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Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Section 38 of 41 - Table of Contents
CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO ENGLAND



HAVING done all this I left them the next day, and went on board
the ship.  We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that
night.  The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming
to the ship's side, and making the most lamentable complaint of the
other three, begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake, for
they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on
board, though he hanged them immediately.  Upon this the captain
pretended to have no power without me; but after some difficulty,
and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on
board, and were, some time after, soundly whipped and pickled;
after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.

Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being
up, with the things promised to the men; to which the captain, at
my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which
they took, and were very thankful for.  I also encouraged them, by
telling them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take
them in, I would not forget them.

When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics,
the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my
parrots; also, I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned,
which had lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or
tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver till it had been a
little rubbed and handled, as also the money I found in the wreck
of the Spanish ship.  And thus I left the island, the 19th of
December, as I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after
I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen
days; being delivered from this second captivity the same day of
the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat from among
the Moors of Sallee.  In this vessel, after a long voyage, I
arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been
thirty-five years absent.

When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world
as if I had never been known there.  My benefactor and faithful
steward, whom I had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had
had great misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second
time, and very low in the world.  I made her very easy as to what
she owed me, assuring her I would give her no trouble; but, on the
contrary, in gratitude for her former care and faithfulness to me,
I relieved her as my little stock would afford; which at that time
would, indeed, allow me to do but little for her; but I assured her
I would never forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget
her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its
proper place.  I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father
was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except that I
found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers;
and as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no
provision made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to
relieve or assist me; and that the little money I had would not do
much for me as to settling in the world.

I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect;
and this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily
delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having
given a very handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had
saved the lives of the men and the ship, they invited me to meet
them and some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a
very handsome compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost
200 pounds sterling.

But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my
life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the
world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at
some information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and
of what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had
some years past given me over for dead.  With this view I took
shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following, my man
Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and
proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions.  When I came to
Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction,
my old friend, the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea
off the shore of Africa.  He was now grown old, and had left off
going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man,
into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade.  The old man
did not know me, and indeed I hardly knew him.  But I soon brought
him to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his
remembrance, when I told him who I was.

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between
us, I inquired, you may he sure, after my plantation and my
partner.  The old man told me he had not been in the Brazils for
about nine years; but that he could assure me that when he came
away my partner was living, but the trustees whom I had joined with
him to take cognisance of my part were both dead: that, however, he
believed I would have a very good account of the improvement of the
plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my being cast away
and drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of
my part of the plantation to the procurator-fiscal, who had
appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one-third to the
king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be
expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the
Indians to the Catholic faith: but that, if I appeared, or any one
for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that
the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to
charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that the
steward of the king's revenue from lands, and the providore, or
steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the
incumbent, that is to say my partner, gave every year a faithful
account of the produce, of which they had duly received my moiety.
I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought
the plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth looking
after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any
obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety.  He told
me he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was
improved; but this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding
rich upon the enjoying his part of it; and that, to the best of his
remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of my part, which
was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery or religious
house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year: that as to my
being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question
to be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and
my name being also enrolled in the register of the country; also he
told me that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair,
honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed I would not only
have their assistance for putting me in possession, but would find
a very considerable sum of money in their hands for my account,
being the produce of the farm while their fathers held the trust,
and before it was given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was
for about twelve years.

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees
should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my
will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir,
&c.

He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my
being dead, he could not act as executor until some certain account
should come of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to
intermeddle with a thing so remote: that it was true he had
registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given
any account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by
procuration, and taken possession of the ingenio (so they call the
sugar-house), and have given his son, who was now at the Brazils,
orders to do it.  "But," says the old man, "I have one piece of
news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as
the rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the world
believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account
with me, in your name, for the first six or eight years' profits,
which I received.  There being at that time great disbursements for
increasing the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it
did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced; however,"
says the old man, "I shall give you a true account of what I have
received in all, and how I have disposed of it."

After a few days' further conference with this ancient friend, he
brought me an account of the first six years' income of my
plantation, signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being
always delivered in goods, viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in
chests, besides rum, molasses, &c., which is the consequence of a
sugar-work; and I found by this account, that every year the income
considerably increased; but, as above, the disbursements being
large, the sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see
that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold,
besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen double rolls of tobacco,
which were lost in his ship; he having been shipwrecked coming home
to Lisbon, about eleven years after my having the place.  The good
man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been
obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him
a share in a new ship.  "However, my old friend," says he, "you
shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son
returns you shall be fully satisfied."  Upon this he pulls out an
old pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in
gold; and giving the writings of his title to the ship, which his
son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he was quarter-part owner,
and his son another, he puts them both into my hands for security
of the rest.

I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man
to be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me,
how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on
all occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to
me, I could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to me;
therefore I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so
much money at that time, and if it would not straiten him?  He told
me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but,
however, it was my money, and I might want it more than he.

Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could
hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one
hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a
receipt for them: then I returned him the rest, and told him if
ever I had possession of the plantation I would return the other to
him also (as, indeed, I afterwards did); and that as to the bill of
sale of his part in his son's ship, I would not take it by any
means; but that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough
to pay me; and if I did not, but came to receive what he gave me
reason to expect, I would never have a penny more from him.

When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a
method to make my claim to my plantation.  I told him I thought to
go over to it myself.  He said I might do so if I pleased, but that
if I did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and
immediately to appropriate the profits to my use: and as there were
ships in the river of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he
made me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit,
affirming, upon oath, that I was alive, and that I was the same
person who took up the land for the planting the said plantation at
first.  This being regularly attested by a notary, and a
procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a letter of
his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place; and
then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the
return.

Never was anything more honourable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large
packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose
account I went to sea, in which were the following, particular
letters and papers enclosed:-

First, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or
plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my
old Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to
be one thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.

Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept
the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found,
which they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value
of the plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four
hundred and forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two
hundred and forty moidores.

Thirdly, there was the Prior of St. Augustine's account, who had
received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able
to account for what was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly
declared he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not
distributed, which he acknowledged to my account: as to the king's
part, that refunded nothing.

There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very
affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the
estate was improved, and what it produced a year; with the
particulars of the number of squares, or acres that it contained,
how planted, how many slaves there were upon it: and making two-
and-twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many AVE
MARIAS to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive; inviting me
very passionately to come over and take possession of my own, and
in the meantime to give him orders to whom he should deliver my
effects if I did not come myself; concluding with a hearty tender
of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a present
seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems, received from
Africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither, and which, it
seems, had made a better voyage than I.  He sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold
uncoined, not quite so large as moidores.  By the same fleet my two
merchant-trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of
sugar, eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole
account in gold.

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better
than the beginning.  It is impossible to express the flutterings of
my very heart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the
Brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my
letters brought my goods: and the effects were safe in the river
before the letters came to my hand.  In a word, I turned pale, and
grew sick; and, had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, I
believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had
died upon the spot: nay, after that I continued very ill, and was
so some hours, till a physician being sent for, and something of
the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be let
blood; after which I had relief, and grew well: but I verify
believe, if I had not been eased by a vent given in that manner to
the spirits, I should have died.
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