The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

any of theCompany's ships, or Dutch ships; I am no interloper; what can they haveto say to me?"

  He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing awhile, butsmiling, "Well, Sir," says he, "if you think yourself secure, you musttake your chance; I am sorry your fate should blind you against goodadvice; but assure yourself if you do not put to sea immediately, youwill the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men; and,perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and theparticulars be examined into afterwards. I thought, Sir," added he, "Ishould have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a pieceof service of such importance."--"I can never be ungrateful," said I,"for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it ispast my comprehension," said I, "what they should have such a designupon me for; however, since you say there is no time to be lost, andthat there is some villanous design in hand against me, I will go onboard this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop theleak, or if we can swim without stopping it: but, Sir," said I, "shall Igo away ignorant of the reason of all this? Can you give me no fartherlight into it?"

  "I can tell you but part of the story, Sir," says he; "but I have aDutch seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade him to tellyou the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the short of thestory is this, the first part of which, I suppose, you know well enough,viz. that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captainwas murdered by the Malaccans, with three of his men; and that you, orsome of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, andare since turned pirates. This is the sum of the story, and you will allbe seized as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very littleceremony; for you know merchant-ships shew but little law to pirates, ifthey get them in their power."

  "Now you speak plain English," said I, "and I thank you; and though Iknow nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but I am sure wecame honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such work is a-doing,as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be upon myguard."--"Nay, Sir," says he, "do not talk of being upon your guard; thebest defence is to be out of the danger: if you have any regard to yourlife, and the lives of all your men, put out to sea without fail athigh-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gonetoo far out before they can come down; for they will come away at highwater; and as they have twenty miles to come, you'll get near two hoursof them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of theway: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will notventure to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows."

  "Well," said I, "you have been very kind in this: what shall I do foryou to make you amends?"--"Sir," says he, "you may not be so willing tomake me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it: Iwill make an offer to you; I have nineteen months pay due to me on boardthe ship ----, which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that iswith me, has seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our payto us, we will go along with you: if you find nothing more in it, wewill desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have saved yourlife, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leavethe rest to you."

  I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the twomen with me. As soon as I came to the ship's side, my partner, who wason board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a great dealof joy, "O ho! O ho! we have stopped the leak!"--"Say you so?" said I;"thank God; but weigh the anchor then immediately."--"Weigh!" says he;"what do you mean by that? What is the matter?" says he. "Ask noquestions," said I, "but all hands to work, and weigh without losing aminute." He was surprised: but, however, he called the captain, and heimmediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was notquite done, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; thenI called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and wecalled in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us upa great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabindoor, and calls out to us, that the captain made him tell us, we werechased. "Chased!" said I; "by whom, and by what?"--"By five sloops, orboats," said the fellow, "full of men."--"Very well," said I; "then itis apparent there is something in it." In the next place, I ordered allour men to be called up; and told them, that there was a design to seizethe ship, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they wouldstand by us, and by one another? The men answered, cheerfully, one andall, that they would live and die with us. Then I asked the captain,what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resistthem I resolved we would, and that to the last drop. He said, readily,that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as wecould, and then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them fromboarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we shouldretire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to breakopen our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.

  The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear foreand aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them withmusket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand;and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to sea,with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being fivelarge long-boats following us, with all the sail they could make.

  Two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were English,had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a head of them, and gainedupon us considerably; so that we found they would come up with us: uponwhich we fired a gun without a shot, to intimate that they should bringto; and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but theykept crowding after us, till they came within shot: upon this we took inour white flag, they having made no answer to it; hung out the red flag,and fired at them with shot; notwithstanding this, they came on tillthey were near enough to call to them with a speaking, trumpet, which wehad on board; so we called to them, and bade them keep off attheir peril.

  It was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come underour stern, so to board us on our quarter: upon which, seeing they wereresolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that followedthem, I ordered to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon ourbroadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them; one of them hadbeen levelled so true, as to carry away the stern of the hindermostboat, and bring them to the necessity of taking down their sail, andrunning all to the head of the boat to keep her from sinking; so she layby, and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost boat still crowd onafter us, we made ready to fire at her in particular.

  While this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind, beingforwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which we had disabled,to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her take out the men: wecalled again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce to parley again,and to know what was her business with us; but had no answer: only shecrowded close under our stern. Upon this our gunner, who was a verydexterous fellow, run out his two chase-guns, and fired at her; but theshot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and cameon; but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them asecond time; one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yetfell in among the men, and we could easily see had done a great deal ofmischief among them; but we, taking no notice of that, weared the shipagain, and brought our quarter to bear upon them; and, firing three gunsmore, we found the boat was split almost to pieces; in particular, herrudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot quite away; so they handedtheir sail immediately, and were in great disorder; but, to completetheir misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where hehit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and someof the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned out ourpinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders to pick upsome of the men, if they could, and save them from drowning, andimmediately to come on board with them; because we saw the rest of theboats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed their orders,and took up three men
; one of which was just drowning, and it was a goodwhile before we could recover him. As soon as they were on board, wecrowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and wefound, that when the other three boats came up to the first two, theygave over their chase.

  Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not the reasonof it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I took carethat we should change our course, and not let any one imagine whither wewere going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course ofall European ships, whether they were bound to China, or any where elsewithin the commerce of the European nations.

  When we were now at sea, we