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Robinson Crusoe
After we had fished some time and caught nothing - for when I had fish
on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them - I
said to the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be thus
served; we must stand farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and
being in the head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm,
I ran the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to, as
if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to
where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped for something behind
him, I took him by surprise with my arm under his waist, and tossed
him clear overboard into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam
like a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would
go all over the world with me. He swam so strong after the boat that
he would have reached me very quickly, there being but little wind;
upon which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the
fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I had done him no
hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him none. "But," said I,
"you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make
the best of your way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you
come near the boat I'll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved
to have my liberty;" so he turned himself about, and swam for the
shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an
excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he was
gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him,
"Xury, if you will be faithful to me, I'll make you a great man; but
if you will not stroke your face to be true to me" - that is, swear by
Mahomet and his father's beard - "I must throw you into the sea too."
The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently that I could not
distrust him, and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the
world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out
directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that
they might think me gone towards the Straits' mouth (as indeed any one
that had been in their wits must have been supposed to do): for who
would have supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround
us with their canoes and destroy us; where we could not go on shore
but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages
of human kind.
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, and
steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towards
the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair,
fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I
believe by the next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I
first made the land, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty
miles south of Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, for we saw no
people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadful
apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not
stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair
till I had sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting
to the southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in
chase of me, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to
the coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I
knew not what, nor where, neither what latitude, what country, what
nation, or what river. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people;
the principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek
in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and
discover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to
die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day. "Well,
Xury," said I, "then I won't; but it may be that we may see men by
day, who will be as bad to us as those lions." "Then we give them the
shoot gun," says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey." Such English
Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron's case
of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's advice was good, and I
took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay still all night; I say
still, for we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw vast great
creatures (we knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to
the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves
for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous
howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were
both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come
swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him
by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it
was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried
to me to weigh the anchor and row away; "No," says I, "Xury; we can
slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot
follow us far." I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature
(whatever it was) within two oars' length, which something surprised
me; however, I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my
gun, fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam
towards the shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries
and howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as
higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a
thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard
before: this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in
the night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was
another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the
savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions
and tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other
for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to
get to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore
with one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring
some to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he
stay in the boat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me
love him ever after. Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me, you go
wey." "Well, Xury," said I, "we will both go and if the wild mans
come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us." So I gave
Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case
of bottles which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near
the shore as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying
nothing but our arms and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place
about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him
come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or
frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his
shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but
different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of
it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came
with, was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water,
for a little higher up the creek where we were we found the water
fresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we
filled our jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared
to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in
that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that
the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay
not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing,
or at least remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where
to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise
I might now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was,
that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the
English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual
design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that
country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's dominions and
the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the
negroes having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the
Moors, and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its
barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious
number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which
harbour there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where
they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed
for near a hundred miles together upon this coast we saw nothing but a
waste, uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and
roaring of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,
being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had
a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also
going too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left
this place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came to
an anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and the
tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose
eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me,
and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; "For," says
he, "look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock,
fast asleep." I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster
indeed, for it was a terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the
shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a
little over him. "Xury," says I, "you shall on shore and kill him."
Xury, looked frighted, and said, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!" -
one mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade
him lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost
musket-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two
slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets;
and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five smaller
bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have
shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above
his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee and broke the
bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken,
fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most
hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had
not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second piece
immediately, and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot
him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but
little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and
would have me let him go on shore. "Well, go," said I: so the boy
jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to
shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the
muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry
to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good
for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so
he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what,
Xury?" said I. "Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could
not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him,
and it was a monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one
way or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his
skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was
much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it.
Indeed, it took us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the
hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun
effectually dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards served me to
lie upon.