by Daniel Defoe
tools, and my two tame cats, in fact, all but Polland my gold.
As I sat on the top of the hill, Paul came up to me. He held out hishand to point to the ship, and with much warmth took me to his arms, andsaid, "My dear friend, there is your ship! For she is all yours, and soare we, and all that is in her."
I cast my eyes to the ship, which rode half a mile off the shore, at themouth of the creek, and near the place where I had brought my rafts tothe land. Yes, there she stood, the ship that was to set me free, and totake me where I might choose to go. She set her sails to the wind, andher flags threw out their gay stripes in the breeze. Such a sight wastoo much for me, and I fell down faint with joy. Paul then took out aflask which he had brought for me, and gave me a dram, which I drank,but for a good while I could not speak to him.
Friday and Paul then went on board the ship, and Paul took charge of heronce more. We did not start that night, but at noon the next day I leftthe isle!
That lone isle, where I had spent so great a part of my life--not muchless than thrice ten long years.
When I came back to the dear land of my birth, all was strange and newto me. I went to my old home at York, but none of my friends were there,and to my great grief I saw, on the stone at their grave, the sad taleof their death.
As they had thought, of course, that I was dead, they had not left metheir wealth and lands, so that I stood much in want of means, for itwas but a small sum that I had brought with me from the isle. But inthis time of need, I had the luck to find my good friend who once tookme up at sea. He was now grown too old for work, and had put his sonin the ship in his place. He did not know me at first, but I was soonbrought to his mind when I told him who I was. I found from him that theland which I had bought on my way to the isle was now worth much.
As it was a long way off, I felt no wish to go and live there so I madeup my mind to sell it, and in the course of a few months, I got for it asum so large as to make me a rich man all at once.
Weeks, months, and years went by; I had a farm, a wife, and two sons,and was by no means young; but still I could not get rid of a strongwish which dwelt in my thoughts by day and my dreams by night, and thatwas to set foot once more in my old isle.
I had now no need to work for food, or for means of life; all I had todo was to teach my boys to be wise and good, to live at my ease, andsee my wealth grow day by day. Yet the wish to go back to my wild hauntsclung round me like a cloud, and I could in no way drive it from me,so true is it that "what is bred in the bone will not come out of theflesh."
At length I lost my wife, which was a great blow to me, and my home wasnow so sad, that I made up my mind to launch out once more on the broadsea, and go with my man Friday to that lone isle where dwelt all myhopes.
I took with me as large a store of tools, clothes, and such like goodsas I had room for, and men of skill in all kinds of trades, to live inthe isle. When we set sail, we had a fair wind for some time, but onenight the mate, who was at the watch, told me he saw a flash of fire,and heard a gun go off. At this we all ran on deck, from whence we saw agreat light, and as there was no land that way, we knew that it must besome ship on fire at sea, which could not be far off, for we heard thesound of the gun.
The wind was still fair, so we made our way for the point where we sawthe light, and in half an hour, it was but too plain that a large shipwas on fire in the midst of the broad sea. I gave the word to fire offfive guns, and we then lay by, to wait till break of day. But in thedead of the night, the ship blew up in the air, the flames shot forth,and what there was left of the ship sank. We hung out lights, and ourguns kept up a fire all night long, to let the crew know that there washelp at hand.
At eight o'clock the next day we found, by the aid of the glass, thattwo of the ship's boats were out at sea, quite full of men. They hadseen us, and had done their best to make us see them, and in half anhour we came up with them.
It would be a hard task for me to set forth in words the scene whichtook place in my ship, when the poor French folk (for such they were)came on board. As to grief and fear, these are soon told--sighs, tears,and groans make up the sum of them--but such a cause of joy as this was,in sooth, too much for them to bear, weak and all but dead as they were.
Some would send up shouts of joy that rent the sky; some would cry andwring their hands as if in the depths of grief; some would dance, laugh,and sing; not a few were dumb, sick, faint, in a swoon, or half mad; andtwo or three were seen to give thanks to God.
In this strange group, there was a young French priest who did his bestto soothe those round him, and I saw him go up to some of the crew,and say to them, "Why do you scream, and tear your hair, and wring yourhands, my men? Let your joy be free and full, give it full range andscope, but leave off this trick of the hands, and lift them up inpraise; let your voice swell out, not in screams, but in hymns of thanksto God, who has brought you out of so great a strait, for this will addpeace to your joy."
The next day, they were all in a right frame of mind, so I gave themwhat stores I could spare, and put them on board a ship that we met withon her way to France, all save five who, with the priest, had a wish tojoin me.
But we had not set sail long, when we fell in with a ship that had beenblown out to sea by a storm, and had lost her masts; and, worse thanall, her crew had not had an ounce of meat or bread for ten days. Igave them all some food, which they ate like wolves in the snow, but Ithought it best to check them, as I had fears that so much all at oncewould cause the death of some of them.
There were a youth and a young girl in the ship who the mate said hethought must be dead, but he had not had the heart to go near them, forthe food was all gone. I found that they were faint for the want of it,and as it were in the jaws of death; but in a short time they both gotwell, and as they had no wish to go back to their ship, I took them withme. So now I had eight more on board my ship, than I had when I firstset out.
In three months from the time when I left home, I came in sight of myisle, and I brought the ship safe up, by the side of the creek, whichwas near my old house.
I went up to Friday, to ask if he knew where he was. He took a lookround him, and soon, with a clap of the hands, said "O yes! O there! Oyes! O there!" Bye and bye, he set up a dance with such wild glee, thatit was as much as I could do to keep him on deck. "Well, what think you,Friday?" said I; "shall we find those whom we left still here?--Shall wesee poor old Jaf?" He stood quite mute for a while, but when I spokeof old Jaf (whose son Friday was), the tears ran down his face, and thepoor soul was as sad as could be. "No, no," said he, "no more, no, nomore."
As we caught sight of some men at the top of the hill, I gave word tofire three guns, to show that we were friends, and soon we saw smokerise from the side of the creek. I then went on shore in a boat, withthe priest and Friday, and hung out a white flag of peace. The first manI cast my eyes on at the creek, was my old friend Carl, who, when I waslast on the isle, had been brought here in bonds.
I gave strict charge to the men in the boat not to go on shore, butFriday could not be kept back, for with his quick eye he had caughtsight of old Jaf. It brought the tears to our eyes to see his joy whenhe met the old man. He gave him a kiss, took him up in his arms, sethim down in the shade, then stood a short way off to look at him, as onewould look at a work of art, then felt him with his hand, and all thistime he was in full talk, and told him, one by one, all the strangetales of what he had seen since they had last met.
As to my friend Carl, he came up to me, and with much warmth shook myhands, and then took me to my old house, which he now gave up to me. Icould no more have found the place, than if I had not been there at all.The rows of trees stood so thick and close, that the house could not begot at, save by such blind ways as none but those who made them couldfind out. "Why have you built all these forts?" said I. Carl told methat he felt sure I should say there was much need of them, when I heardhow they had spent their time since they had come to the isle.
He brought twelve men
to the spot where I stood, and said, "Sir, allthese men owe their lives to you." Then, one by one, they came up to me,not as if they had been the mere crew of a ship, but like men of rankwho had come to kiss the hand of their king.
The first thing was to bear all that had been done in the isle since Ihad left it. But I must first state that, when we were on the point toset sail from the isle, a feud sprang up on board our ship, which wecould not put down, till we had laid two of the men in chains. The nextday, these two men stole each of them a gun and some small arms, andtook the ship's boat, and ran off with it to join the three bad men onshore.
As soon as I found this out, I sent the long-boat on shore, with twelvemen and the mate, and off they went to seek the two who had left theship. But their search was in vain, nor could they find one of the rest,for they had all fled to the woods when they saw the boat. We had nowlost five of the crew, but the three first were so much worse than
