The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
there he stood, and, pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms,
“My dear friend and deliverer,” says he, “there’s your ship; for she is
all yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes
to the ship, and there she rode, within little more than half a mile of
the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters
of her, and, the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just
against the mouth of the little creek; and the tide being up, the
captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I had first
landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door. I was at first ready to
sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly
put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to
carry me away whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was
not able to answer him one word; but as he had taken me in his arms I
held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground. He perceived
the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and
gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me.
After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought
me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to
him. All this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only
not under any surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender
things to me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the flood
of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion: at last
it broke out into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my
speech; I then took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we
rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent by Heaven
to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of
wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a
secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the
eye of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the
world, and send help to the miserable whenever He pleased. I forgot not
to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could
forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided
for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from
whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed.
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some
little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches
that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this,
he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore
that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had
been one that was not to be carried away with them, but as if I had
been to dwell upon the island still. First, he had brought me a case of
bottles full of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira
wine (the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent good
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork,
with a bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit; he also
brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and
two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things. But besides
these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me
six new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one
pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit
of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little: in a word,
he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable
present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances, but never
was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and
uneasy as it was to me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be
done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we
might venture to take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom
he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the
captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging
them, and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as
malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English
colony he could come to; and I found that the captain himself was very
anxious about it. Upon this, I told him that, if he desired it, I would
undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request
that he should leave them upon the island. “I should be very glad of
that,” says the captain, “with all my heart.” “Well,” says I, “I will
send for them up and talk with them for you.” So I caused Friday and
the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having
performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and
bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep
them there till I came. After some time, I came thither dressed in my
new habit; and now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the
captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told
them I had got a full account of their villainous behaviour to the
captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to
commit further robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them in
their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had
dug for others. I let them know that by my direction the ship had been
seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might see by-and-by that
their new captain had received the reward of his villainy, and that
they would see him hanging at the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted
to know what they had to say why I should not execute them as pirates
taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt but I had
authority so to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to
say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their
lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not
what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the
island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go to
England; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England
other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running
away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know,
would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them,
unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they
desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some
inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift
on shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much
rather venture to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged.
So I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he
durst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with the
captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that
seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my
word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I would set
them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did not like it he might
take them again if he could catch them. Upon this they appeared very
thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire
into the woods, to the place whence they came, and I would leave them
some firearms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should
live very well if they thought fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board
the ship; but told the captain I would stay that night to prepare my
things, and desired him to go on board in the meantime, and keep all
right in the ship, and send the boat on shore next day for me; ordering
him, at all events, to cause the new captain, who was killed, to be
hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might see him.
When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,
and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances.
I told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain
had carried them away they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the
new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had
nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them
I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into
the way of making it easy to them. Accordingly, I gave them the whole
history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my
fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I
told them the story also of the seventeen Spaniards that were to be
expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them
in common with themselves. Here it may be noted that the captain, who
had ink on board, was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of
making ink of charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done
things much more difficult.
I left them my firearms—viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and
three swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for after
the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a
description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese. In a word, I gave them
every part of my own story; and told them I should prevail with the
captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some
garden-seeds, which I told them I would have been very glad of. Also, I
gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and
bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
CHAPTER XIX. RETURN TO ENGLAND
Having done all this I left them the next day, and went on board the
ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night.
The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship’s
side, and making the most lamentable complaint of the other three,
begged to be taken into the ship for God’s sake, for they should be
murdered, and begged the captain to take them on board, though he
hanged them immediately. Upon this the captain pretended to have no
power without me; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn
promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were, some time
after, soundly whipped and pickled; after which they proved very honest
and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being up,
with the things promised to the men; to which the captain, at my
intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they
took, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling
them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, I
would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics, the
great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots;
also, I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had
lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and
could hardly pass for silver till it had been a little rubbed and
handled, as also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.
And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the
ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it
eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being delivered
from this second captivity the same day of the month that I first made
my escape in the long-boat from among the Moors of Sallee. In this