by Daniel Defoe
beenno storms to drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they werereally English, it was most probable that they were here upon no gooddesign; and that I had better continue as I was, than fall into thehands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, whichsometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of itsbeing real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe few thathave made any observations of things can deny; that they are certaindiscoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannotdoubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, whyshould we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whethersupreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question,) and thatthey are given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of thisreasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret admonition,come it from whence it will, I had been undone inevitably, and in a farworse condition than before, as you will see presently. I had not keptmyself long in this posture, but I saw the boat draw near the shore, asif they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience oflanding; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did notsee the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but run theirboat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which wasvery happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my door,as I may say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, andperhaps have plundered me of all I had. When they were on shore, I wasfully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or twoI thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all elevenmen, whereof three of them I found were unarmed, and, as I thought,bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore,they took those three out of the boat, as prisoners: one of the three Icould perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty,affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two,I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appearedconcerned, indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. I wasperfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of itshould be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, "Omaster! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savagemans."--"Why, Friday," says I, "do you think they are going to eat themthen?"--"Yes," says Friday, "they will eat them."--"No, no," says I,"Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may be surethey will not eat them."
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stoodtrembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when thethree prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villainslift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword,to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall everymoment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in myveins. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that wasgone with him, or that I had any way to have come undiscovered withinshot of them, that I might have rescued the three men, for I saw nofire-arms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way.After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by theinsolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island,as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three othermen had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down allthree upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair.This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began tolook about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I lookedround me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in thetree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. As I knewnothing, that night, of the supply I was to receive by the providentialdriving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which Ihave since been so long nourished and supported; so these three poordesolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply theywere, how near it was to them, and how effectually and really they werein a condition of safety, at the same time that they thought themselveslost, and their case desperate. So little do we see before us in theworld, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the greatMaker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutelydestitue, but that, in the worst circumstances, they have alwayssomething to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverancethan they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by themeans by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these people came on shore;and partly while they rambled about to see what kind of a place theywere in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and thewater was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They hadleft two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drank alittle too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking alittle sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground forhim to stir it, hallooed out for the rest, who were straggling about;upon which they all soon came to the boat: but it was past all theirstrength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on thatside being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. In this condition,like true seamen, who are perhaps the least of all mankind given toforethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled about the countryagain; and I heard one of them say aloud to another, calling them offfrom the boat, "Why, let her alone, Jack, can't you? she'll float nexttide:" by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of whatcountrymen they were. All this while I kept myself very close, not oncedaring to stir out of my castle, any farther than to my place ofobservation, near the top of the hill; and very glad I was to think howwell it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before theboat could float again, and by that time it would be dark, and I mightbe at more liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse, ifthey had any. In the mean time, I fitted myself up for a battle, asbefore, though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another kindof enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made anexcellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I tookmyself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure,indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with thegreat cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in mybelt, and a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till itwas dark: but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, I foundthat, in short, they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as Ithought, laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxiousfor their condition to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under theshelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as Ithought, out of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved todiscover myself to them, and learn something of their condition;immediately I marched in the figure as above, my man Friday at a gooddistance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not makingquite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did. I came as near themundiscovered as I could, and then, before any of them saw me, I calledaloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye, gentlemen?" They started up atthe noise; but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and theuncouth figure that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought Iperceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them inEnglish: "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me: perhaps youmay have a friend near, when you did not expect it."--"He must be sentdirectly from Heaven then," said one of them very gravely to me, andpulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our condition is pastthe help of man."--"All help is from Heaven, Sir," said I: "But can youput a stranger in the way how to help you? for you seem to be in somegreat distress. I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to makeapplication to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them lift uphis sword to kill you."
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, lookinglike one astonished, returned, "Am I talking to God or man? Is it a realman or an angel?"--"Be in no fear about that, Sir," said I; "if God hadsent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better
clothed, andarmed after another manner than you see me: pray lay aside your fears; Iam a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you: you see I have oneservant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serveyou? What is your case?"--"Our case," said he, "Sir, is too long to tellyou, while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, Sir, I wascommander of that ship, my men have mutinied against me; they have beenhardly prevailed on not to murder me; and at last have set me on shorein this desolate place, with these two men with me, one my mate, theother a passenger, where we expected to perish, believing the place tobe uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it."--"Where are thesebrutes, your enemies?" said I: "Do you know where they aregone?"--"There they
