The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

began to consult with the two seamen, andinquire first, what the meaning of all this should be? The Dutchman letus into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the fellow that soldus the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief that had run away withher. Then he told us how the captain, whose name too he mentioned,though I do not remember it now, was treacherously murdered by thenatives on the coast of Malacca, with three of his men; and that he,this Dutchman, and four more, got into the woods, where they wanderedabout a great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculousmanner, made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailingnear the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat on shore forfresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the shore where theboat was, but made shift in the night to take in the water farther off,and swimming a great while, at last the ship's boat took him up.

  He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamenbelonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in theirtravels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had run away with theship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, which were gone a-cruisingin her; and that they had already taken an English ship, and two Dutchships, very richly laden.

  This latter part we found to concern us directly; and though we knew itto be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we had fallen intotheir hands, and they had such a prepossession against us beforehand, ithad been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for anygood quarters at their hands; especially considering that our accusershad been our judges, and that we could have expected nothing from thembut what rage would have dictated, and ungoverned passion have executed;and therefore it was his opinion, we should go directly back to Bengal,from whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever; becausethere we could give an account of ourselves, and could prove where wewere when the ship put in, whom we bought her of, and the like; and,which was more than all the rest, if we were put to the necessity ofbringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have somejustice; and not be hanged first, and judged afterwards.

  I was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more seriousthinking, I told him, I thought it was a very great hazard for us toattempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the wrong side of theStraits of Malacca; and that if the alarm was given, we should be sureto be waylaid on every side, as well by the Dutch of Batavia, as theEnglish elsewhere; that if we should be taken, as it were, running away,we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no more evidenceto destroy us. I also asked the English sailor's opinion, who said, hewas of my mind, and that we should certainly be taken.

  This danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's company;and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and soon to China; and from thence pursuing the first design, as to trade,find some way or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some ofthe vessels of the country, such as we could get. This was approved ofas the best method for our security; and accordingly we steered awayN.N.E. keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course tothe eastward.

  This, however, put us to some inconvenience; for first the winds when wecame to that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily againstus, blowing almost trade as we call it, from the E. and E.N.E.; so thatwe were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided withvictuals for so long a run; and, which was still worse, there was somedanger that those English and Dutch ships, whose boats pursued us,whereof some were bound that way, might be got in before us; and if not,some other ship bound to China might have information of us from them,and pursue us with the same vigour.

  I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including thelast escape from the long boats, to have been in the most dangerouscondition that ever I was in through all my past life; for whatever illcircumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a thief before; norhad I ever done any thing that merited the name of dishonest orfraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been mine own enemy; or,as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy but my own. But now Iwas embarrassed in the worst condition imaginable; for though I wasperfectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence appear:and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt of the worstkind; at least a crime esteemed so among the people I had to do with.

  This made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it Iknew not; or what port or place we should go to. My partner, seeing methus dejected, though he was the most concerned at first, began toencourage me; and describing to me the several ports of the coast, toldme, he would put in on the coast of Cochinchina, or the bay of Tonquin;intending to go afterwards to Macao, a town once in the possession orthe Portuguese, and where still a great many European families resided,and particularly the missionary priests usually went thither, in orderto their going forward to China.

  Hither we then resolved to go; and accordingly, though after a tediousand irregular course, and very much straitened for provisions, we camewithin sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon reflectionupon the past circumstances we were in, and the danger, if we had notescaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, haddepth enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland orby the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any portthereabouts. This happy step was, indeed, our deliverance; for though wedid not immediately see any European ships in the bay of Tonquin, yetthe next morning there came into the bay two Dutch ships; and a thirdwithout any colours; spread out, but which we believed to be a Dutchman,passed by at about two leagues distance, steering for the coast ofChina; and in the afternoon went by two English ships, steering the samecourse; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies, bothone way and the other. The place we were in was wild and barbarous, thepeople thieves, even by occupation or profession; and though, it istrue, we had not much to seek of them, and except getting a fewprovisions, cared not how little we had to do with them; yet it was withmuch difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by themseveral ways.

  We were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of itsutmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-east to thepoint of land which opens to the great bay of Tonquin: and it was inthis beating up along the shore that we discovered as above, that, in aword, we were surrounded with enemies. The people we were among were themost barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; having nocorrespondence with any other nation, and dealing only in fish and oil,and such gross commodities; and it may be particularly seen that theyare, as I said, the most barbarous of any of the inhabitants, viz. thatamong other customs they have this one, that if any vessel had themisfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they presently make themen all prisoners; that is to say, slaves; and it was not long before wefound a spice of their kindness this way, on the occasion following:

  I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that wecould not find it out: and however it happened, that, as I have said, itwas stopped unexpectedly, in the happy minute of our being to be seizedby the Dutch and English ships, near the bay of Siam; yet, as we did notfind the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved,while we were in this place, to lay her on shore, take out what heavythings we had on board, which were not many, and to wash and clean herbottom, and if possible to find out where the leaks were.

  Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns, andother moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her down, that wemight come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, we did not care tolay her dry aground, neither could we find out a proper place for it.

  The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a sight, camewondering down to the shore to look at us; and seeing the ship lie downon one side in such a manner, and heeling towards the shore, and notseeing our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages, and withtheir boats, on the off side, they presently concluded that the ship wascast away, and lay so very f
ast on the ground.

  On this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours time,with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten menin a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plunder theship; and if they had found us there, to have carried us away forslaves to their king, or whatever they call him, for we knew not who wastheir governor.

  When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, theydiscovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship's bottom andside, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring manknows how.

  They stood for awhile gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised,could not imagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure,we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others tohand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work to defendthemselves with, if there should be occasion; and it was no more thanneed; for in less than a quarter of an hour's