The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

Madeira wine, the bottles held two quartsapiece; two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of theship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about ahundred weight of biscuit.

  He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons,and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things: butbesides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, hebrought me six clean new shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair ofgloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a verygood suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little. Ina word, he clothed me from head to foot.

  It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, toone in my circumstances; but never was any thing in the world of thatkind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear suchclothes at their first putting on.

  After these ceremonies passed, and after all his things were broughtinto my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done withthe prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we mightventure to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom weknew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and thecaptain said, he knew they were such rogues, that there was no obligingthem; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, asmalefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colonyhe could come at; and I found that the captain himself was veryanxious about it.

  Upon this, I told him, that, if he desired it, I durst undertake tobring the two men he spoke of to make their own request that he shouldleave them upon the island; "I should be very glad of that," says thecaptain, "with all my heart."

  "Well," said I, "I will send for them, and talk with them for you:" so Icaused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, theircomrades having performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go tothe cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to thebower, and keep them there till I came.

  After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, and now I wascalled governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I causedthe men to be brought before me, and I told them, I had had a fullaccount of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they hadrun away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies;but that Providence, had ensnared them in their own ways, and that theywere fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.

  I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been seized, thatshe lay now in the road, and they might see by and by, that their newcaptain had received the reward of his villany; for that they might seehim hanging at the yard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what theyhad to say, why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact,as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do.

  One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing tosay but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them theirlives, and they humbly implored my mercy: but I told them I knew notwhat mercy to shew them; for, as for myself, I had resolved to quit theisland with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go forEngland: and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England,other than as prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny, and runningaway with the ship; the consequence of which they must needs know, wouldbe the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them, unlessthey had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired that,I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; I had some inclination togive them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. Theyseemed very thankful for it; said they would much rather venture to staythere, than to be carried to England to be hanged; so I left it onthat issue.

  However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if hedurst not leave them there: upon this I seemed to be a little angry withthe captain, and told him, that they were my prisoners, not his; andthat seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as myword; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would setthem at liberty as I found them; and if he did not like that, he mighttake them again if he could catch them.

  Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them atliberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence theycame, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and somedirections how they should live very well, if they thought fit.

  Upon this, I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain,that I would stay that night to prepare my things; and desired him to goon board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send theboat on shore the next day for me; ordering him in the meantime to causethe new captain who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that thesemen might see him.

  When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,and entered seriously into discourse with them of their circumstances: Itold them, I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captaincarried them away, they would certainly be hanged: I shewed them theircaptain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they hadnothing less to expect.

  When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them,I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them intothe way of making it easy to them: accordingly I gave them the wholehistory of the place, and of my coming to it: shewed them myfortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured mygrapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I toldthem the story of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expected; forwhom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common withthemselves.

  I left them my fire-arms; viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, andthree swords: I had about a barrel of powder left; for after the firstyear or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them adescription of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk andfatten them, to make both butter and cheese.

  In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and I told them, Iwould prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowdermore, and some garden-seed, which I told them I would have been veryglad of; also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had broughtme to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.

  Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board theship: we prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night: thenext morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship'sside, and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, beggedto be taken into the ship for God's sake, for they should be murdered;and begged the captain to take them on board though he hanged themimmediately.

  Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me; but aftersome difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they weretaken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled;after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.

  Some time after this, I went with the boat on shore, the tide being up,with the things promised to the men, to which the captain, at myintercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which theytook, and were very thankful for: I also encouraged them, by tellingthem, that if it lay in my way to send a vessel to take them in, I wouldnot forget them.

  When I took leave of this island, I carried on board for relics thegreat goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; alsoI forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain byme so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and couldhardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled;and also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.

  And thus I left the island the nineteenth of December, as I found by theship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon iteight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days: being deliveredfrom the second captivity the same day of the month that I first mademy escape in the barco-longo, from among the Moors of Sallee.

  In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the eleventhof June, in the year 1687; having been thirty and five years absent.


  When I came to England, I was a perfect stranger to all the world, as ifI had never been known there: my benefactor, and faithful steward, whomI had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had had greatmisfortunes in the world, was become a widow the second time, and verylow in the world: I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her Iwould give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude to herformer care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stockwould afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do but littlefor her: but I assured her, I would never forget her former kindness tome; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to help her; as shall beobserved in its place.

  I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and mymother and all the family extinct; except that I found two sisters, andtwo of the children of one of my brothers: and as I had been long agogiven over for dead, there had been no provision made for me, so that,in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me;