The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in
the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent.
When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as
if I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful steward,
whom I had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had had great
misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second time, and very
low in the world. I made her very easy as to what she owed me, assuring
her I would give her no trouble; but, on the contrary, in gratitude for
her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little
stock would afford; which at that time would, indeed, allow me to do
but little for her; but I assured her I would never forget her former
kindness to me; nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her,
as shall be observed in its proper place. I went down afterwards into
Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother and all the family
extinct, except that I found two sisters, and two of the children of
one of my brothers; and as I had been long ago given over for dead,
there had been no provision made for me; so that, in a word, I found
nothing to relieve or assist me; and that the little money I had would
not do much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and
this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered,
and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives
of the men and the ship, they invited me to meet them and some other
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome
compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost £200 sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life,
and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I
resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at some
information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what
was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years
past given me over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon,
where I arrived in April following, my man Friday accompanying me very
honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant
upon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and
to my particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship
who first took me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now grown
old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far
from a young man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade.
The old man did not know me, and indeed I hardly knew him. But I soon
brought him to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his
remembrance, when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, I
inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The old
man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but
that he could assure me that when he came away my partner was living,
but the trustees whom I had joined with him to take cognisance of my
part were both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a very
good account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the
general belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given
in the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the
procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came to
claim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St.
Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the
conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith: but that, if I
appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be
restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being
distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured
me that the steward of the king’s revenue from lands, and the
providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along
that the incumbent, that is to say my partner, gave every year a
faithful account of the produce, of which they had duly received my
moiety. I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had
brought the plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth
looking after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any
obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety. He told me he
could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved; but
this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the
enjoying his part of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he
had heard that the king’s third of my part, which was, it seems,
granted away to some other monastery or religious house, amounted to
above two hundred moidores a year: that as to my being restored to a
quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made of that, my
partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being also
enrolled in the register of the country; also he told me that the
survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very
wealthy; and he believed I would not only have their assistance for
putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm
while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as
above; which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees
should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my
will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being
dead, he could not act as executor until some certain account should
come of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with
a thing so remote: that it was true he had registered my will, and put
in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead or
alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of the
ingenio (so they call the sugar-house), and have given his son, who was
now at the Brazils, orders to do it. “But,” says the old man, “I have
one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable
to you as the rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the
world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account
with me, in your name, for the first six or eight years’ profits, which
I received. There being at that time great disbursements for increasing
the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount to
near so much as afterwards it produced; however,” says the old man, “I
shall give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I
have disposed of it.”
After a few days’ further conference with this ancient friend, he
brought me an account of the first six years’ income of my plantation,
signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always delivered
in goods, viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum,
molasses, &c., which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found by
this account, that every year the income considerably increased; but,
as above, the disbursements being large, the sum at first was small:
however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred
and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen
double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been
shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my having
the place. The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and
how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses,
and buy him a share in a new ship. “However, my old friend,” says he,
“you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son
returns you shall be fully satisfied.” Upon this he pulls out an old
pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold;
and giving the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was
gone to the Brazils in, of which he was quarter-part owner, and his son
another, he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to
be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he
had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all
occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I
could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to me; therefore I
asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at
that time, and if it would not straiten him? He told me he could not
say but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money,
and I might want it more than he.
Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly
refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one hundred of the
moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them:
then I returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of
the plantation I would return the other to him also (as, indeed, I
afterwards did); and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his
son’s ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted the
money, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but
came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a
penny more from him.
When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a
method to make my claim to my plantation. I told him I thought to go
over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased, but that if I
did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to
appropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in
a public register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I was
alive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for the
planting the said plantation at first. This being regularly attested by
a notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a
letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place;
and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the
return.
Never was anything more honourable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet
from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I
went to sea, in which were the following, particular letters and papers
enclosed:—
First, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or
plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old
Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be one
thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept the
effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which
they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the
plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred and
forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two hundred and forty
moidores.
Thirdly, there was the Prior of St. Augustine’s account, who had
received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to
account for what was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly
declared he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed,
which he acknowledged to my account: as to the king’s part, that
refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me very