by Daniel Defoe
sea. He was no sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father likean arrow out of a bow. It would have made any man shed tears in spite ofthe firmest resolution to have seen the first transports of this poorfellow's joy, when he came to his father; how he embraced him, kissedhim, stroked his face, took him in his arms, set him down upon a tree,and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him as any one would lookat a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay downupon the ground, and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and then got upagain, and stared at him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched:but it would have made a dog laugh to see how the next day his passionrun out another way: in the morning he walked along the shore to andagain, with his father, several hours, always leading him by the hand asif he had been a lady and every now and then would come to fetchsomething or other for him from the boat, either a lump of sugar, or adram, a biscuit, or something or other that was good. In the afternoonhis frolics ran another way; for then he would set the old man down uponthe ground, and dance about him, and made a thousand antic postures andgestures; and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, andtelling him one story or another of his travels, and of what hadhappened to him abroad, to divert him. In short, if the same filialaffection was to be found in Christians to their parents in our parts ofthe world, one would be tempted to say there hardly would have been anyneed of the fifth commandment.
But this is a digression; I return to my landing. It would be endless totake notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the Spaniardsreceived me with. The first Spaniard whom, as I said, I knew very well,was he whose life I saved; he came towards the boat attended by onemore, carrying a flag of truce also; and he did not only not know me atfirst, but he had no thoughts, no notion, of its being me that was cometil I spoke to him. "Seignior," said I, in Portuguese, "do you not knowme?" At which he spoke not a word; but giving his musket to the manthat was with him, threw his arms abroad, and saying something inSpanish that I did not perfectly hear, came forward, and embraced me,telling me, he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he hadonce seen, as of an angel from Heaven sent to save his life: he saidabundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knowshow: and then beckoning to the person that attended him, bade him go andcall out his comrades. He then asked me if I would walk to my oldhabitation, where he would give me possession of my own house again, andwhere I should see there, had been but mean improvements; so I walkedalong with him; but alas! I could no more find the place again than if Ihad never been there; for they had planted so many trees, and placedthem in such a posture, so thick and close to one another, in ten yearstime they were grown so big, that, in short, the place wasinaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways as they themselvesonly who made them could find.
I asked them, what put them upon all these fortifications? He told me, Iwould say there was need enough of it, when they had given an accounthow they had passed their time since their arriving in the island,especially after they had the misfortune to find that I was gone: hetold me he could not but have some satisfaction in my good fortune, whenhe heard that I was gone in a good ship, and to my satisfaction; andthat he had oftentimes a strong persuasion that one time or other heshould see me again: but nothing that ever befel him in his life, hesaid, was so surprising and afflicting to him at first, as thedisappointment he was under when he came back to the island, and found Iwas not there.
As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left behind,and of whom he said he had a long story to tell me; the Spaniards allthought themselves much better among the savages, only that their numberwas so small. "And," says he, "had they been strong enough, we had beenall long ago in purgatory and with that he crossed himself upon thebreast. But, Sir," says he, "I hope you will not be displeased, when Ishall tell you how, forced by necessity, we were obliged, for our ownpreservation, to disarm them, and making them our subjects, who wouldnot be content with being moderately our masters, but would be ourmurderers." I answered, I was heartily afraid of it when I left themthere; and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island, but thatthey were not come back, that I might have put them in possession ofevery thing first, and left the other in a state of subjection, as theydeserved; but if they had reduced them to it, I was very glad, andshould be very far from finding any fault with it; for I knew they werea parcel of refractory, ungovernable villains, and were fit for anymanner of mischief.
While I was saying this came the man whom he had sent back, and withhim eleven men more: in the dress they were in, it was impossible toguess what nation they were of; but he made all clear both to them andto me. First he turned to me, and pointing to them, said, "These, Sir,are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to you;" and then turningto them, and pointing to me, he let them know who I was; upon which theyall came up one by one, not as if they had been sailors, and ordinaryfellows, and I the like, but really as if they had been ambassadors ornoblemen, and I a monarch or a great conqueror: their behaviour was tothe last degree obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manlymajestic gravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they hadso much more manners than I, that I scarce knew how to receive theircivilities, much less how to return them in kind.
The history of their coming to, and conduct in the island after my goingaway, is so remarkable, and has so many incidents, which the former partof my relation will help to understand, and which will, in most of theparticulars, refer to that account I have already given, that I cannotbut commit them with great delight to the reading of those thatcome after me.
I shall no longer trouble the story with a relation in the first person,which will put me to the expense of ten thousand Said I's, and Saidhe's, and He told me's, and I told him's, and the like; but I shallcollect the facts historically as near as I can gather them out of mymemory from what they related to me, and from what I met with in myconversing with them, and with the place.
In order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as I can, I must goback to the circumstance in which I left the island, and which thepersons were in of whom I am to speak. At first it is necessary torepeat, that I had sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard, the twowhose lives I had rescued from the savages; I say, I had sent them awayin a large canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to fetch over theSpaniard's companions whom he had left behind him, in order to save themfrom the like calamity that he had been in, and in order to succour themfor the present, and that, if possible, we might together find some wayfor our deliverance afterward.
When I sent them away, I had no visible appearance of, or the least roomto hope for, my own deliverance, any more than I had twenty yearsbefore; much less had I any foreknowledge of what after happened, I meanof an English ship coming on shore there to fetch them off; and it couldnot but be a very great surprise to them when they came back, not onlyto find that I was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot,possessed of all that I had left behind me, which would otherwise havebeen their own.
The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might beginwhere I left off, was of their own part; and I desired he would give mea particular account of his voyage back to his countrymen with the boat,when I sent him to fetch them over. He told me there was little varietyin that part; for nothing remarkable happened to them on the way, theyhaving very calm weather and a smooth sea; for his countrymen it couldnot be doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (itseems he was the principal man among them, the captain of the vesselthey had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time:) they were, hesaid, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he wasfallen into the hands of savages, who, they were satisfied, would devourhim, as they did all the rest of their prisoners; that when he told themthe story of the deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished forcarrying them away, it was like a dream to them; and their astonishment,they said, was something like that of Joseph's brethren, when he toldthem who he was, and told them the story of his exalt
ation in Pharaoh'scourt; but when he shewed them the arms, the powder, the ball, and theprovisions that he brought them for their journey or voyage, they wererestored to themselves, took a just share of the joy of theirdeliverance, and immediately prepared to come away with him.
Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were obligednot to stick so much upon the honest part of it, but to trespass upontheir friendly savages, and to borrow two large canoes or periaguas, onpretence of going out a-fishing, or for pleasure.
In these they came away the next morning; it seems they wanted no timeto get themselves ready, for they had no baggage, neither clothes, orprovisions, or any thing in the world, but what they had on them, and afew roots to eat, of which they used to make their bread.
They were in all three weeks absent, and in that time, unluckily forthem, I had the occasion offered
