by Daniel Defoe
apprehended; norwas I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of ourmen 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. Atthis surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to amiserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back uponmy father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, andhave none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually broughtto pass, that I could not be worse; that now the hand of Heaven hadovertaken me, and I was undone without redemption: but, alas! this wasbut a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in thesequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was inhopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again,believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by aSpanish or Portugal man of war, and that then I should be set atliberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went tosea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do thecommon drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home againfrom his cruise, he ordered me to be in the cabin to look afterthe ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take toeffect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it:nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I hadnobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow slave,no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman there but myself; so that for twoyears, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I neverhad the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which putthe old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head: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 ortwice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take theship's pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he alwaystook me and a young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him verymerry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch thatsometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and theyouth the Maresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, afog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from the shorewe lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, welaboured all day, and all the next night, and when the morning came wefound we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; andthat we were at least two leagues from the shore: however, we got wellin again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for thewind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but particularly we wereall very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care ofhimself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat of ourEnglish ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing anymore without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenterof his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a littlestate-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of abarge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and hale home themain-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work thesails: she sailed with that we call a shoulder of mutton sail; and theboom gibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, andhad in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eaton, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as hethought fit to drink; particularly his bread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as I was mostdexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happenedthat he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or forfish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, and forwhom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on boardthe boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and hadordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot, which were onboard his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling as wellas fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morningwith the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on boardalone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business thatfell out, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out withthe boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup athis house; and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bringit home to his house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command; and mymaster being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishingbusiness, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much asconsider, whither I should steer; for any where to get out of that placewas my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, toget something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must notpresume to eat of our patron's bread; he said, that was true: so hebrought a large basket of rusk or bisket of their kind, and three jarswith fresh water, into the boat. I knew where my patron's case ofbottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of someEnglish prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was onshore, as if they had been there before for our master: I conveyed alsoa great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half ahundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, anda hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards, especially thewax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocentlycame into also; his name was Ismael, whom they call Muly or Moley; so Icalled to him: "Moley," said I, "our patron's guns are on board theboat; can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be we may killsome alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know hekeeps the gunner's stores in the ship."--"Yes," says he, "I'll bringsome;" and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held abouta 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 theboat; at the same time I had found some powder of my master's in thegreat 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 thusfurnished with every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish.The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, andtook no notice of us: and we were not above a mile out of the portbefore we haled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind blew fromthe 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 last reached tothe bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it would, Iwould be gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the restto fate.
After we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when I had fishon my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them, I saidto the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be thus served; wemust stand farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in thehead of the boat set the sails; and as I had the helm I ran the boat outnear a league farther, and then brought her to as if I would fish; whengiving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, andmaking as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprisewith my arm under his twist, and tossed him clear overboard into thesea; 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.He swam so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me veryquickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into thecabin, 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 woulddo him none: "But," said I, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore,and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I will doyou no harm; but if you come near the boat I'll shoot you through thehead, 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 could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and havedrowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he wasgone 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 willnot stroke your face to be true to me," that is, swear by Mahomet andhis father's beard, "I must throw you into the sea too." The boy smiledin my face, and spoke so innocently, that I could not mistrust him; andswore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directlyto sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they mightthink me gone towards the
