by Daniel Defoe
the price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose constitution
was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a
weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless she
might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her
mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something
longer than she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question,
as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not so
providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all
their lives. I now return to my disposition of things among the
people. And, first, it is to be observed here, that for many
reasons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop
I had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for I
found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among
them, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among
them, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, and
gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so
made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober
and religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the two
pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two
quarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.
I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war against
any that should invade them, but not to set them up for an
offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end,
would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved the
sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I
shall observe in its place.
Having now done with the island, I left them all in good
circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my
ship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-five days
among them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island
till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relief
from the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity. I
particularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep,
hogs, and cows: as to the two cows and calves which I brought from
England, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill
them at sea, for want of hay to feed them.
The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set
sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in about
twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but
this: that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed,
and the current setting strong to the ENE., running, as it were,
into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out
of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, "Land to the
eastward!" but whether it was the continent or islands we could not
tell by any means. But the third day, towards evening, the sea
smooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were covered
towards the land with something very black; not being able to
discover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going up
the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a
perspective, cried out it was an army. I could not imagine what he
meant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily. "Nay, sir,"
says he, "don't be angry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too: for I
believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle
along, for they are coming towards us apace."
I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the
captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the
island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could
not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times, we
should all be devoured. I must confess, considering we were
becalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked it
the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship
to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we must
engage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apace
towards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our
sails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but
fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten
them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man
them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did,
that the men in the boats might he ready with sheets and buckets to
put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix to the
outside of the ship.
In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came
up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians;
though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their
number, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred and
twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in
them, and some more, and the least six or seven. When they came
nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and
astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen
before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know
what to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us,
and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in
the boats not to let them come too near them. This very order
brought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it;
for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat,
that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which
they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat
about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of
our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. However, I called
to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal
boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of
fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the
savages, if they should shoot again.
About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of
us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though
we could not tell their design; and I easily found they were some
of my old friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used to
engage with. In a short time more they rowed a little farther out
to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed
down straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hear
us speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they
should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; but
being so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon
the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what
they meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not;
but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the
foremost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and
stooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a
defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mer
e
contempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately Friday cried
out they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow,
they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my
inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being in
their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than three
arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky
marksmen they were!
I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and
companion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with
small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as
they had never heard in their lives before. They were not above
half a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took their
aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we
had reason to believe, by one shot only. The ill manners of
turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neither
did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the
greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not;
therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or
five guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frighten
them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the
fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my
poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed,
so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before
God and man, but would have been very glad if I could have overset
every canoe there, and drowned every one of them.
I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at
this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen
among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their
canoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming:
the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as
they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were
split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of them were
lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life,
above an hour after they were all gone. The small shot from our
cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we
never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that in
three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four
straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a
breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set
sail for the Brazils.
We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he
would neither eat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve
himself to death. But I took a way to cure him: for I had made
them take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe
they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they
found him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but they
really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him. Then he
followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his
tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however at
last they took him in again., and then he began to he more
tractable: nor did I ever design they should drown him.
We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolate
creature alive for want of my man Friday, and would have been very
glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest
from thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so we went on.
We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long time before
we could make him understand anything; but in time our men taught
him some English, and he began to be a little tractable.
Afterwards, we inquired what country he came from; but could make
nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals,
and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we
could never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion that
they might speak that language as well if they were gagged as
otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either
for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as
a hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat. He told us,
however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little
English, that they were going with their kings to fight a great
battle. When he said kings, we asked him how many kings? He said
they were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural
's), and that they all joined to go against two nation. We asked
him what made them come up to us? He said, "To makee te great
wonder look." Here it is to be observed that all those natives, as
also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at
the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent
upon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly make
Friday leave it off, though at last he did.
And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leave
of him. Poor honest Friday! We buried him with all the decency
and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing
him into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him.
So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most
affectionate servant that ever man had.
We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in about twelve
days' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of
the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of
America. We kept on S. by E., in sight of the shore four days,
when we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to an
anchor off the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance,
from whence came both my good and evil fate. Never ship came to
this port that had less business than I had, and yet it was with
great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least
correspondence on shore: not my partner himself, who was alive,
and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees,
not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could
obtain me that favour. My partner, however, remembering that I had
given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the
Augustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to
the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to the
governor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and one
more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this
upon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should not
offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person
away without licence. They were so strict with us as to landing
any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore
three bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and
some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.
He was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, like
me, with little at first. Though he knew not that
I had the least
design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of
fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirty
moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals of
gold: but I was even with him in my present, which, as I have
said, consisted of fine broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine
holland; also, I delivered him about the value of one hundred
pounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses; and I obliged
him to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me from England,
as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the
refreshments I intended to my plantation.
Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few
days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of her such
instructions that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as I had
an account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with
the small cargo I sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been
on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settle
there, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot him a
sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him
some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he
understood, having been an old planter at Maryland, and a buccaneer
into the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all he
desired; and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had
taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governor
Spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the
rest.
When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was
a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance,
who had fallen into the displeasure of the Church. "I know not
what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I
think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to
conceal himself for fear of the Inquisition." He then told me that
he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape,
with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go to my
island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small
stock to begin with--for the officers of the Inquisition had seized
all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little
household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though I hate his
principles, yet I would not have him fall into their hands, for he
will be assuredly burned alive if he does." I granted this
presently, and joined my Englishman with them: and we concealed
the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, till the
sloop put out to go to sea; and then having put all their goods on
board some time before, we put them on board the sloop after she
was got out of the bay. Our seaman was mightily pleased with this
new partner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, rich in
tools, in preparations, and a farm--but nothing to begin with,
except as above: however, they carried over with them what was
worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes, with
some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil planter,
understood very well.
Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, I
sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; about
twenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-
horse. For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three
Brazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, and
use them kindly. I could have procured more women, but I
remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and that
there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted partners; the rest
had wives of their own, though in another country. All this cargo
arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome to
my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty
and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a
great many. I found letters at London from them all, by way of
Lisbon, when I came back to England.
