by Daniel Defoe
life in their hands; for thatgratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man; nor did menalways square their dealings by the obligations they had received, somuch as they did by the advantages they expected: I told him, it wouldbe very hard, that I should be the instrument of their deliverance, andthat they should afterwards make me their prisoner in New Spain, wherean Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity, orwhat accident soever, brought him thither; and that I had rather bedelivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into themerciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. Iadded, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all here, we might,with so many hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all awayeither to the Brasils southward, or to the islands or Spanish coastnorthward: but that if in requital they should, when I had put weaponsinto their hands, carry me by force among their own people, I might beill used for my kindness to them, and make my case worse than itwas before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuity, that theircondition was so miserable, and they were so sensible of it, that hebelieved they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly thatshould contribute to their deliverance; and that, if I pleased, he wouldgo to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it, andreturn again, and bring me their answer: that he would make conditionswith them upon their solemn oath, that they would be absolutely under myleading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear uponthe holy Sacraments and Gospel, to be true to me, and go to suchChristian country as I should agree to, and no other; and to be directedwholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed safely insuch country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract fromthem under their hands for that purpose.
Then he told me, he would first swear to me himself, that he would neverstir from me as long as he lived, till I gave him order; and that hewould take my side to the last drop of blood, if there should happen theleast breach of faith among his countrymen.
He told me, they were all of them very civil honest men, and they wereunder the greatest distress imaginable, having neither weapons orclothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of the savages;out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country: and that he wassure, if I would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, ifpossible, and to send the old savage and the Spaniard over to them totreat: but when he had gotten all things in readiness to go, theSpaniard himself started an objection, which had so much prudence in iton one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could notbut be very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off thedeliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. The case was thus:
He had been with us now about a month; during which time I had let himsee in what manner I had provided, with the assistance of Providence,for my support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I hadlaid up; which, as it was more, than sufficient for myself, so it wasnot sufficient, at least without good husbandry, for my family, now itwas increased to number four: but much less would it be sufficient, ifhis countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen still alive, should comeover; and least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, ifwe should build one, for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies ofAmerica. So he told me, he thought it would be more adviseable, to lethim and the other two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as Icould spare seed to sow; and that we should wait another harvest, thatwe might have a supply of corn for his countrymen when they should come;for want might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to thinkthemselves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another:"You know," says he, "The children of Israel, though they rejoiced atfirst at their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even againstGod himself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in thewilderness."
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could notbut be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfiedwith his fidelity. So we fell to digging, all four of us, as well as thewooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month'stime, by the end of which it was seed time, we had gotten as much landcured and trimmed up as we sowed twenty-two bushels of barley on, andsixteen jars of rice, which was, in short, all the seed we had to spare;nor indeed did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own food forthe six months that we had to expect our crop, that is to say, reckoningfrom the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not to besupposed it is six months in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put us outof fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had beenvery great, we went freely all over the island, wherever we foundoccasion; and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon ourthoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of itout of mine; to this purpose, I marked out several trees, which Ithought fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cuttingthem down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted mythoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work: I showed themwith what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into singleplanks, and I caused them to do the like, till they had about a dozenlarge planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet long,and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labour it tookup, any one may imagine.
At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goatsas much as I could; and to this purpose I made Friday and the Spaniardto go out one day, and myself with Friday, the next day, for we took ourturns: and by this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up withthe rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and addedthem to our flock: but above all, the season for curing the grapescoming on, I caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun,that I believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the sun arecured, we should have filled sixty or eighty barrels; and these, withour bread, was a great part of our food, and very good living too, Iassure you; for it is an exceeding nourishing food.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order; it was not the mostplentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it was enoughto answer our end; for from twenty two bushels of barley, we brought inand threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like inproportion of the rice, which was store enough for our food to the nextharvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; or,if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully havevictualled our ship, to have carried us to any part of the world, thatis to say, of America. When we had thus housed and secured our magazineof corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-work; viz., great baskets,in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy and dexterous atthis part, and often blamed me, that I did not make some things fordefence of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it. And now having afull supply of food for all the guests expected, I gave the Spaniardleave to go over to the main, to see what he could do with those he leftbehind him there: I gave him a strict charge in writing not to bring anyman with him, who would not first swear, in the presence of himself andof the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or attackthe person he should find in the island, who was so kind to send forthem in order to their deliverance; but that they would stand by anddefend him against all such attempts; and wherever they went, would beentirely under, and subjected to his command; and that this should beput in writing, and signed with their hands: how we were to have thisdone, when I knew they had neither pen or ink, that indeed was aquestion which we never asked.
Under these instructions, the Spaniard, and the old savage, (the fatherof Friday) went away in one of the canoes, which they might be said tocome in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners to bedevoured by the savages.
I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and about eightcharges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands ofboth, and not t
o use either of them but upon urgent occasions.
This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me in view ofmy deliverance for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave themprovisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves formany days, and sufficient for their countrymen for about eight daystime; and wishing them a good voyage, I let them go, agreeing with themabout a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I shouldknow them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they cameon shore.
They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon was at thefull; by my account in the month of October; but as for the exactreckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover itagain; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually, as to besure that I was right, though, as it proved when I afterwards examinedmy account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I waited for them, when a
