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Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Section 37 of 41 - Table of Contents
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its
desired effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to
intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged
of him, for God's sake, that they might not be sent to England.

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come,
and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to
be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the
dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a governor
they had, and called the captain to me; when I called, at a good
distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the
captain, "Captain, the commander calls for you;" and presently the
captain replied, "Tell his excellency I am just coming."  This more
perfectly amazed them, and they all believed that the commander was
just by, with his fifty men.  Upon the captain coming to me, I told
him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully
well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning.  But,
in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success,
I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and
take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them
pinioned to the cave where the others lay.  This was committed to
Friday and the two men who came on shore with the captain.  They
conveyed them to the cave as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a
dismal place, especially to men in their condition.  The others I
ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full
description: and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place
was secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a
parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he
thought they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise
the ship.  He talked to them of the injury done him, of the
condition they were brought to, and that though the governor had
given them quarter for their lives as to the present action, yet
that if they were sent to England they would all be hanged in
chains; but that if they would join in so just an attempt as to
recover the ship, he would have the governor's engagement for their
pardon.

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by
men in their condition; they fell down on their knees to the
captain, and promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they
would be faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should owe
their lives to him, and would go with him all over the world; that
they would own him as a father to them as long as they lived.
"Well," says the captain, "I must go and tell the governor what you
say, and see what I can do to bring him to consent to it."  So he
brought me an account of the temper he found them in, and that he
verily believed they would be faithful.  However, that we might be
very secure, I told him he should go back again and choose out
those five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men,
that he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that
the governor would keep the other two, and the three that were sent
prisoners to the castle (my cave), as hostages for the fidelity of
those five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution,
the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in
earnest; however, they had no way left them but to accept it; and
it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of the
captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the
captain, his mate, and passenger; second, the two prisoners of the
first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I had
given their liberty, and trusted them with arms; third, the other
two that I had kept till now in my bower, pinioned, but on the
captain's motion had now released; fourth, these five released at
last; so that there were twelve in all, besides five we kept
prisoners in the cave for hostages.

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands
on board the ship; but as for me and my man Friday, I did not think
it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it
was employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them
with victuals.  As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them
fast, but Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with
necessaries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain
distance, where Friday was to take them.

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain,
who told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look
after them; and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not
stir anywhere but by my direction; that if they did, they would be
fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never
suffered them to see me as governor, I now appeared as another
person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and
the like, upon all occasions.

The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his
two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them.  He made his
passenger captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his
mate, and five more, went in the other; and they contrived their
business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight.
As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail
them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but
that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like,
holding them in a chat till they came to the ship's side; when the
captain and the mate entering first with their arms, immediately
knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the butt-end of
their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their men; they
secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and
began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below;
when the other boat and their men, entering at the forechains,
secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down
into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the
mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new
rebel captain lay, who, having taken the alarm, had got up, and
with two men and a boy had got firearms in their hands; and when
the mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his
men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket
ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but
killed nobody.  The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into
the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with his pistol, shot the
new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and
came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a
word more: upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken
effectually, without any more lives lost.

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven
guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give
me notice of his success, which, you may be sure, I was very glad
to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two
o'clock in the morning.  Having thus heard the signal plainly, I
laid me down; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I
slept very sound, till I was surprised with the noise of a gun; and
presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of
"Governor!  Governor!" and presently I knew the captain's voice;
when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and,
pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms, "My dear friend
and deliverer," says he, "there's your ship; for she is all yours,
and so are we, and all that belong to her."  I cast my eyes to the
ship, and there she rode, within little more than half a mile of
the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were
masters of her, and, the weather being fair, had brought her to an
anchor just against the mouth of the little creek; and the tide
being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place
where I had first landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door.
I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my
deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy,
and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to
go.  At first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one
word; but as he had taken me in his arms I held fast by him, or I
should have fallen to the ground.  He perceived the surprise, and
immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and gave me a dram of
cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me.  After I had drunk
it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought me to myself,
yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him.  All
this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not
under any surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender
things to me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the
flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into
confusion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a little while
after I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and embraced him
as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together.  I told him I looked
upon him as a man sent by Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole
transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as
these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence
governing the world, and an evidence that the eye of an infinite
Power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send
help to the miserable whenever He pleased.  I forgot not to lift up
my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to
bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for me
in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from
whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed.

When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me
some little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the
wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him
of.  Upon this, he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring
the things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a
present as if I had been one that was not to be carried away with
them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still.  First,
he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial
waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two
quarts each), two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good
pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of
peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit; he also brought me a
box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bottles
of lime-juice, and abundance of other things.  But besides these,
and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six
new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one
pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good
suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little: in
a word, he clothed me from head to foot.  It was a very kind and
agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in my
circumstances, but never was anything in the world of that kind so
unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it was to me to wear such
clothes at first.

After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things
were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was
to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering
whether we might venture to take them with us or no, especially two
of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last
degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that
there was no obliging them, and if he did carry them away, it must
be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the
first English colony he could come to; and I found that the captain
himself was very anxious about it.  Upon this, I told him that, if
he desired it, I would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of
to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the
island.  "I should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with
all my heart."  "Well," says I, "I will send for them up and talk
with them for you."  So I caused Friday and the two hostages, for
they were now discharged, their comrades having performed their
promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the
five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there
till I came.  After some time, I came thither dressed in my new
habit; and now I was called governor again.  Being all met, and the
captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I
told them I had got a full account of their villainous behaviour to
the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were
preparing to commit further robberies, but that Providence had
ensnared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the
pit which they had dug for others.  I let them know that by my
direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in the road;
and they might see by-and-by that their new captain had received
the reward of his villainy, and that they would see him hanging at
the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted to know what they had to
say why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as
by my commission they could not doubt but I had authority so to do.

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing
to say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised
them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy.  But I told
them I knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had
resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage
with the captain to go to England; and as for the captain, he could
not carry them to England other than as prisoners in irons, to be
tried for mutiny and running away with the ship; the consequence of
which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could
not tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take
their fate in the island.  If they desired that, as I had liberty
to leave the island, I had some inclination to give them their
lives, if they thought they could shift on shore.  They seemed very
thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay
there than be carried to England to be hanged.  So I left it on
that issue.

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he
durst not leave them there.  Upon this I seemed a little angry with
the captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and
that seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good
as my word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I
would set them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did not like
it he might take them again if he could catch them.  Upon this they
appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and
bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence they came, and
I would leave them some firearms, some ammunition, and some
directions how they should live very well if they thought fit.
Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain
I would stay that night to prepare my things, and desired him to go
on board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send
the boat on shore next day for me; ordering him, at all events, to
cause the new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-
arm, that these men might see him.

When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my
apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with them on their
circumstances.  I told them I thought they had made a right choice;
that if the captain had carried them away they would certainly be
hanged.  I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of
the ship, and told them they had nothing less to expect.

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told
them I would let them into the story of my living there, and put
them into the way of making it easy to them.  Accordingly, I gave
them the whole history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed
them my fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn,
cured my grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make
them easy.  I told them the story also of the seventeen Spaniards
that were to be expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them
promise to treat them in common with themselves.  Here it may be
noted that the captain, who had ink on board, was greatly surprised
that I never hit upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water, or
of something else, as I had done things much more difficult.

I left them my firearms - viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces,
and three swords.  I had above a barrel and a half of powder left;
for after the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none.
I gave them a description of the way I managed the goats, and
directions to milk and fatten them, and to make both butter and
cheese.  In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and
told them I should prevail with the captain to leave them two
barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-seeds, which I told them
I would have been very glad of.  Also, I gave them the bag of peas
which the captain had brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to
sow and increase them.
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