.

When I understood that my master was so apparently kind, I asked if I might
not be admitted to speak with him, and they told me I might, if my master
would come down to me, but I could not be allowed to come up to him; so
then I desired my master might be spoke to to come to me, and he
accordingly came to me. I fell on my knees to him, and begged he would
forgive me what I had done to displease him; and indeed the resolution I
had taken to murder him lay with some horror upon my mind just at that
time, so that I was once just a-going to confess it, and beg him to forgive
me, but I kept it in. He told me he had done all he could to obtain my
pardon of the captain, but could not and he knew no way for me but to have
patience, and submit to my fate; and if they came to speak with any ship of
their nation at the Cape, he would endeavour to have them stand in, and
fetch us off again, if we might be found.

Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. He told me he was
afraid I should have little need of clothes, for he did not see how we
could long subsist on the island, and that he had been told that the
inhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters (though he had no reason for that
suggestion), and we should not be able to live among them. I told him I was
not so afraid of that as I was of starving for want of victuals; and as for
the inhabitants being cannibals, I believed we should be more likely to eat
them than they us, if we could but get at them. But I was mightily
concerned, I said, we should have no weapons with us to defend ourselves,
and I begged nothing now, but that he would give me a gun and a sword, with
a little powder and shot.

He smiled, and said they would signify nothing to us, for it was impossible
for us to pretend to preserve our lives among such a populous and desperate
nation as the people of this island were. I told him that, however, it
would do us this good, for we should not be devoured or destroyed
immediately; so I begged hard for the gun. At last he told me he did not
know whether the captain would give him leave to give me a gun, and if not,
he durst not do it; but he promised to use his interest to obtain it for
me, which he did, and the next day he sent me a gun, with some ammunition,
but told me the captain would not suffer the ammunition to be given us till
we were set all on shore, and till he was just going to set sail. He also
sent me the few clothes I had in the ship, which indeed were not many.

Two days after this, we were all carried on shore together; the rest of my
fellow-criminals hearing I had a gun, and some powder and shot, solicited
for liberty to carry the like with them, which was also granted them; and
thus we were set on shore to shift for ourselves.

At our first coming into the island we were terrified exceedingly with the
sight of the barbarous people, whose figure was made more terrible to us
than it really was by the report we had of them from the seamen; but when
we came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not cannibals, as
was reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us and eat us up; but
they came and sat down by us, and wondered much at our clothes and arms,
and made signs to give us some victuals, such as they had, which was only
roots and plants dug out of the ground for the present, but they brought us
fowls and flesh afterwards in good plenty.

This encouraged the other four men that were with me very much, for they
were quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar with
them, and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay and
live with them; which they seemed glad of, though they knew little of the
necessity we were under to do so, or how much we were afraid of them.

However, upon second thoughts we resolved that we would only stay in that
part so long as the ship rid in the bay, and then making them believe we
were gone with the ship, we would go and place ourselves, if possible,
where there were no inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we could, or
perhaps watch for a ship that might be driven upon the coast as we were.

The ship continued a fortnight in the roads, repairing some damage which
had been done her in the late storm, and taking in wood and water; and
during this time, the boat coming often on shore, the men brought us
several refreshments, and the natives believing we only belonged to the
ship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore, or
rather a hut, which we made with the boughs of trees, and sometimes in the
night retired to a wood a little out of their way, to let them think we
were gone on board the ship. However, we found them barbarous, treacherous,
and villainous enough in their nature, only civil from fear, and therefore
concluded we should soon fall into their hands when the ship was gone.

The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even to distraction; and
one of them, being a carpenter, in his mad fit, swam off to the ship in the
night, though she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful moan to
be taken in, that the captain was prevailed with at last to take him in,
though they let him lie swimming three hours in the water before he
consented to it.

Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain received him, and, in a
word, the importunity of this man (who for some time petitioned to be taken
in, though they hanged him as soon as they had him) was such as could not
be resisted; for, after he had swam so long about the ship, he was not able
to reach the shore again; and the captain saw evidently that the man must
be taken on board or suffered to drown, and the whole ship's company
offering to be bound for him for his good behaviour, the captain at last
yielded, and he was taken up, but almost dead with his being so long in the
water.

When this man was got in, he never left importuning the captain, and all
the rest of the officers, in behalf of us that were behind, but to the very
last day the captain was inexorable; when, at the time their preparations
were making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats into the ship, all
the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck, where the
captain was walking with some of his officers, and appointing the boatswain
to speak for them, he went up, and falling on his knees to the captain,
begged of him, in the humblest manner possible, to receive the four men on
board again, offering to answer for their fidelity, or to have them kept in
chains till they came to Lisbon, and there to be delivered up to justice,
rather than, as they said, to have them left to be murdered by savages, or
devoured by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took any
notice of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and
threatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them.

Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but still with
all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour, as he called him,
that he would give leave to some more of them to go on shore, and die with
their companions, or, if possible, to assist them to resist the barbarians.
The captain, rather provoked than cowed with this, came to the barricade of
the quarter-deck, and speaking very prudently to the men (for had he spoken
roughly, two-thirds of them would have left the ship, if not all of them),
he told them, it was for their safety as well as his own that he had been
obliged to that severity; that mutiny on board a ship was the same thing as
treason in a king's palace, and he could not answer it to his owners and
employers to trust the ship and goods committed to his charge with men who
had entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature; that he wished
heartily that it had been anywhere else that they had been set on shore,
where they might have been in less hazard from the savages; that, if he had
designed they should be destroyed, he could as well have executed them on
board as the other two; that he wished it had been in some other part of
the world, where he might have delivered them up to the civil justice, or
might have left them among Christians; but it was better their lives were
put in hazard than his life, and the safety of the ship; and that though he
did not know that he had deserved so ill of any of them as that they should
leave the ship rather than do their duty, yet if any of them were resolved
to do so unless he would consent to take a gang of traitors on board, who,
as he had proved before them all, had conspired to murder him, he would not
hinder them, nor for the present would he resent their importunity; but, if
there was nobody left in the ship but himself, he would never consent to
take them on board.

This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so reasonable, was
managed with so much temper, yet so boldly concluded with a negative, that
the greatest part of the men were satisfied for the present. However, as it
put the men into juntos and cabals, they were not composed for some hours;
the wind also slackening towards night, the captain ordered not to weigh
till next morning.

The same night twenty-three of the men, among whom was the gunner's mate,
the surgeon's assistant, and two carpenters, applying to the chief mate
told him, that as the captain had given them leave to go on shore to their
comrades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to take it ill
that they were desirous to go and die with their companions; and that they
thought they could do no less in such an extremity than go to them;
because, if there was any way to save their lives, it was by adding to
their numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one another in
defending themselves against the savages, till perhaps they might one time
or other find means to make their escape, and get to their own country
again.

The mate told them, in so many words, that he durst not speak to the
captain upon any such design, and was very sorry they had no more respect
for him than to desire him to go upon such an errand; but, if they were
resolved upon such an enterprise, he would advise them to take the
long-boat in the morning betimes, and go off, seeing the captain had given
them leave, and leave a civil letter behind them to the captain, and to
desire him to send his men on shore for the boat, which should be delivered
very honestly, and he promised to keep their counsel so long.

Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, with every man a
firelock and a cutlass, with some pistols, three halberds or half-pikes,
and good store of powder and ball, without any provision but about half a
hundred of bread, but with all their chests and clothes, tools,
instruments, books, &c., embarked themselves so silently, that the captain
got no notice of it till they were gotten half the way on shore.

As soon as the captain heard of it he called for the gunner's mate, the
chief gunner being at the time sick in his cabin, and ordered to fire at
them; but, to his great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the
number, and was gone with them; and indeed it was by this means they got so
many arms and so much ammunition. When the captain found how it was, and
that there was no help for it, he began to be a little appeased, and made
light of it, and called up the men, and spoke kindly to them, and told them
he was very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of those that were
now left, and that he would give to them, for their encouragement, to be
divided among them, the wages which were due to the men that were gone, and
that it was a great satisfaction to him that the ship was free from such a
mutinous rabble, who had not the least reason for their discontent.

The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly the promise of the
wages of those who were gone went a great way with them. After this, the
letter which was left by the men was given to the captain by his boy, with
whom, it seems, the men had left it. The letter was much to the same
purpose of what they had said to the mate, and which he declined to say for
them, only that at the end of their letter they told the captain that, as
they had no dishonest design, so they had taken nothing away with them
which was not their own, except some arms and ammunition, such as were
absolutely necessary to them, as well for their defence against the savages
as to kill fowls or beasts for their food, that they might not perish; and
as there were considerable sums due to them for wages, they hoped he would
allow the arms and ammunition upon their accounts. They told him that, as
to the ship's longboat, which they had taken to bring them on shore, they
knew it was necessary to him, and they were very willing to restore it to
him, and if he pleased to send for it, it should be very honestly delivered
to his men, and not the least injury offered to any of those who came for
it, nor the least persuasion or invitation made use of to any of them to
stay with them; and, at the bottom of the letter, they very humbly besought
him that, for their defence, and for the safety of their lives, he would be
pleased to send them a barrel of powder and some ammunition, and give them
leave to keep the mast and sail of the boat, that if it was possible for
them to make themselves a boat of any kind, they might shift off to sea, to
save themselves in such part of the world as their fate should direct them
to.

Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the rest of his men by what he
had said to them, and was very easy as to the general peace (for it was
very true that the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out to the
quarter-deck, and, calling the men together, let them know the substance of
the letter, and told the men that, however they had not deserved such
civility from him, yet he was not willing to expose them more than they
were willing to expose themselves; he was inclined to send them some
ammunition, and as they had desired but one barrel of powder, he would send
them two barrels, and shot, or lead and moulds to make shot, in proportion;
and, to let them see that he was civiller to them than they deserved, he
ordered a cask of arrack and a great bag of bread to be sent them for
subsistence till they should be able to furnish themselves.

The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, and every one of
them sent us something or other, and about three in the afternoon the
pinnace came on shore, and brought us all these things, which we were very
glad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly; and as to the men that
came with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out such men as he knew
would not come over to us, so they had positive orders not to bring any one
of us on board again, upon pain of death; and indeed both were so true to
our points, that we neither asked them to stay, nor they us to go.

We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-seven men, very well armed,
and provided with everything but victuals; we had two carpenters among us,
a gunner, and, which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or doctor; that is
to say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was entertained as a
supernumerary with us. The carpenters had brought all their tools, the
doctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed we had a great deal of
baggage, that is to say, on the whole, for some of us had little more than
the clothes on our backs, of whom I was one; but I had one thing which none
of them had, viz., I had the twenty-two moidores of gold which I had stole
at the Brazils, and two pieces of eight. The two pieces of eight I showed,
and one moidore, and none of them ever suspected that I had any more money
in the world, having been known to be only a poor boy taken up in charity,
as you have heard, and used like a slave, and in the worst manner of a
slave, by my cruel master the pilot.

It will be easy to imagine we four that were left at first were joyful,
nay, even surprised with joy at the coming of the rest, though at first we
were frighted, and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us; but they
took ways quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same condition with
us, only with this additional circumstance, theirs was voluntary, and ours
by force.

The first piece of news they told us after the short history of their
coming away was, that our companion was on board, but how he got thither we
could not imagine, for he had given us the slip, and we never imagined he
could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which lay at so great a
distance; nay, we did not so much as know that he could swim at all, and
not thinking anything of what really happened, we thought he must have
wandered into the woods and was devoured, or was fallen into the hands of
the natives, and was murdered; and these thoughts filled us with fears
enough, and of several kinds, about its being some time or other our lot to
fall into their hands also. But hearing how he had with much difficulty
been received on board the ship again and pardoned, we were much better
satisfied than before.

Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition to
defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his hand
that we would not separate from one another upon any occasion whatsoever,
but that we would live and die together; that we would kill no food, but
that we would distribute it in public; and that we would be in all things
guided by the majority, and not insist upon our own resolutions in anything
if the majority were against it; that we would appoint a captain among us
to be our governor or leader during pleasure; that while he was in office
we would obey him without reserve, on pain of death; and that every one
should take turn, but the captain was not to act in any particular thing
without advice of the rest, and by the majority.

Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measures for
our food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of the island
for our supply. As for food, they were at first very useful to us, but we
soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutish sort of
people, even worse than the natives of any other country that we had seen;
and we soon found that the principal part of our subsistence was to be had
by our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, and fowls of all other
sorts, of which there is abundance.

We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves much about us;
nor did they inquire, or perhaps know, whether we stayed among them or not,
much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had cast us off, as was
our case; for the next morning, after we had sent back the long-boat, the
ship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours' time was out of our
sight.

The next day two of us went out into the country one way, and two another,
to see what kind of a land we were in; and we soon found the country was
very pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enough to live in; but,
as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce human, or capable of
being made social on any account whatsoever.

We found the place full of cattle and provisions; but whether we might
venture to take them where we could find them or not, we did not know; and
though we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we were loth to
bring down a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and therefore some of
our company agreed to try to speak with some of the country, if we could,
that we might see what course was to be taken with them. Eleven of our men
went on this errand, well armed and furnished for defence. They brought
word that they had seen some of the natives, who appeared very civil to
them, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns, for it was easy to
perceive that the natives knew what their guns were, and what use they were
of.

They made signs to the natives for some food, and they went and fetched
several herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did not
design to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our men
would give them.

Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to barter; however,
one of the men pulled out a knife and showed them, and they were so fond of
it that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife. The
seaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, and
keeping them chaffering about it a good while, some offered him roots, and
others milk; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he took. Then
another of our men showed them another knife, but they had nothing good
enough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he would go and
fetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their return, when they
came back and brought him a small-sized, thick, short cow, very fat and
good meat, and gave him for his knife.

This was a good market, but our misfortune was we had no merchandise; for
our knives were as needful to us as to them, and but that we were in
distress for food, and must of necessity have some, these men would not
have parted with their knives.

However, in a little time more we found that the woods were full of living
creatures, which we might kill for our food, and that without giving
offence to them; so that our men went daily out a-hunting, and never failed
in killing something or other; for, as to the natives, we had no goods to
barter; and for money, all the stock among us would not have subsisted us
long. However, we called a general council to see what money we had, and to
bring it all together, that it might go as far as possible; and when it
came to my turn, I pulled out a moidore and the two dollars I spoke of
before.

This moidore I ventured to show, that they might not despise me too much
for adding too little to the store, and that they might not pretend to
search me; and they were very civil to me, upon the presumption that I had
been so faithful to them as not to conceal anything from them.

But our money did us little service, for the people neither knew the value
or the use of it, nor could they justly rate the gold in proportion with
the silver; so that all our money, which was not much when it was all put
together, would go but a little way with us, that is to say, to buy us
provisions.

Our next consideration was to get away from this cursed place, and whither
to go. When my opinion came to be asked, I told them I would leave that all
to them, and I told them I had rather they would let me go into the woods
to get them some provisions, than consult with me, for I would agree to
whatever they did; but they would not agree to that, for they would not
consent that any of us should go into the woods alone; for though we had
yet seen no lions or tigers in the woods, we were assured there were many
in the island, besides other creatures as dangerous, and perhaps worse, as
we afterwards found by our own experience.

We had many adventures in the woods, for our provisions, and often met with
wild and terrible beasts, which we could not call by their names; but as
they were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves good for
nothing, so we disturbed them as little as possible.

Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, which, as I have
said, we were now upon, ended in this only, that as we had two carpenters
among us, and that they had tools almost of all sorts with them, we should
try to build us a boat to go off to sea with, and that then, perhaps, we
might find our way back to Goa, or land on some more proper place to make
our escape. The counsels of this assembly were not of great moment, yet as
they seem to be introductory of many more remarkable adventures which
happened under my conduct hereabouts many years after, I think this
miniature of my future enterprises may not be unpleasant to relate.

To the building of a boat I made no objection, and away they went to work
immediately; but as they went on, great difficulties occurred, such as the
want of saws to cut our plank; nails, bolts, and spikes, to fasten the
timbers; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and pay her seams, and the like. At
length, one of the company proposed that, instead of building a bark or
sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call it, which they found was so
difficult, they would rather make a large periagua, or canoe, which might
be done with great ease.

It was presently objected, that we could never make a canoe large enough to
pass the great ocean, which we were to go over to get to the coast of
Malabar; that it not only would not bear the sea, but it would never bear
the burden, for we were not only twenty-seven men of us, but had a great
deal of luggage with us, and must, for our provision, take in a great deal
more.

I never proposed to speak in their general consultations before, but
finding they were at some loss about what kind of vessel they should make,
and how to make it, and what would be fit for our use, and what not, I told
them I found they were at a full stop in their counsels of every kind; that
it was true we could never pretend to go over to Goa on the coast of
Malabar in a canoe, which though we could all get into it, and that it
would bear the sea well enough, yet would not hold our provisions, and
especially we could not put fresh water enough into it for the voyage; and
to make such an adventure would be nothing but mere running into certain
destruction, and yet that nevertheless I was for making a canoe.

They answered, that they understood all I had said before well enough, but
what I meant by telling them first how dangerous and impossible it was to
make our escape in a canoe, and yet then to advise making a canoe, that
they could not understand.

To this I answered, that I conceived our business was not to attempt our
escape in a canoe, but that, as there were other vessels at sea besides our
ship, and that there were few nations that lived on the sea-shore that were
so barbarous, but that they went to sea in some boats or other, our
business was to cruise along the coast of the island, which was very long,
and to seize upon the first we could get that was better than our own, and
so from that to another, till perhaps we might at last get a good ship to
carry us wherever we pleased to go.

"Excellent advice," says one of them. "Admirable advice," says another.
"Yes, yes," says the third (which was the gunner), "the English dog has
given excellent advice; but it is just the way to bring us all to the
gallows. The rogue has given us devilish advice, indeed, to go a-thieving,
till from a little vessel we came to a great ship, and so we shall turn
downright pirates, the end of which is to be hanged."

"You may call us pirates," says another, "if you will, and if we fall into
bad hands, we may be used like pirates; but I care not for that, I'll be a
pirate, or anything, nay, I'll be hanged for a pirate rather than starve
here, therefore I think the advice is very good." And so they cried all,
"Let us have a canoe." The gunner, over-ruled by the rest, submitted; but
as we broke up the council, he came to me, takes me by the hand, and,
looking into the palm of my hand, and into my face too, very gravely, "My
lad," says he, "thou art born to do a world of mischief; thou hast
commenced pirate very young; but have a care of the gallows, young man;
have a care, I say, for thou wilt be an eminent thief."

I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I might come to
hereafter, but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take the
first ship I came at to get our liberty; I only wished we could see one,
and come at her. Just while we were talking, one of our men that was at the
door of our hut, told us that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a hill
at a distance, cried out, "A sail! a sail!"

We all turned out immediately; but, though it was very clear weather, we
could see nothing; but the carpenter continuing to halloo to us, "A sail! a
sail!" away we run up the hill, and there we saw a ship plainly; but it was
at a very great distance, too far for us to make any signal to her.
However, we made a fire upon the hill, with all the wood we could get
together, and made as much smoke as possible. The wind was down, and it was
almost calm; but as we thought, by a perspective glass which the gunner had
in his pocket, her sails were full, and she stood away large with the wind
at E.N.E., taking no notice of our signal, but making for the Cape de Bona
Speranza; so we had no comfort from her.

We went, therefore, immediately to work about our intended canoe; and,
having singled out a very large tree to our minds, we fell to work with
her; and having three good axes among us, we got it down, but it was four
days' time first, though we worked very hard too. I do not remember what
wood it was, or exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was a very
large one, and we were as much encouraged when we launched it, and found it
swam upright and steady, as we would have been at another time if we had
had a good man-of-war at our command.

She was so very large, that she carried us all very, very easily, and would
have carried two or three tons of baggage with us; so that we began to
consult about going to sea directly to Goa; but many other considerations
checked that thought, especially when we came to look nearer into it; such
as want of provisions, and no casks for fresh water; no compass to steer
by; no shelter from the breach of the high sea, which would certainly
founder us; no defence from the heat of the weather, and the like; so that
they all came readily into my project, to cruise about where we were, and
see what might offer.

Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one day all out to sea in her
together, and we were in a very fair way to have had enough of it; for when
she had us all on board, and that we were gotten about half a league to
sea, there happening to be a pretty high swell of the sea, though little or
no wind, yet she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of us thought she
would at last wallow herself bottom up; so we set all to work to get her in
nearer the shore, and giving her fresh way in the sea, she swam more
steady, and with some hard work we got her under the land again.

We were now at a great loss; the natives were civil enough to us, and came
often to discourse with us; one time they brought one whom they showed
respect to as a king with them, and they set up a long pole between them
and us, with a great tassel of hair hanging, not on the top, but something
above the middle of it, adorned with little chains, shells, bits of brass,
and the like; and this, we understood afterwards, was a token of amity and
friendship; and they brought down to us victuals in abundance, cattle,
fowls, herbs, and roots; but we were in the utmost confusion on our side;
for we had nothing to buy with, or exchange for; and as to giving us things
for nothing they had no notion of that again. As to our money, it was mere
trash to them, they had no value for it; so that we were in a fair way to
be starved. Had we had but some toys and trinkets, brass chains, baubles,
glass beads, or, in a word, the veriest trifles that a shipload of would
not have been worth the freight, we might have bought cattle and provisions
enough for an army, or to victual a fleet of men-of-war; but for gold or
silver we could get nothing.

Upon this we were in a strange consternation. I was but a young fellow, but
I was for falling upon them with our firearms, and taking all the cattle
from them, and send them to the devil to stop their hunger, rather than be
starved ourselves; but I did not consider that this might have brought ten
thousand of them down upon us the next day; and though we might have killed
a vast number of them, and perhaps have frighted the rest, yet their own
desperation, and our small number, would have animated them so that, one
time or other, they would have destroyed us all.

In the middle of our consultation, one of our men who had been a kind of a
cutler, or worker in iron, started up and asked the carpenter if, among all
his tools, he could not help him to a file. "Yes," says the carpenter, "I
can, but it is a small one." "The smaller the better," says the other. Upon
this he goes to work, and first by heating a piece of an old broken chisel
in the fire, and then with the help of his file, he made himself several
kinds of tools for his work. Then he takes three or four pieces of eight,
and beats them out with a hammer upon a stone, till they were very broad
and thin; then he cuts them out into the shape of birds and beasts; he made
little chains of them for bracelets and necklaces, and turned them into so
many devices of his own head, that it is hardly to be expressed.

When he had for about a fortnight exercised his head and hands at this
work, we tried the effect of his ingenuity; and, having another meeting
with the natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor people. For a
little bit of silver cut in the shape of a bird, we had two cows, and,
which was our loss, if it had been in brass, it had been still of more
value. For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we had as much
provision of several sorts, as would fairly have been worth, in England,
fifteen or sixteen pounds; and so of all the rest. Thus, that which when it
was in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus converted into toys and
trifles, was worth a hundred times its real value, and purchased for us
anything we had occasion for.

In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all of us began to be
very much tired of it, and, whatever came of it, resolved to attempt an
escape. We had furnished ourselves with no less than three very good
canoes; and as the monsoons, or trade-winds, generally affect that country,
blowing in most parts of this island one six months of a year one way, and
the other six months another way, we concluded we might be able to bear the
sea well enough. But always, when we came to look into it, the want of
fresh water was the thing that put us off from such an adventure, for it is
a prodigious length, and what no man on earth could be able to perform
without water to drink.

Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the thoughts of that
voyage aside, we had then but two things before us; one was, to put to sea
the other way; viz., west, and go away for the Cape of Good Hope, where,
first or last, we should meet with some of our own country ships, or else
to put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by land, or sail along
the coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or last, find a ship
of some nation or other, that would take us up; or perhaps we might take
them up, which, by-the-bye, was the thing that always ran in my head.

It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we called silversmith, that
proposed this; but the gunner told him, that he had been in the Red Sea in
a Malabar sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red Sea, we
should either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves of by
the Turks; and therefore he was not for going that way.

Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. "Why," said I, "do we
talk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Are we
not able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in those seas; and,
instead of their taking us, we to take them?" "Well done, pirate," said the
gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I should come to the
gallows), "I'll say that for him," says he, "he always looks the same way.
But I think, of my conscience, it is our only way now." "Don't tell me,"
says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates, or anything, to get fairly
out of this cursed place."

In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was to
cruise for anything we could see. "Why then," said I to them, "our first
business is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation, and
what boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger than ours, let
us take one of them." First, indeed, all our aim was to get, if possible, a
boat with a deck and a sail; for then we might have saved our provisions,
which otherwise we could not.

We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, who had been
assistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how to preserve
our beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectually by curing it
in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there was great plenty in
the island; so that, before we found any method for our escape, we had
dried the flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks, and ten or twelve goats,
and it relished so well, that we never gave ourselves the trouble to boil
it when we ate it, but either broiled it or ate it dry. But our main
difficulty about fresh water still remained; for we had no vessel to put
any into, much less to keep any for our going to sea.

But our first voyage being only to coast the island, we resolved to
venture, whatever the hazard or consequence of it might be, and in order to
preserve as much fresh water as we could, our carpenter made a well athwart
the middle of one of our canoes, which he separated from the other parts of
the canoe, so as to make it tight to hold the water and covered so as we
might step upon it; and this was so large that it held near a hogshead of
water very well. I cannot better describe this well than by the same kind
which the small fishing-boats in England have to preserve their fish alive
in; only that this, instead of having holes to let the salt water in, was
made sound every way to keep it out; and it was the first invention, I
believe, of its kind for such an use; but necessity is a spur to ingenuity
and the mother of invention.

It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon our voyage. The
first design was only to coast it round the island, as well to see if we
could seize upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to take
hold of any opportunity which might present for our passing over to the
main; and therefore our resolution was to go on the inside or west shore of
the island, where, at least at one point, the land stretching a great way
to the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary great from the island
to the coast of Africa.

Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I believe was never made,
for it is certain we took the worst side of the island to look for any
shipping, especially for shipping of other nations, this being quite out of
the way; however, we put to sea, after taking all our provisions and
ammunition, bag and baggage, on board; we had made both mast and sail for
our two large periaguas, and the other we paddled along as well as we
could; but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow.

We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with nothing to
interrupt us. We saw several of the natives in small canoes catching fish,
and sometimes we endeavoured to come near enough to speak with them, but
they were always shy and afraid of us, making in for the shore as soon as
we attempted it; till one of our company remembered the signal of
friendship which the natives made us from the south part of the island,
viz., of setting up a long pole, and put us in mind that perhaps it was the
same thing to them as a flag of truce to us. So we resolved to try it; and
accordingly the next time we saw any of their fishing-boats at sea we put
up a pole in our canoe that had no sail, and rowed towards them. As soon as
they saw the pole they stayed for us, and as we came nearer paddled towards
us; when they came to us they showed themselves very much pleased, and gave
us some large fish, of which we did not know the names, but they were very
good. It was our misfortune still that we had nothing to give them in
return; but our artist, of whom I spoke before, gave them two little thin
plates of silver, beaten, as I said before, out of a piece of eight; they
were cut in a diamond square, longer one way than the other, and a hole
punched at one of the longest corners. This they were so fond of that they
made us stay till they had cast their lines and nets again, and gave us as
many fish as we cared to have.

All this while we had our eyes upon their boats, viewed them very narrowly,
and examined whether any of them were fit for our turn, but they were poor,
sorry things; their sail was made of a large mat, only one that was of a
piece of cotton stuff fit for little, and their ropes were twisted flags of
no strength; so we concluded we were better as we were, and let them alone.
We went forward to the north, keeping the coast close on board for twelve
days together, and having the wind at east and E.S.E., we made very fresh
way. We saw no towns on the shore, but often saw some huts by the
water-side upon the rocks, and always abundance of people about them, who
we could perceive run together to stare at us.

It was as odd a voyage as ever man went; we were a little fleet of three
ships, and an army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows as
ever they had amongst them; and had they known what we were, they would
have compounded to give us everything we desired to be rid of us.

On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature could well make us to be,
for we were upon a voyage and no voyage, we were bound somewhere and
nowhere; for though we knew what we intended to do, we did really not know
what we were doing. We went forward and forward by a northerly course, and
as we advanced the heat increased, which began to be intolerable to us, who
were on the water, without any covering from heat or wet; besides, we were
now in the month of October, or thereabouts, in a southern latitude; and as
we went every day nearer the sun, the sun came also every day nearer to us,
till at last we found ourselves in the latitude of 20 degrees; and having
passed the tropic about five or six days before that, in a few days more
the sun would be in the zenith, just over our heads.

Upon these considerations we resolved to seek for a good place to go on
shore again, and pitch our tents, till the heat of the weather abated. We
had by this time measured half the length of the island, and were come to
that part where the shore tending away to the north-west, promised fair to
make our passage over to the mainland of Africa much shorter than we
expected. But, notwithstanding that, we had good reason to believe it was
about 120 leagues.

So, the heats considered, we resolved to take harbour; besides, our
provisions were exhausted, and we had not many days' store left.
Accordingly, putting in for the shore early in the morning, as we usually
did once in three or four days for fresh water, we sat down and considered
whether we would go on or take up our standing there; but upon several
considerations, too long to repeat here, we did not like the place, so we
resolved to go on a few days longer.

After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at S.E., about six days, we
found, at a great distance, a large promontory or cape of land, pushing out
a long way into the sea, and as we were exceeding fond of seeing what was
beyond the cape, we resolved to double it before we took into harbour, so
we kept on our way, the gale continuing, and yet it was four days more
before we reached the cape. But it is not possible to express the
discouragement and melancholy that seized us all when we came thither; for
when we made the headland of the cape, we were surprised to see the shore
fall away on the other side as much as it had advanced on this side, and a
great deal more; and that, in short, if we would venture over to the shore
of Africa, it must be from hence, for that if we went further, the breadth
of the sea still increased, and to what breadth it might increase we knew
not.

While we mused upon this discovery, we were surprised with very bad
weather, and especially violent rains, with thunder and lightning, most
unusually terrible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, and getting
under the lee of the cape, run our frigates into a little creek, where we
saw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the haste possible to get
on shore, being exceeding wet, and fatigued with the heat, the thunder,
lightning, and rain.

Here we thought our case was very deplorable indeed, and therefore our
artist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up a great cross of wood on the
hill which was within a mile of the headland, with these words, but in the
Portuguese language:--

"Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy."

We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and to get our clothes
dried; and though I was young and had no skill in such things, yet I shall
never forget the little city we built, for it was no less, and we fortified
it accordingly; and the idea is so fresh in my thought, that I cannot but
give a short description of it.

Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on the sea, and under the
shelter of a steep hill, which lay, though on the other side of the creek,
yet within a quarter of a mile of us, N.W. by N., and very happily
intercepted the heat of the sun all the after part of the day. The spot we
pitched on had a little fresh water brook, or a stream running into the
creek by us; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains and low ground east
and to the south of us a great way.

Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers' tents, but made of the
boughs of trees stuck in the ground, and bound together on the top with
withies, and such other things as we could get; the creek was our defence
on the north, a little brook on the west, and the south and east sides were
fortified with a bank, which entirely covered our huts; and being drawn
oblique from the north-west to the south-east, made our city a triangle.
Behind the bank or line our huts stood, having three other huts behind them
at a good distance. In one of these, which was a little one, and stood
further off, we put our gunpowder, and nothing else, for fear of danger; in
the other, which was bigger, we dressed our victuals, and put all our
necessaries; and in the third, which was biggest of all, we ate our
dinners, called our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves with such
conversation as we had one with another, which was but indifferent truly at
that time.

Our correspondence with the natives was absolutely necessary, and our
artist the cutler having made abundance of those little diamond-cut squares
of silver, with these we made shift to traffic with the black people for
what we wanted; for indeed they were pleased wonderfully with them, and
thus we got plenty of provisions. At first, and in particular, we got about
fifty head of black cattle and goats, and our cook's mate took care to cure
them and dry them, salt and preserve them for our grand supply; nor was
this hard to do, the salt and saltpetre being very good, and the sun
excessively hot; and here we lived about four months.

The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone back towards the
equinoctial, when we considered of our next adventure, which was to go over
the sea of Zanguebar, as the Portuguese call it, and to land, if possible,
upon the continent of Africa.

We talked with many of the natives about it, such as we could make
ourselves intelligible to, but all that we could learn from them was, that
there was a great land of lions beyond the sea, but that it was a great way
off. We knew as well as they that it was a long way, but our people
differed mightily about it; some said it was 150 leagues, others not above
100. One of our men, that had a map of the world, showed us by his scale
that it was not above eighty leagues. Some said there were islands all the
way to touch at, some that there were no islands at all. For my own part, I
knew nothing of this matter one way or another, but heard it all without
concern, whether it was near or far off; however, this we learned from an
old man who was blind and led about by a boy, that if we stayed till the
end of August, we should be sure of the wind to be fair and the sea smooth
all the voyage.

This was some encouragement; but staying again was very unwelcome news to
us, because that then the sun would be returning again to the south, which
was what our men were very unwilling to. At last we called a council of our
whole body; their debates were too tedious to take notice of, only to note,
that when it came to Captain Bob (for so they called me ever since I had
taken state upon me before one of their great princes), truly I was on no
side; it was not one farthing matter to me, I told them, whether we went or
stayed; I had no home, and all the world was alike to me; so I left it
entirely to them to determine.

In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be done where we were
without shipping; that if our business indeed was only to eat and drink, we
could not find a better place in the world; but if our business was to get
away, and get home into our country, we could not find a worse.

I confess I liked the country wonderfully, and even then had strange
notions of coming again to live there; and I used to say to them very often
that if I had but a ship of twenty guns, and a sloop, and both well manned,
I would not desire a better place in the world to make myself as rich as a
king.

But to return to the consultations they were in about going. Upon the
whole, it was resolved to venture over for the main; and venture we did,
madly enough, indeed, for it was the wrong time of the year to undertake
such a voyage in that country; for, as the winds hang easterly all the
months from September to March, so they generally hang westerly all the
rest of the year, and blew right in our teeth; so that, as soon as we had,
with a kind of a land-breeze, stretched over about fifteen or twenty
leagues, and, as I may say, just enough to lose ourselves, we found the
wind set in a steady fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at west, W.S.W., or
S.W. by W., and never further from the west; so that, in a word, we could
make nothing of it.

On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had, would not lie close upon a
wind; if so, we might have stretched away N.N.W., and have met with a great
many islands in our way, as we found afterwards; but we could make nothing
of it, though we tried, and by the trying had almost undone us all; for,
stretching away to the north, as near the wind as we could, we had
forgotten the shape and position of the island of Madagascar itself; how
that we came off at the head of a promontory or point of land, that lies
about the middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great way
into the sea; and that now, being run a matter of forty leagues to the
north, the shore of the island fell off again above 200 miles to the east,
so that we were by this time in the wide ocean, between the island and the
main, and almost 100 leagues from both.

Indeed, as the winds blew fresh at west, as before, we had a smooth sea,
and we found it pretty good going before it, and so, taking our smallest
canoe in tow, we stood in for the shore with all the sail we could make.
This was a terrible adventure, for, if the least gust of wind had come, we
had been all lost, our canoes being deep and in no condition to make way in
a high sea.

This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all; and at length, having
spent most of our provisions, and every drop of water we had, we spied
land, to our great joy, though at the distance of ten or eleven leagues;
and as, under the land, the wind came off like a land-breeze, and blew hard
against us, we were two days more before we reached the shore, having all
that while excessive hot weather, and not a drop of water or any other
liquor, except some cordial waters, which one of our company had a little
of left in a case of bottles.

This gave us a taste of what we should have done if we had ventured forward
with a scant wind and uncertain weather, and gave us a surfeit of our
design for the main, at least until we might have some better vessels under
us; so we went on shore again, and pitched our camp as before, in as
convenient manner as we could, fortifying ourselves against any surprise;
but the natives here were exceeding courteous, and much more civil than on
the south part of the island; and though we could not understand what they
said, or they us, yet we found means to make them understand that we were
seafaring men and strangers, and that we were in distress for want of
provisions.

The first proof we had of their kindness was, that as soon as they saw us
come on shore and begin to make our habitation, one of their captains or
kings, for we knew not what to call them, came down with five or six men
and some women, and brought us five goats and two young fat steers, and
gave them to us for nothing; and when we went to offer them anything, the
captain or the king would not let any of them touch it, or take anything of
us. About two hours after came another king, or captain, with forty or
fifty men after him. We began to be afraid of him, and laid hands upon our
weapons; but he perceiving it, caused two men to go before him, carrying
two long poles in their hands, which they held upright, as high as they
could, which we presently perceived was a signal of peace; and these two
poles they set up afterwards, sticking them up in the ground; and when the
king and his men came to these two poles, they struck all their lances up
in the ground, and came on unarmed, leaving their lances, as also their
bows and arrows, behind them.

This was to satisfy us that they were come as friends, and we were glad to
see it, for we had no mind to quarrel with them if we could help it. The
captain of this gang seeing some of our men making up their huts, and that
they did it but bunglingly, he beckoned to some of his men to go and help
us. Immediately fifteen or sixteen of them came and mingled among us, and
went to work for us; and indeed, they were better workmen than we were, for
they run up three or four huts for us in a moment, and much handsomer done
than ours.

After this they sent us milk, plantains, pumpkins, and abundance of roots
and greens that were very good, and then took their leave, and would not
take anything from us that we had. One of our men offered the king or
captain of these men a dram, which he drank and was mightily pleased with
it, and held out his hand for another, which we gave him; and in a word,
after this, he hardly failed coming to us two or three times a week, always
bringing us something or other; and one time sent us seven head of black
cattle, some of which we cured and dried as before.

And here I cannot but remember one thing, which afterwards stood us in
great stead, viz., that the flesh of their goats, and their beef also, but
especially the former, when we had dried and cured it, looked red, and ate
hard and firm, as dried beef in Holland; they were so pleased with it, and
it was such a dainty to them, that at any time after they would trade with
us for it, not knowing, or so much as imagining what it was; so that for
ten or twelve pounds' weight of smoke-dried beef, they would give us a
whole bullock, or cow, or anything else we could desire.

Here we observed two things that were very material to us, even essentially
so; first, we found they had a great deal of earthenware here, which they
made use of many ways as we did; particularly they had long, deep earthen
pots, which they used to sink into the ground, to keep the water which they
drunk cool and pleasant; and the other was, that they had larger canoes
than their neighbours had.

By this we were prompted to inquire if they had no larger vessels than
those we saw there, or if any other of the inhabitants had not such. They
signified presently that they had no larger boats than that they showed us;
but that on the other side of the island they had larger boats, and that
with decks upon them, and large sails; and this made us resolve to coast
round the whole island to see them; so we prepared and victualled our canoe
for the voyage, and, in a word, went to sea for the third time.

It cost us a month or six weeks' time to perform this voyage, in which time
we went on shore several times for water and provisions, and found the
natives always very free and courteous; but we were surprised one morning
early, being at the extremity of the northernmost part of the island, when
one of our men cried out, "A sail! a sail!" We presently saw a vessel a
great way out at sea; but after we had looked at it with our perspective
glasses, and endeavoured all we could to make out what it was, we could not
tell what to think of it; for it was neither ship, ketch, galley, galliot,
or like anything that we had ever seen before; all that we could make of it
was, that it went from us, standing out to sea. In a word, we soon lost
sight of it, for we were in no condition to chase anything, and we never
saw it again; but, by all that we could perceive of it, from what we saw of
such things afterwards, it was some Arabian vessel, which had been trading
to the coast of Mozambique, or Zanzibar, the same place where we afterwards
went, as you shall hear.

I kept no journal of this voyage, nor indeed did I all this while
understand anything of navigation, more than the common business of a
foremast-man; so I can say nothing to the latitudes or distances of any
places we were at, how long we were going, or how far we sailed in a day;
but this I remember, that being now come round the island, we sailed up the
eastern shore due south, as we had done down the western shore due north
before.

Nor do I remember that the natives differed much from one another, either
in stature or complexion, or in their manners, their habits, their weapons,
or indeed in anything; and yet we could not perceive that they had any
intelligence one with another; but they were extremely kind and civil to us
on this side, as well as on the other.

We continued our voyage south for many weeks, though with several intervals
of going on shore to get provisions and water. At length, coming round a
point of land which lay about a league further than ordinary into the sea,
we were agreeably surprised with a sight which, no doubt, had been as
disagreeable to those concerned, as it was pleasant to us. This was the
wreck of an European ship, which had been cast away upon the rocks, which
in that place run a great way into the sea.

We could see plainly, at low water, a great deal of the ship lay dry; even
at high water, she was not entirely covered; and that at most she did not
lie above a league from the shore. It will easily be believed that our
curiosity led us, the wind and weather also permitting, to go directly to
her, which we did without any difficulty, and presently found that it was a
Dutch-built ship, and that she could not have been very long in that
condition, a great deal of the upper work of her stern remaining firm, with
the mizzen-mast standing. Her stern seemed to be jammed in between two
ridges of the rock, and so remained fast, all the fore part of the ship
having been beaten to pieces.

We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck that was worth our
while; but we resolved to go on shore, and stay some time thereabouts, to
see if perhaps we might get any light into the story of her; and we were
not without hopes that we might hear something more particular about her
men, and perhaps find some of them on shore there, in the same condition
that we were in, and so might increase our company.

It was a very pleasant sight to us when, coming on shore, we saw all the
marks and tokens of a ship-carpenter's yard; as a launch-block and cradles,
scaffolds and planks, and pieces of planks, the remains of the building a
ship or vessel; and, in a word, a great many things that fairly invited us
to go about the same work; and we soon came to understand that the men
belonging to the ship that was lost had saved themselves on shore, perhaps
in their boat, and had built themselves a barque or sloop, and so were gone
to sea again; and, inquiring of the natives which way they went, they
pointed to the south and south-west, by which we could easily understand
they were gone away to the Cape of Good Hope.

Nobody will imagine we could be so dull as not to gather from h