by Daniel Defoe
several times, making other signals for theboat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, andthey found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of myglasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and wefound, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her;and that they had fire-arms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view ofthem as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because thetide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowedup under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed,and where the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full view ofthem, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men inthe boat, of whom, he said, there were three very honest fellows, who,he was sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest, beingoverpowered and frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, itseems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were asoutrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperatein their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was that theywould be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him that men inour circumstances were past the operation of fear; that seeing almostevery condition that could be was better than that which we weresupposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whetherdeath or life, would be sure to be a deliverance, I asked him what hethought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance werenot worth venturing for? "And where, Sir," said I, "is your belief of mybeing preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you alittle while ago? For my part," said I, "there seems to me but one thingamiss in all the prospect of it."--"What is that?" says he. "Why," saidI, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows amongthem, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part ofthe crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them out todeliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comesashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." As Ispoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found itgreatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship,considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured themeffectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured thanordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three delivered men, to mycave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard ordiscovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they could havedelivered themselves: here they left them bound, but gave themprovisions; and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to givethem their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted theirescape, they should be put to death without mercy. They promisedfaithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were verythankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and lightleft them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) fortheir comfort; and they did not know but that he stood centinel overthem at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned,indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but the othertwo were taken into my service, upon the captain's recommendation, andupon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them andthe three honest men we were seven men well armed; and I made no doubtwe should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming,considering that the captain had said there were three or four honestmen among them also. As soon as they got to the place where their otherboat lay, they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore,hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to see; for I wasafraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor, some distancefrom the shore, with some hands in her, to guard her, and so we shouldnot be able to seize the boat. Being on shore, the first thing they did,they ran all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they were undera great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her,and a great hole in her bottom. After they had mused a while upon this,they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might,to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to nopurpose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of theirsmall arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made the woodsring; but it was all one; those in the cave we were sure could not hear,and those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durstgive no answer to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this,that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on boardagain, to their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered,and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched theirboat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believingthey would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving theircomrades over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which hewas in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as muchfrightened the other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived them allcoming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, whichit seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave three men in theboat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to lookfor their fellows. This was a great disappointment to us, for now wewere at a loss what to do; as our seizing those seven men on shore wouldbe no advantage to us, if we let the boat escape; because they wouldthen row away to the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure toweigh and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost.However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of thingsmight present. The seven men came on shore, and the three who remainedin the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came toan anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come atthem in the boat. Those that came on shore kept close together, marchingtowards the top of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and wecould see them plainly, though they could not perceive us. We could havebeen very glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might havefired at them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we mighthave come abroad. But when they were come to the brow of the hill, wherethey could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which lay towardsthe north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted andhallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture farfrom the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under atree, to consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleepthere, as the other part of them had done, they had done the job for us;but they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go tosleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had tofear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation oftheirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, toendeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally uponthem, just at the Juncture when their pieces were all discharged, andthey would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. Iliked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough tocome up to them before they could load their pieces again. But thisevent did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute whatcourse to take. At length I told them there would be nothing done, in myopinion, till night; and then, if they did not return to the boat,perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore, and somight use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. Wewaited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and werevery uneasy, when, after long consultations, we saw them all start up,and march down towards the sea: it seems they had such dreadfulapprehensions upon them of the danger of the place, that they resolvedto go on board the ship again, give their companions over for lost, andso go on with their intended voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them to go towards the shore, I imagined it tobe, as it really was, that they had given over their search, and werefor going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him mythoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensi
ons of it: but I presentlythought of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered myend to a tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over thelittle creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on shorewhen Friday was rescued, and as soon as they came to a little risingground, at about half a mile distance, I bade them halloo out, as loudas they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that assoon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should return itagain; and then keeping out of sight, take a round, always answeringwhen the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and amongthe woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to me, by such waysas I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallooed:and they presently heard them, and answering, run along the shorewestward, towards the voice they heard, when they were presently
