The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

hallooed tillthey were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from theshore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree, toconsider of it: had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as theother party of them had done, they had done the job for us; but theywere too full of apprehensions of danger, to venture to go to sleep,though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear 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 the proposal, provided it was done while we heard, when they werepresently stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they could notget over, and called for the boat to come up, and set them over, asindeed I expected.

  When they had set themselves over, I observed, that the boat being goneup a good way into the creek, and as it were, in a harbour within theland, they took one of the three men out of her to go along with them,and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of alittle tree on the shore.

  This was what I wished for, and immediately leaving Friday and thecaptain's mate to their business, I took the rest with me, and crossingthe creek out of their sight, we surprized the two men before they wereaware; one of them lying on shore, and the other being in the boat; thefellow on shore, was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up,the captain who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down, andthen called out to him in the boat, to yield, or he was a dead man.

  There needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, whenhe saw five men upon him, and his comrade knocked down; besides, thiswas it seems one of the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny asthe rest of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded, not only toyield, but afterwards to join very sincere with us.

  In the mean time, Friday and the captain's mate so well managed theirbusiness with the rest, that they drew them by hollooing and answering,from one hill to another, and from one wood to another, till they notonly heartily tired them but left them, where they were very sure theycould not reach back to the boat, before it was dark; and indeed theywere heartily tired themselves also by the time they came back to us.

  We had nothing now to do, but to watch for them, in the dark, and tofall upon them, so as to make sure work with them.

  It was several hours after Friday came back to me before they came backto their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before theycame quite up, calling to those behind to come along; and could alsohear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and notbeing able to come any faster, which was very welcome news to us.

  At length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible to expresstheir confusion, when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, thetide ebbed out, and their two men gone: we could hear them call to oneanother in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they weregotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants init, and they should all be murdered; or else there were devils orspirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured.

  They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names agreat many times, but no answer: after some time, we could see them, bythe little light there was, run about wringing their hands, like men indespair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat torest themselves, then come ashore, and walk about again, and so the samething over again.

  My men would fain have had me given them leave to fall upon them at oncein the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so tospare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I wasunwilling to hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the other menwere very well armed: I resolved to wait to see if they did notseparate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscadenearer; and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands andfeet as close to the ground as they could, that they might not bediscovered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before theyoffered to fire.

  They had not been long in that posture, till the boatswain, who was theprincipal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shewn himself the mostdejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them withtwo more of the crew; the captain was so eager, at having the principalrogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to lethim come so near as to be sure of him; for they only heard his tonguebefore: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting upon their feet, let fly at them.

  The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in thebody, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or twoafter; and the third ran for it.

  At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army,which was now eight men; viz. myself generalissimo; Friday mylieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisonersof war, whom he had trusted with arms.

  We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could not see ournumber; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one ofus, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley, andso might perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell out just as wedesired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was,they would be very-willing to capitulate; so he calls out, as loud as hecould, to one of them, "Tom Smith, Tom Smith." Tom Smith answeredimmediately, "Who's that? Robinson?" For it seems he knew his voice. Theother answered, "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down yourarms, and yield, or you are all dead men this moment."

  "Who must we yield to? where are they?" says Smith again. "Here theyare," says he; "here is our captain and fifty men with him, have beenhunting you this two hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye iswounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, your areall lost."

  "Will they give us quarter then?" says Tom Smith, "and we willyield."--"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says Robinson. Sohe asked the captain, and the captain himself then calls out, "YouSmith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms immediately, andsubmit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins."

  Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give mequarter: what have I done? they have been all as bad us I," (which bythe way was not true, either; for it seems this Will Atkins was thefirst man that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, andused him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injuriouslanguage:) however, the captain told him he must lay down his arms atdiscretion, and trust to the governor's mercy, by which he meant me; forthey all called me governor.

  In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their lives; and Isent the man that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound themall; and then my great army of fifty men, which, particularly with thosethree, were all but eight, came up and seized upon them all, and upontheir boat, only that I kept myself and one more out of sight, forreasons of state.

  Our next work was to repair the boat, and to think of seizing the ship;and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, heexpostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, andat length, upon the farther wickedness of their design; and howcertainly it must bring them to misery and distress in the end, andperhaps to the gallows.

  They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives: as forthat, he told them they were none of his prisoners, but the commander'sof the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barrenuninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct them, that theisland was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman: that hemight hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them allquarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt withthere as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by thegovernor to advise to prepare for death; for that he would be hanged inthe morning.

  Though this was all a fiction
of his own, yet it had its desired effect.Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with thegovernor for his life; and all the rest begged of him for God's sake,that they might not be sent to England.

  It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was come, andthat it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to behearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark fromthem, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, andcalled the captain to me: when I called, as at a good distance, one ofthe men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain,the commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tellhis excellency I am just a-coming." This more perfectly amused them; andthey all believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men.

  Upon the captain's coming to me, I told him my project for seizing theship,