by Daniel Defoe
let him go on shore: "Well, go," said I; so theboy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam toshore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put themuzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, whichdispatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorryto lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was goodfor nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so hecomes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?"said I, "Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could not cut offhis head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was amonstrous great one.
I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one wayor other be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin ifI could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much thebetter workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it tookus up both the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, andspreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it intwo days time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten ortwelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abatevery much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged tofor fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river Gambia orSenegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd, where I wasin hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew notwhat course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish thereamong the Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailedeither to the coast of Guinea or Brasil, or to the East Indies, madethis Cape, or those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of myfortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship,or must perish.
When I had passed this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said,I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places,as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; wecould also perceive that they were quite black, and stark naked. I wasonce inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my bettercounsellor, and said to me, "No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearerthe shore that I might talk to them, and I found they run along theshore by me a good way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands,except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance,and that they would throw, them a great way with good aim; so I kept ata distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could; andparticularly made signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me tostop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered thetop of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, andin less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces ofdry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but weneither knew what the one nor the other was: however, we were willing toaccept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I was not forventuring on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but theytook a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid itdown, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board,and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends;but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, onepursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountainstowards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whetherthey were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we couldtell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear butin the night; and in the second place, we found the people terriblyfrighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart didnot fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures randirectly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any ofthe Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about as ifthey had come for their diversion. At last one of them began to comenearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for Ihad loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and had Xury load boththe others: as soon as he came fairly within my reach I fired, and shothim directly into the head; immediately he sunk down into the water, butrose instantly, and plunged up and down as if he was struggling forlife; and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; butbetween the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of thewater, he died just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures atthe noise and the fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to diefor fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror. But when they sawthe creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to themto come to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and beganto search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water,and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the Negroesto hale, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curiousleopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and the Negroes heldup their hands with admiration to think what it was I had killedhim with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise of thegun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from whencethey came, nor could I at that distance know what it was. I foundquickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, so I waswilling to have them take it as a favour from me, which, when I madesigns to them that they might take him, they were very thankful for.Immediately they fell to work with him, and though they had no knife,yet with a sharpened piece of wood they took off his skin as readily,and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. Theyoffered me some of the flesh, which I declined, making as if I wouldgive it them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave me veryfreely, and brought me a great deal more of their provision, which,though I did not understand, yet I accepted; then I made signs to themfor some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottomupward, to shew that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled.They called immediately to some of their friends, and there came twowomen, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as Isuppose, in the sun; this they set down for me, as before, and I sentXury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The women were asstark naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and,leaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward for about eleven days more,without offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run out agreat length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leaguesbefore me; and, the sea being very calm, I kept a large offing to makethis point: at length, doubling the point at about two leagues from theland, I saw plainly land on the other side to seaward; then I concluded,as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verd, and thosethe _islands_, called from thence Cape de Verd Islands. However, theywere at a great distance, and I could not well tell what I had best todo, for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind I might neither reachone nor the other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and satme down, Xury having the helm, when on a sudden the boy cried out,"Master, Master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was frightedout of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's shipssent to pursue us, when I knew we were gotten far enough out of theirreach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw not only the ship,but what she was, viz. that it was a Portuguese ship, and, as I thought,was bound to the coast of Guinea for Negroes. But when I observed thecourse she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some other way,and did not design to come any nearer to the shore; upon which Istretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with themif possible.
With all the sail I could muster, I found I should not be able tocome in their way, but that they would be gone by before I couldmake any signal to them; but after I had crowded to the utmost,and began
to despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of theirperspective-glasses, and that it was some European boat, which, as theysupposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sailto let me come up. I was encouraged with this; and as I had my patron'sancient on board, I made a waft of it to them for a signal of distress,and fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told me they saw thesmoke, though they did not hear the gun: upon these signals they verykindly brought to, and lay by for me, and in about three hours time Icame up with them.
They asked me what I was in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French;but I understood none of them; but at last a Scots sailor, who was onboard, called to me, and I answered him, and told him I was anEnglishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors atSallee. Then they had me come on board, and very kindly took me in, andall my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one would
