The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

world, than a covetous desire of getting in it? And indeed I thinkit is with great justice that I now call it a restless desire, for itwas so: when I was at home, I was restless to go abroad; and now I wasabroad, I was restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me? Iwas rich enough already; nor had I any uneasy desires about getting moremoney; and therefore, the profits of the voyage to me were things of nogreat force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther undertakings:hence I thought, that by this voyage I had made no progress at all;because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence Icame, as to a home; whereas my eye, which, like that which Solomonspeaks of, was never satisfied with seeing, was still more desirous ofwandering and seeing. I was come into a part of the world which I neverwas in before; and that part in particular which I had heard much of;and was resolved to see as much of it as I could; and then I thought Imight say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.

  But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not name thisto insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most just, and the mostsuited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is abroad uponadventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best thing forhim, which he is like to get the most money by. My new friend kepthimself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to havegone, like a carrier's horse, always to the same inn, backward andforward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: onthe other hand, mine, as old as I was, was the notion of a mad ramblingboy, that never cares to see a thing twice over.

  But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearerhome, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable, which way to go.In the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always uponthe search for business, proposed another voyage to me, viz. among theSpice Islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the Manillas, orthereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islandsbelong partly to the Spaniards; though we went not so far, but to someother, where they have not the whole power as they have at Batavia,Ceylon, &c. We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chiefdifficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at last, nothingelse offering, and finding that really stirring about and trading, theprofit being so great, and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure init, and more satisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, to meespecially, was the unhappiest part of life, I resolved on this voyagetoo: which we made very successfully, touching at Borneo, and severalislands, whose names I do not remember, and came home in about fivemonths. We sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs,to the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulf; and,making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.

  My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: "Well now," saidhe, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent temper, "is notthis better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, andspending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorace of thePagans?"--"Why truly," said I, "my friend, I think it is; and I begin tobe a convert to the principles of merchandising. But I must tell you,"said I, "by the way, you do not know what I am doing; for if once Iconquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, as old as I am, I shallharass you up and down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue itso eagerly, I shall never let you lie still."

  But to be short with my speculations: a little while after this therecame in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not an Europeantrader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men, as theypretended, having been so sickly, that the captain had not men enough togo to sea with, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if having got money enough,or being willing, for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave publicnotice, that he would sell his ship; this came to my ears before my newpartner heard of it; and I had a great mind to buy it. So I went home tohim, and told him of it: he considered awhile, for he was no rash manneither; but musing some time, he replied, "She is a little too big;but, however, we will have her." Accordingly we bought the ship; and,agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession; when wehad done so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join themwith those we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a sudden, theynot having received their wages, but their share of the money, as weafterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. We inquired muchabout them, and at length were told, that they were all gone together,by land, to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence; and fromthence were to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the Gulf of Persia.

  Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I missed theopportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought, and insuch company as would both have guarded me and diverted me, would havesuited mightily with my great design; and I should both have seen theworld, and gone homewards too; but I was much better satisfied a fewdays after, when I came to know what sort of fellows they were; for, inshort, their history was, that this man they called captain was thegunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, inwhich they were attacked on shore by some of the Malaccans, who hadkilled the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain waskilled, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with theship, which they did; and had brought her in at the Bay of Bengal,leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom we shallhear farther.

  Well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly by her,as we thought; though we did not, I confess, examine into things soexactly as we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the seamen, who,if we had examined, would certainly have faltered in their accounts,contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or,one how or other, we should have seen reason to have suspected them: butthe man shewed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one EmanuelClostershoven, or some such name, (for I suppose it was all a forgery)and called himself by that name; and we could not contradict him; andbeing withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of thething, we went through with our bargain.

  However, we picked up some English seamen here after this, and someDutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to the south-east, forcloves, &c. that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca isles; and,in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what isyet to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years inthis country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and withvery good success; and was now the last year with my partner, going inthe ship above-mentioned, on a voyage to China; but designing first togo to Siam, to buy rice.

  In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down agreat while in the Straits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were nosooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship hadsprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find outwhere it was. This forced us to make for some port; and my partner, whoknew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put into theriver of Cambodia; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompson,captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself.This river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goesup to Siam.

  While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, therecomes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a gunner's mateon board an English East India ship, which rode in the same river, up ator near the city of Cambodia: what brought him hither we knew not; buthe comes up to me, and, speaking English, "Sir," says he, "you are astranger to me, and I to you; but I have something to tell you, thatvery nearly concerns you."

  I looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first I hadknown him, but I did not. "If it very nearly concerns me," said I, "andnot yourself, what moves you to tell it me?"--"I am moved," says he, "bythe imminent danger you are in; and, for aught I see, you have noknowledge of it."--"I know no danger I am in," said I, "but that my shipis leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I propose to lay her agroundto-morrow, to see if I can find it."--"But, Sir," says he, "leaky or notleak
y, find it or not find it, you will be wiser than to lay your shipon shore to-morrow, when you hear what I have to say to you. Do youknow, Sir," said he, "the town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues upthis river? And there are two large English ships about five leagues onthis side, and three Dutch."--"Well," said I, "and what is that tome?"--"Why, Sir," says he, "is it for a man that is upon such adventuresas you are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships thereare there, and whether he is able to deal with them? I suppose you donot think you are a match for them?" I was amused very much at hisdiscourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not conceive what he meant;and I turned short upon him, and said, "Sir, I wish you would explainyourself; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of