by Daniel Defoe
friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to consider my
years, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazards of a long
voyage; and above all, my young children. But it was all to no
purpose, I had an irresistible desire for the voyage; and I told
her I thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions I
had upon my mind, that it would be a kind of resisting Providence
if I should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased her
expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provision
for my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs for my
absence, and providing for the education of my children. In order
to do this, I made my will, and settled the estate I had in such a
manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I was
perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them,
whatever might befall me; and for their education, I left it wholly
to the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her
care: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have
taken more care in their education, or understood it better; and as
she lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.
My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5;
and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th;
having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a very
considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony,
which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.
First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed to place
there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my
account while I stayed, and either to leave them there or carry
them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, I
carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious
fellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a general mechanic;
for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills to grind corn,
was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made anything that
was proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word, we called him
our Jack-of-all-trades. With these I carried a tailor, who had
offered himself to go a passenger to the East Indies with my
nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and
who proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired in
many other businesses besides that of his trade; for, as I observed
formerly, necessity arms us for all employments.
My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept account
of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen,
and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that I
expected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculation
might comfortably supply them for seven years; if I remember right,
the materials I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats,
shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for
wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds,
bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with
pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds more
in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges,
and every necessary thing I could think of.
I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besides
some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three
or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, because
I knew not what time and what extremities I was providing for, I
carried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and
the iron part of some pikes and halberds. In short, we had a large
magazine of all sorts of store; and I made my nephew carry two
small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leave
behind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we might
build a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies. Indeed, I at
first thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, if
we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen
in the course of that story.
I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet
with, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the
reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with
my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weather
happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer
than I expected it at first; and I, who had never made but one
voyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to come
back again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to think the
same ill fate attended me, and that I was born to be never
contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at
sea. Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were
obliged to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind-bound
two-and-twenty days; but we had this satisfaction with the
disaster, that provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the
utmost plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched the
ship's stores, but rather added to them. Here, also, I took in
several live hogs, and two cows with their calves, which I
resolved, if I had a good passage, to put on shore in my island;
but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them.
We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fair
gale of wind for some days. As I remember, it might be about the
20th of February in the evening late, when the mate, having the
watch, came into the round-house and told us he saw a flash of
fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, a
boy came in and told us the boatswain heard another. This made us
all run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard
nothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found
that there was some very terrible fire at a distance; immediately
we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed that
there could be no land that way in which the fire showed itself,
no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW. Upon
this, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, by
our hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that it
could not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and were
presently satisfied we should discover it, because the further we
sailed, the greater the light appeared; though, the weather being
hazy, we could not perceive anything but the light for a while. In
about half-an-hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, though
not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we could
plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of
the sea.
I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all
acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recollected
my former circumstances, and what condition I was in when taken up
by the Portuguese captain; and how much more deplorable the
circumstances of the poor creatures belonging to that ship must be,
if they had no other ship in company with them. Upon this I
immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon after
another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that there
was help for them at hand and that they might endeavour to save
themselves in their boat; for though we could see the flames of the
ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us.
We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship
drove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our great
terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the
air; and in a few minutes all the fire was out, that is to say, the
rest of the ship sunk. This was a terrible, and indeed an
afflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded,
must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost
distress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean; which, at
present, as it was dark, I could not see. However, to direct them
as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all parts of
the ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept
firing guns all the night long, letting them know by this that
there was a ship not far off.
About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats
by the help of our perspective glasses, and found there were two of
them, both thronged with people, and deep in the water. We
perceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they saw
our ship, and did their utmost to make us see them. We immediately
spread our ancient, to let them know we saw them, and hung a waft
out, as a signal for them to come on board, and then made more
sail, standing directly to them. In little more than half-an-hour
we came up with them; and took them all in, being no less than
sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great many
passengers.
Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship of three-
hundred tons, home-bound from Quebec. The master gave us a long
account of the distress of his ship; how the fire began in the
steerage by the negligence of the steersman, which, on his crying
out for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out; but they
soon found that some sparks of the first fire had got into some
part of the ship so difficult to come at that they could not
effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between the
timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the
hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they were
able to exert.
They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to
their great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and
a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great
service to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisions
into her, after they had secured their lives from the fire. They
had, indeed, small hopes of their lives by getting into these boats
at that distance from any land; only, as they said, that they thus
escaped from the fire, and there was a possibility that some ship
might happen to be at sea, and might take them in. They had sails,
oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and water as, with
sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might support them
about twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and no
contrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banks
of Newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain them
till they might go on shore. But there were so many chances
against them in all these cases, such as storms, to overset and
founder them; rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs;
contrary winds, to keep them out and starve them; that it must have
been next to miraculous if they had escaped.
In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless and
ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me they
were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and
after that four more: these were the five guns which I caused to
be fired at first seeing the light. This revived their hearts, and
gave them the notice, which, as above, I desired it should, that
there was a ship at hand for their help. It was upon the hearing
of these guns that they took down their masts and sails: the sound
coming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning.
Some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired three
muskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, the
wind being contrary, we never heard. Some time after that again
they were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights,
and hearing the guns, which, as I have said, I caused to be fired
all the rest of the night. This set them to work with their oars,
to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might the sooner come
up with them; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found
we saw them.
It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the
strange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poor
delivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at so
unexpected a deliverance. Grief and fear are easily described:
sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands,
make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise of
joy, has a thousand extravagances in it. There were some in tears;
some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the
greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downright
lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others
wringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, some
laughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word;
others sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; and
a few were crossing themselves and giving God thanks.
I would not wrong them either; there might be many that were
thankful afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them at
first, and they were not able to master it: then were thrown into
ecstasies, and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few that
were composed and serious in their joy. Perhaps also, the case may
have some addition to it from the particular circumstance of that
nation they belonged to: I mean the French, whose temper is
allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly,
and their spirits more fluid than in other nations. I am not
philosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had ever
seen before came up to it. The ecstasies poor Friday, my trusty
savage, was in when he found his father in the boat came the
nearest to it; and the surprise of the master and his two
companions, whom I delivered from the villains that set them on
shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was
to compare to this, either that I saw in Friday, or anywhere else
in my life.
It is further observable, that these extravagances did not show
themselves in that different ma
nner I have mentioned, in different
persons only; but all the variety would appear, in a short
succession of moments, in one and the same person. A man that we
saw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, would
the next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic; and the
next moment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces,
and stamping them under his feet like a madman; in a few moments
after that we would have him all in tears, then sick, swooning,
and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few moments
have been dead. Thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or
twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if I remember
right, our surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirty
persons.
There were two priests among them: one an old man, and the other a
young man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was the
worst. As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw
himself safe, he dropped down stone dead to all appearance. Not
the least sign of life could be perceived in him; our surgeon
immediately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was the
only man in the ship that believed he was not dead. At length he
opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part,
so as to warm it as much as possible. Upon this the blood, which
only dropped at first, flowing freely, in three minutes after the
man opened his eyes; a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew
better, and after the blood was stopped, he walked about, told us
he was perfectly well, and took a dram of cordial which the surgeon
gave him. About a quarter of an hour after this they came running
into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a Frenchwoman that
had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seems
he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his
mind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy. His spirits
whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them, the blood
grew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any
creature that ever was in it. The surgeon would not bleed him
again in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him
to sleep; which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awoke
next morning perfectly composed and well. The younger priest
behaved with great command of his passions, and was really an
example of a serious, well-governed mind. At his first coming on
board the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating
himself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappily
and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a
swoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving God
thanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments,
and that, next to his Maker, he would give me thanks also. I was
heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, but
kept others from interrupting him also. He continued in that
posture about three minutes, or little more, after I left him, then
came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of
seriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me,
that had, under God, given him and so many miserable creatures
their lives. I told him I had no need to tell him to thank God for
it, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already;
but I added that it was nothing but what reason and humanity
dictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to give
thanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us the
instruments of His mercy to so many of His creatures. After this
the young priest applied himself to his countrymen, and laboured to
compose them: he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them,
and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their
reason; and with some he had success, though others were for a time
out of all government of themselves.
I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be
useful to those into whose hands it may fall, for guiding
