Slavery and Escape

Xury said it was
a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; ‘No,’ says I,
‘Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far.’

However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging
to the Moors.

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on
board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on
board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a- fishing any more without a
compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little stateroom,
or cabin, in the middle of the long- boat, like that of
a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul
home the main-s...

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very
well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde
Islands also, lay not far off from the coast.

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel
of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of
which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax,
to make candles.

However, I was glad to see the boy so
cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron’s case of
30 Robinson Crusoe
bottles) to cheer him up.

He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and
called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all
over the world with me.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
as our ...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

It may be we may kill some alcamies (a
fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the
gunner’s stores in the ship.’

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of ...

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
as our ...

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com...

We came into this creek in the evening, resolving
to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore
till day.

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com...

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor;
the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in that manner five
days; and then the wind shifting to the southward, I concluded
also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me,
they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river,
I knew not w...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

‘Well, Xury,’ said I, ‘then I won’t; but it may be that
we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.’

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com...

We plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our
deck of them twice.

I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 35
him might, one way or other, be of some value to us; and I
resolved to take off his skin if I could.

He started up, growling
at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then
got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that
ever I heard.

‘Well, go,’
said I: so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and
coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to
his ear, and shot him in the head again, which despatched
him quite.

Another trick I tried upon him, which he
innocently came into also: his name was Ismael, which they
call Muley, or Moely; so I called to him - ‘Moely,’ said I, ‘our
patron’s guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little
powder and shot?

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a- fishing any more without a
compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little stateroom,
or cabin, in the middle of the long- boat, like that of
a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul
home the main-s...

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

The wind blew from the N.N.E.,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly
I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow
which way it would, I would be gone from that horrid place
where I was, and leave the rest to fate.

Xury, whose eyes were more about
him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me
that we had best go farther off the shore; ‘For,’ says he, ‘look,
yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock,
fast asleep.’

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of ...

He started up, growling
at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then
got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that
ever I heard.

‘But,’ said I, ‘you swim well enough to
reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your
28 Robinson Crusoe
way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you come
near the boat I’ll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved
to have my liberty;’ so he turned himself about, and
swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it
with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.

The wind blew from the N.N.E.,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly
I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow
which way it would, I would be gone from that horrid place
where I was, and leave the rest to fate.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we
were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which
flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted
on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our way,
having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part
of the country.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
as our ...

However,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the
morning; but we were all very hungry.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

It may be we may kill some alcamies (a
fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the
gunner’s stores in the ship.’

But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we
were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which
flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted
on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our way,
having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part
of the country.

We came into this creek in the evening, resolving
to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore
till day.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

He started up, growling
at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then
got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that
ever I heard.

I first got acquainted with the master of
a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having
had very good success there, was resolved to go again.

I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging
over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs;
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
32 Robinson Crusoe
but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me
he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

‘Yes,’ says he, ‘I’ll bring some;’
and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, which
held a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and
another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some
bullets, and put all into the boat.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

Xury, looked frighted, and said,
‘Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!’ - one mouthful he meant.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

When he was gone, I turned to the boy,
whom they called Xury, and said to him, ‘Xury, if you will
be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me’ - that is, swear by Mahomet
and his father’s beard - ‘I must throw you into the
sea too.’

However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging
to the Moors.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still,
and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore,
34 Robinson Crusoe
and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two
slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two
bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with
five smaller bullets.

However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still,
and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore,
34 Robinson Crusoe
and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two
slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two
bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with
five smaller bullets.

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of
Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in
the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes
of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in
again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my
little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, and
keep along the shore.

We came into this creek in the evening, resolving
to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore
till day.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

Xury, whose eyes were more about
him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me
that we had best go farther off the shore; ‘For,’ says he, ‘look,
yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock,
fast asleep.’

However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging
to the Moors.

He swam so strong after the boat
that he would have reached me very quickly, there being
but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and
fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and
told him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I
would do him none.

We came into this creek in the evening, resolving
to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore
till day.

I knew where my patron’s case of bottles stood, which it
was evident, by the make, were taken out of some English
prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor
was on shore, as if they had been there before for our master.

So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a
dram out of our patron’s case of bottles which I mentioned
before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we
thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing
but our arms and two jars for water.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

After we had fished some time and caught nothing - for
when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that
he might not see them - I said to the Moor, ‘This will not
do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand farther
off.’

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

Indeed, it took us both
up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually
dried it in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to
lie upon

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

He swam so strong after the boat
that he would have reached me very quickly, there being
but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and
fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and
told him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I
would do him none.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

I had no sooner said so, but
I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’
length, which something surprised me; however, I immediately
stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired
at him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam
towards the shore again.

But laying us on board
the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men
upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking
the sails and rigging.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I
apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the emperor’s
court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by
the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his
slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on
board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew
who we were, and took no notice of us; and we were not
above a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail
and set us down to fish.

Xury said it was
a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; ‘No,’ says I,
‘Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far.’

I had no sooner said so, but
I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’
length, which something surprised me; however, I immediately
stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired
at him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam
towards the shore again.

We came into this creek in the evening, resolving
to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore
till day.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

So Xury and I went
to work with him; but Xury was much the better workman
at it, for I knew very ill how to do it.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging
to the Moors.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

However,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the
morning; but we were all very hungry.

Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too;
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these
mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we
could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing
to be a monstrous huge and furious beast.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved
to go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the same
vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and
had now got the command of the ship.

I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 35
him might, one way or other, be of some value to us; and I
resolved to take off his skin if I could.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
as our ...

He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and
called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all
over the world with me.

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

‘Well, go,’
said I: so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and
coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to
his ear, and shot him in the head again, which despatched
him quite.

Another trick I tried upon him, which he
innocently came into also: his name was Ismael, which they
call Muley, or Moely; so I called to him - ‘Moely,’ said I, ‘our
patron’s guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little
powder and shot?

However,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the
morning; but we were all very hungry.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

We plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our
deck of them twice.

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board;
for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron’s
bread.

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a- fishing any more without a
compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little stateroom,
or cabin, in the middle of the long- boat, like that of
a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul
home the main-s...

‘For what, Xury?’ said
I. ‘Me cut off his head,’ said he.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

The wind blew from the N.N.E.,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly
I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow
which way it would, I would be gone from that horrid place
where I was, and leave the rest to fate.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently
that I could not distrust him, and swore to be faithful to me,
and go all over the world with me.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere
or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the
boat; when and where to get to it was the point.

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

When he was gone, I turned to the boy,
whom they called Xury, and said to him, ‘Xury, if you will
be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me’ - that is, swear by Mahomet
and his father’s beard - ‘I must throw you into the
sea too.’

He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

‘But,’ said I, ‘you swim well enough to
reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your
28 Robinson Crusoe
way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you come
near the boat I’ll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved
to have my liberty;’ so he turned himself about, and
swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it
with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.

I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging
over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs;
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
32 Robinson Crusoe
but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me
he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

Xury said it was
a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; ‘No,’ says I,
‘Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far.’

I first got acquainted with the master of
a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having
had very good success there, was resolved to go again.

However, we had not a man
touched, all our men keeping close.

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel
of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of
which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax,
to make candles.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I
apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the emperor’s
court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by
the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his
slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

But
this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do
the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and
called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all
over the world with me.

Xury, whose eyes were more about
him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me
that we had best go farther off the shore; ‘For,’ says he, ‘look,
yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock,
fast asleep.’

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to go ...

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

But as I had no
instruments to take an observation to know what latitude
we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least remembering,
what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I
might now easily have found some of these islands.

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

However,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the
morning; but we were all very hungry.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

I had no sooner said so, but
I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’
length, which something surprised me; however, I immediately
stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired
at him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam
towards the shore again.

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

These 40 pounds I had mustered
together by the assistance of some of my relations whom I
corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my father, or at
least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first
adventure.

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

Indeed, it took us both
up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually
dried it in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to
lie upon

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the boy
seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to
it, and by-and-by I saw him come running towards me.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

The wind blew from the N.N.E.,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly
I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow
which way it would, I would be gone from that horrid place
where I was, and leave the rest to fate.

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 33
fur...

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

I first got acquainted with the master of
a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having
had very good success there, was resolved to go again.

I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging
over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs;
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
32 Robinson Crusoe
but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me
he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

But laying us on board
the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men
upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking
the sails and rigging.

Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too;
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these
mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we
could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing
to be a monstrous huge and furious beast.

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor;
the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in that manner five
days; and then the wind shifting to the southward, I concluded
also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me,
they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river,
I knew not w...

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 33
fur...

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

When he was gone, I turned to the boy,
whom they called Xury, and said to him, ‘Xury, if you will
be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me’ - that is, swear by Mahomet
and his father’s beard - ‘I must throw you into the
sea too.’

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel
of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of
which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax,
to make candles.

I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 35
him might, one way or other, be of some value to us; and I
resolved to take off his skin if I could.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after
we had left this place; and once in particular, being early in
morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land,
which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we
lay still to go farther in.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel
of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of
which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax,
to make candles.

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

After about two years, an odd circumstance presented
itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt
for my liberty again in my head.

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

Indeed, it took us both
up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually
dried it in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to
lie upon

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel
of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of
which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax,
to make candles.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to,
as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him by surprise with my
arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into
the sea.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging
over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs;
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
32 Robinson Crusoe
but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me
he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, a...

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I
apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the emperor’s
court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by
the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his
slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

I took the best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his
leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg
about the knee and broke the bone.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their
wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should...

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved
to go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the same
vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and
had now got the command of the ship.

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a- fishing any more without a
compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little stateroom,
or cabin, in the middle of the long- boat, like that of
a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul
home the main-s...

But as I had no
instruments to take an observation to know what latitude
we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least remembering,
what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I
might now easily have found some of these islands.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor;
the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in that manner five
days; and then the wind shifting to the southward, I concluded
also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me,
they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river,
I knew not w...

He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat.

After all, Xury’s advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all
night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours
we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure
of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howlings
and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

After we had fished some time and caught nothing - for
when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that
he might not see them - I said to the Moor, ‘This will not
do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand farther
off.’

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 33
fur...

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted
into my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a
little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for
a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as consider,
whither I should steer - anywhere to get out of that
26 Robinson Crusoe
place was my desire.

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,
that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our
principal trading being upon the coast, from latitude of 15
degrees north even to the line itself.

Another trick I tried upon him, which he
innocently came into also: his name was Ismael, which they
call Muley, or Moely; so I called to him - ‘Moely,’ said I, ‘our
patron’s guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little
powder and shot?

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on
board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

But laying us on board
the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men
upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking
the sails and rigging.

When he was gone, I turned to the boy,
whom they called Xury, and said to him, ‘Xury, if you will
be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me’ - that is, swear by Mahomet
and his father’s beard - ‘I must throw you into the
sea too.’

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master.

We crowded also as much canvas as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to get clear;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight;
22 Robinson Crusoe
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty.

This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere
or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the
boat; when and where to get to it was the point.

But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we
were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which
flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted
on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our way,
having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part
of the country.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight...

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

But laying us on board
the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men
upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking
the sails and rigging.

Xury said it was
a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; ‘No,’ says I,
‘Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far.’

I was a little surprised that I had not hit him on
the head; however, I took up the second piece immediately,
and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him
in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop and make
but little noise, but lie struggling for life.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

This was the unhappiest
voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carry
quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so that I had
200 pounds left, which I had lodged with my friend’s widow,
who was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes.

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from some business that
fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I shou...

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful
monster indeed, for it was a terrible, great lion that lay on
the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill
that hung as it were a little over him.

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,
that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our
principal trading being upon the coast, from latitude of 15
degrees north even to the line itself.

My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
24 Robinson Crusoe
take the ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kin...

I took the best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his
leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg
about the knee and broke the bone.

We plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our
deck of them twice.

I took the best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his
leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg
about the knee and broke the bone.

These 40 pounds I had mustered
together by the assistance of some of my relations whom I
corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my father, or at
least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first
adventure.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

However, I was glad to see the boy so
cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron’s case of
30 Robinson Crusoe
bottles) to cheer him up.

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted
into my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a
little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for
a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as consider,
whither I should steer - anywhere to get out of that
26 Robinson Crusoe
place was my desire.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the morning came we found we
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore.

We plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our
deck of them twice.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

This was the unhappiest
voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carry
quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so that I had
200 pounds left, which I had lodged with my friend’s widow,
who was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes.

However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging
to the Moors.

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

The first was this: our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make.

I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging
over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs;
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
32 Robinson Crusoe
but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me
he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

But as it was always my fate to
choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 29
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land,
I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south
of Sallee; quite beyond the Empe...

But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and
hideous cries and howlings that were raised, as well upon
the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon
the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason
to believe those creatures had never heard before: this convinced
me that there was no going on shore for us in the
night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 31
was another question too; for to have fallen int...

About
three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing
to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart
our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,
that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our
principal trading being upon the coast, from latitude of 15
degrees north even to the line itself.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the
least probability in it; nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me - no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste
and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors,
and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason
of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of
the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 33
fur...

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted
into my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a
little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for
a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as consider,
whither I should steer - anywhere to get out of that
26 Robinson Crusoe
place was my desire.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules
of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 21
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to lea...

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally
20 Robinson Crusoe
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it
was not so with me.

She sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 25
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as
he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on
board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.

Xury said it was
a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; ‘No,’ says I,
‘Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far.’

After about two years, an odd circumstance presented
itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt
for my liberty again in my head.

At the same time I had
found some powder of my master’s in the great cabin, with
which I filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was
almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus
furnished with everything needful, we sailed out of the port
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 27
to fish.

‘Well, go,’
said I: so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and
coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to
his ear, and shot him in the head again, which despatched
him quite.

However,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the
morning; but we were all very hungry.

Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of
Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in
the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes
of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in
again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my
little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, and
keep along the shore.

At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and
now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to
me, that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that
Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 23
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had overtaken
me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas!
this was but a taste of the misery I was to...

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

SLAVERY
AND ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from my
father’s house - which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view;
and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
...

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy.