The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe

they lived, now these three turbulent fellows were gone. As for

  their coming again, that was the remotest thing from their thoughts

  that could be imagined; when, behold, after two-and-twenty days'

  absence, one of the Englishmen being abroad upon his planting work,

  sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, with guns

  upon their shoulders.

  Away runs the Englishman, frightened and amazed, as if he was

  bewitched, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they were all

  undone, for there were strangers upon the island, but he could not

  tell who they were. The Spaniard, pausing a while, says to him,

  "How do you mean--you cannot tell who? They are the savages, to be

  sure." "No, no," says the Englishman, "they are men in clothes,

  with arms." "Nay, then," says the Spaniard, "why are you so

  concerned! If they are not savages they must be friends; for there

  is no Christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than

  harm." While they were debating thus, came up the three

  Englishmen, and standing without the wood, which was new planted,

  hallooed to them. They presently knew their voices, and so all the

  wonder ceased. But now the admiration was turned upon another

  question--What could be the matter, and what made them come back

  again?

  It was not long before they brought the men in, and inquiring where

  they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave them a full

  account of their voyage in a few words: that they reached the land

  in less than two days, but finding the people alarmed at their

  coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they

  durst not go on, shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven

  hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they perceived

  that the land they saw from our island was not the main, but an

  island: that upon entering that opening of the sea they saw

  another island on the right hand north, and several more west; and

  being resolved to land somewhere, they put over to one of the

  islands which lay west, and went boldly on shore; that they found

  the people very courteous and friendly to them; and they gave them

  several roots and some dried fish, and appeared very sociable; and

  that the women, as well as the men, were very forward to supply

  them with anything they could get for them to eat, and brought it

  to them a great way, on their heads. They continued here for four

  days, and inquired as well as they could of them by signs, what

  nations were this way, and that way, and were told of several

  fierce and terrible people that lived almost every way, who, as

  they made known by signs to them, used to eat men; but, as for

  themselves, they said they never ate men or women, except only such

  as they took in the wars; and then they owned they made a great

  feast, and ate their prisoners.

  The Englishmen inquired when they had had a feast of that kind; and

  they told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon and to two

  fingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now,

  which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to make

  them fat for the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty desirous

  of seeing those prisoners; but the others mistaking them, thought

  they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own

  eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the

  sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify that the next

  morning at sunrising they would bring some for them; and

  accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and

  eleven men, and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on

  their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to

  a seaport town to victual a ship.

  As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their

  stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do.

  To refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the

  savage gentry that could be offered them, and what to do with them

  they knew not. However, after some debate, they resolved to accept

  of them: and, in return, they gave the savages that brought them

  one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of

  their bullets; which, though they did not understand their use,

  they seemed particularly pleased with; and then tying the poor

  creatures' hands behind them, they dragged the prisoners into the

  boat for our men.

  The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them,

  or else they that gave them this noble present would certainly have

  expected that they should have gone to work with them, have killed

  two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the

  donors to dinner. But having taken their leave, with all the

  respect and thanks that could well pass between people, where on

  either side they understood not one word they could say, they put

  off with their boat, and came back towards the first island; where,

  when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty,

  there being too many of them for their occasion. In their voyage

  they endeavoured to have some communication with their prisoners;

  but it was impossible to make them understand anything. Nothing

  they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was

  looked upon as going to murder them. They first of all unbound

  them; but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the

  women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; for

  they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be

  killed. If they gave them thing to eat, it was the same thing;

  they then concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and

  so not be fat enough to kill. If they looked at one of them more

  particularly, the party presently concluded it was to see whether

  he or she was fattest, and fittest to kill first; nay, after they

  had brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly, and

  treat them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or

  supper for their new masters.

  When the three wanderers had give this unaccountable history or

  journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new

  family was; and being told that they had brought them on shore, and

  put them into one of their huts, and were come up to beg some

  victuals for them, they (the Spaniards) and the other two

  Englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all

  down to the place and see them; and did so, and Friday's father

  with them. When they came into the hut, there they sat, all bound;

  for when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands that

  they might not take the boat and make their escape; there, I say,

  they sat, all of them stark naked. First, there were three comely

  fellows, well shaped, with straight limbs, about thirty to thirty-

  five years of age; and five women, whereof two might be from thirty

  to forty, two more about four or five and twenty; and the fifth, a

  tall, comely maiden, about seventeen. The women were well-r />
  favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only

  tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would have

  passed for very handsome women, even in London, having pleasant

  countenances, and of a very modest behaviour; especially when they

  came afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though that dress was

  very indifferent, it must be confessed.

  The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards,

  who were, to give them a just character, men of the most calm,

  sedate tempers, and perfect good humour, that ever I met with:

  and, in particular, of the utmost modesty: I say, the sight was

  very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women, all

  together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human

  nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment

  to be dragged out and have their brains knocked out, and then to be

  eaten up like a calf that is killed for a dainty.

  The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday's

  father, to go in, and see first if he knew any of them, and then if

  he understood any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in,

  he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could

  any of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make,

  except one of the women. However, this was enough to answer the

  end, which was to satisfy them that the men into whose hands they

  were fallen were Christians; that they abhorred eating men or

  women; and that they might be sure they would not be killed. As

  soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and

  by such awkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe; for

  it seems they were of several nations. The woman who was their

  interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were

  willing to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought

  them away, to save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing;

  and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that,

  anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate

  they were willing to work.

  The governor, who found that the having women among them would

  presently be attended with some inconvenience, and might occasion

  some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they

  intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use them,

  whether as servants or as wives? One of the Englishmen answered,

  very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both; to which

  the governor said: "I am not going to restrain you from it--you

  are your own masters as to that; but this I think is but just, for

  avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I desire it of you

  for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of

  you take any of these women as a wife, he shall take but one; and

  that having taken one, none else shall touch her; for though we

  cannot marry any one of you, yet it is but reasonable that, while

  you stay here, the woman any of you takes shall be maintained by

  the man that takes her, and should be his wife--I mean," says he,

  "while he continues here, and that none else shall have anything to

  do with her." All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to

  it without any difficulty.

  Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take

  any of them? But every one of them answered "No." Some of them

  said they had wives in Spain, and the others did not like women

  that were not Christians; and all together declared that they would

  not touch one of them, which was an instance of such virtue as I

  have not met with in all my travels. On the other hand, the five

  Englishmen took them every one a wife, that is to say, a temporary

  wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the Spaniards

  and Friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had

  enlarged exceedingly within. The three servants which were taken

  in the last battle of the savages lived with them; and these

  carried on the main part of the colony, supplied all the rest with

  food, and assisted them in anything as they could, or as they found

  necessity required.

  But the wonder of the story was, how five such refractory, ill-

  matched fellows should agree about these women, and that some two

  of them should not choose the same woman, especially seeing two or

  three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the

  others; but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling

  among themselves, for they set the five women by themselves in one

  of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots

  among them who should choose first.

  Him that drew to choose first went away by himself to the hut where

  the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it

  was worth observing, that he that chose first took her that was

  reckoned the homeliest and oldest of the five, which made mirth

  enough amongst the rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but

  the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was

  application and business they were to expect assistance in, as much

  as in anything else; and she proved the best wife of all the

  parcel.

  When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, and fetched

  out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them

  again, and they firmly believed they were now going to be devoured.

  Accordingly, when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of

  them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her,

  and took their leave of her with such agonies and affection as

  would have grieved the hardest heart in the world: nor was it

  possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to

  be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, Friday's

  father, who immediately let them know that the five men, who were

  to fetch them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives.

  When they had done, and the fright the women were in was a little

  over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them:

  and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent

  for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded

  with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. The three

  wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones

  nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they

  continued separated as before; and thus my island was peopled in

  three places, and, as I might say, three towns were begun to be

  built.

  And here it is very well worth observing that, as it often happens

  in the world (what the wise ends in God's providence are, in such a

  disposition of things, I cannot say), the two honest fellows had

  the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce

  worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born

  to do themselves good nor any one else, had three clever, careful,

  and ingenious wives; not that the first two were bad wives as to

  their temper o
r humour, for all the five were most willing, quiet,

  passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives;

  but my meaning is, they were not alike capable, ingenious, or

  industrious, or alike cleanly and neat. Another observation I must

  make, to the honour of a diligent application on one hand, and to

  the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other,

  that when I came to the place, and viewed the several improvements,

  plantings, and management of the several little colonies, the two

  men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison.

  They had, indeed, both of them as much ground laid out for corn as

  they wanted, and the reason was, because, according to my rule,

  nature dictated that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than

  they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the

  planting, of the fences, and indeed, of everything else, was easy

  to be seen at first view.

  The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts,

  so that, when you came to the place, nothing was to be seen but a

  wood; and though they had twice had their plantation demolished,

  once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be

  shown in its place, yet they had restored all again, and everything

  was thriving and flourishing about them; they had grapes planted in

  order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves

  never seen anything of that kind; and by their good ordering their

  vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the others. They

  had also found themselves out a retreat in the thickest part of the

  woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found,

  yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where,

  when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives

  and children so as they could never be found; they having, by

  sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood which, as I said,

  grew so readily, made the grove impassable, except in some places,

  when they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went on

  by ways of their own leaving.

  As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were

  much civilised by their settlement compared to what they were

  before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same

  opportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind

  never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, they

  planted corn and made fences; but Solomon's words were never better

  verified than in them, "I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and

  it was all overgrown with thorns": for when the Spaniards came to

  view their crop they could not see it in some places for weeds, the

  hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in and

  eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed

  in, to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the

  stable-door after the steed was stolen. Whereas, when they looked

  on the colony of the other two, there was the very face of industry

  and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in

  all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the

  other hand, verified Solomon's words in another place, "that the

  diligent hand maketh rich"; for everything grew and thrived, and

  they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than

  the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet

  more pleasure and diversion too.

  It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly

  within doors; and having learned the English ways of dressing, and

  cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a

  cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands'

  victuals very nicely and well; whereas the others could not be

  brought to understand it; but then the husband, who, as I say, had

  been cook's mate, did it himself. But as for the husbands of the

  three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught

  fish and birds: in a word, anything but labour; and they fared

  accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably, and the