WHILE we were thus preparing our
designs, and had first, by main
strength, heaved the boat upon the
beach, so high that the tide
would not float her off at
high-water mark, and besides, had
broke
a hole in her bottom too big to be
quickly stopped, and were set
down musing what we should do, we
heard the ship fire a gun, and
make a waft with her ensign as a
signal for the boat to come on
board - but no boat stirred; and
they fired several times, making
other signals for the boat. At last,
when all their signals and
firing proved fruitless, and they
found the boat did not stir, we
saw them, by the help of my glasses,
hoist another boat out and row
towards the shore; and we found, as
they approached, that there
were no less than ten men in her,
and that they had firearms with
them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues
from the shore, we had a full
view of them as the came, and a
plain sight even of their faces;
because the tide having set them a
little to the east of the other
boat, they rowed up under shore, to
come to the same place where
the other had landed, and where the
boat lay; by this means, I say,
we had a full view of them, and the
captain knew the persons and
characters of all the men in the
boat, of whom, he said, there were
three very honest fellows, who, he
was sure, were led into this
conspiracy by the rest, being
over-powered and frightened; but
that
as for the boatswain, who it seems
was the chief officer among
them, and all the rest, they were as
outrageous as any of the
ship's crew, and were no doubt made
desperate in their new
enterprise; and terribly
apprehensive he was that they would
be too
powerful for us. I smiled at him,
and told him that men in our
circumstances were past the
operation of fear; that seeing
almost
every condition that could be was
better than that which we were
supposed to be in, we ought to
expect that the consequence, whether
death or life, would be sure to be a
deliverance. I asked him what
he thought of the circumstances of
my life, and whether a
deliverance were not worth venturing
for? "And where, sir," said
I, "is your belief of my being
preserved here on purpose to save
your life, which elevated you a
little while ago? For my part,"
said I, "there seems to be but one
thing amiss in all the prospect
of it." "What is that?" say she.
"Why," said I, "it is, that as
you say there are three or four
honest fellows among them which
should be spared, had they been all
of the wicked part of the crew
I should have thought God's
providence had singled them out to
deliver them into your hands; for
depend upon it, every man that
comes ashore is our own, and shall
die or live as they behave to
us." As I spoke this with a raised
voice and cheerful countenance,
I found it greatly encouraged him;
so we set vigorously to our
business.
We had, upon the first appearance of
the boat's coming from the
ship, considered of separating our
prisoners; and we had, indeed,
secured them effectually. Two of
them, of whom the captain was
less assured than ordinary, I sent
with Friday, and one of the
three delivered men, to my cave,
where they were remote enough, and
out of danger of being heard or
discovered, or of finding their way
out of the woods if they could have
delivered themselves. Here
they left them bound, but gave them
provisions; and promised them,
if they continued there quietly, to
give them their liberty in a
day or two; but that if they
attempted their escape they should
be
put to death without mercy. They
promised faithfully to bear their
confinement with patience, and were
very thankful that they had
such good usage as to have
provisions and light left them; for
Friday gave them candles (such as we
made ourselves) for their
comfort; and they did not know but
that he stood sentinel over them
at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better
usage; two of them were kept
pinioned, indeed, because the
captain was not able to trust them;
but the other two were taken into my
service, upon the captain's
recommendation, and upon their
solemnly engaging to live and die
with us; so with them and the three
honest men we were seven men,
well armed; and I made no doubt we
should be able to deal well
enough with the ten that were
coming, considering that the captain
had said there were three or four
honest men among them also. As
soon as they got to the place where
their other boat lay, they ran
their boat into the beach and came
all on shore, hauling the boat
up after them, which I was glad to
see, for I was afraid they would
rather have left the boat at an
anchor some distance from the
shore, with some hands in her to
guard her, and so we should not be
able to seize the boat. Being on
shore, the first thing they did,
they ran all to their other boat;
and it was easy to see they were
under a great surprise to find her
stripped, as above, of all that
was in her, and a great hole in her
bottom. After they had mused a
while upon this, they set up two or
three great shouts, hallooing
with all their might, to try if they
could make their companions
hear; but all was to no purpose.
Then they came all close in a
ring, and fired a volley of their
small arms, which indeed we
heard, and the echoes made the woods
ring. But it was all one;
those in the cave, we were sure,
could not hear; and those in our
keeping, though they heard it well
enough, yet durst give no answer
to them. They were so astonished at
the surprise of this, that, as
they told us afterwards, they
resolved to go all on board again to
their ship, and let them know that
the men were all murdered, and
the long-boat staved; accordingly,
they immediately launched their
boat again, and got all of them on
board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and
even confounded, at this,
believing they would go on board the
ship again and set sail,
giving their comrades over for lost,
and so he should still lose
the ship, which he was in hopes we
should have recovered; but he
was quickly as much frightened the
other way.
They had not been long put off with
the boat, when we perceived
them all coming on shore again; but
with this new measure in their
conduct, which it seems they
consulted together upon, viz. to
leave
three men in the boat, and the rest
to go on shore, and go up into
the country to look for their
fellows. This was a great
disappointment to us, for now we
were at a loss what to do, as our
seizing those seven men on shore
would be no advantage to us if we
let the boat escape; because they
would row away to the ship, and
then the rest of them would be sure
to weigh and set sail, and so
our recovering the ship would be
lost. However we had no remedy
but to wait and see what the issue
of things might present. The
seven men came on shore, and the
three who remained in the boat put
her off to a good distance from the
shore, and came to an anchor to
wait for them; so that it was
impossible for us to come at them in
the boat. Those that came on shore
kept close together, marching
towards the top of the little hill
under which my habitation lay;
and we could see them plainly,
though they could not perceive us.
We should have been very glad if
they would have come nearer us, so
that we might have fired at them, or
that they would have gone
farther off, that we might come
abroad. But when they were come to
the brow of the hill where they
could see a great way into the
valleys and woods, which lay towards
the north-east part, and where
the island lay lowest, they shouted
and hallooed till they were
weary; and not caring, it seems, to
venture far from the shore, nor
far from one another, they sat down
together under a tree to
consider it. Had they thought fit to
have gone to sleep there, as
the other part of them had done,
they had done the job for us; but
they were too full of apprehensions
of danger to venture to go to
sleep, though they could not tell
what the danger was they had to
fear.
The captain made a very just
proposal to me upon this
consultation
of theirs, viz. that perhaps they
would all fire a volley again, to
endeavour to make their fellows
hear, and that we should all sally
upon them just at the juncture when
their pieces were all
discharged, and they would certainly
yield, and we should have them
without bloodshed. I liked this
proposal, provided it was done
while we were near enough to come up
to them before they could load
their pieces again. But this event
did not happen; and we lay
still a long time, very irresolute
what course to take. At length
I told them there would be nothing
done, in my opinion, till night;
and then, if they did not return to
the boat, perhaps we might find
a way to get between them and the
shore, and so might use some
stratagem with them in the boat to
get them on shore. We waited a
great while, though very impatient
for their removing; and were
very uneasy when, after long
consultation, we saw them all start
up
and march down towards the sea; it
seems they had such dreadful
apprehensions of the danger of the
place that they resolved to go
on board the ship again, give their
companions over for lost, and
so go on with their intended voyage
with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go
towards the shore, I imagined it to
be as it really was that they had
given over their search, and were
going back again; and the captain,
as soon as I told him my
thoughts, was ready to sink at the
apprehensions of it; but I
presently thought of a stratagem to
fetch them back again, and
which answered my end to a tittle. I
ordered Friday and the
captain's mate to go over the little
creek westward, towards the
place where the savages came on
shore, when Friday was rescued, and
so soon as they came to a little
rising round, at about half a mile
distant, I bid them halloo out, as
loud as they could, and wait
till they found the seamen heard
them; that as soon as ever they
heard the seamen answer them, they
should return it again; and
then, keeping out of sight, take a
round, always answering when the
others hallooed, to draw them as far
into the island and among the
woods as possible, and then wheel
about again to me by such ways as
I directed them.
They were just going into the boat
when Friday and the mate
hallooed; and they presently heard
them, and answering, ran along
the shore westward, towards the
voice they heard, when they were
stopped by the creek, where the
water being up, they could not get
over, and called for the boat to
come up and set them over; as,
indeed, I expected. When they had
set themselves over, I observed
that the boat being gone a good way
into the creek, and, as it
were, in a harbour within the land,
they took one of the three men
out of her, to go along with them,
and left only two in the boat,
having fastened her to the stump of
a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for; and
immediately leaving Friday and the
captain's mate to their business, I
took the rest with me; and,
crossing the creek out of their
sight, we surprised the two men
before they were aware - one of them
lying on the shore, and the
other being in the boat. The fellow
on shore was between sleeping
and waking, and going to start up;
the captain, who was foremost,
ran in upon him, and knocked him
down; and then called out to him
in the boat to yield, or he was a
dead man. They needed very few
arguments to persuade a single man
to yield, when he saw five men
upon him and his comrade knocked
down: besides, this was, it seems,
one of the three who were not so
hearty in the mutiny as the rest
of the crew, and therefore was
easily persuaded not only to yield,
but afterwards to join very
sincerely with us. In the meantime,
Friday and the captain's mate so
well managed their business with
the rest that they drew them, by
hallooing and answering, from one
hill to another, and from one wood
to another, till they not only
heartily tired them, but left them
where they were, very sure they
could not reach back to the boat
before it was dark; and, indeed,
they were heartily tired themselves
also, by the time they came
back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to
watch for them in the dark, and to
fall upon them, so as to make sure
work with them. It was several
hours after Friday came back to me
before they came back to their
boat; and we could hear the foremost
of them, long before they came
quite up, calling to those behind to
come along; and could also
hear them answer, and complain how
lame and tired they were, and
not able to come any faster: which
was very welcome news to us. At
length they came up to the boat: but
it is impossible to express
their confusion when they found the
boat fast aground in the creek,
the tide ebbed out, and their two
men gone. We could hear them
call one to another in a most
lamentable manner, telling one
another they were got into an
enchanted island; that either there
were inhabitants in it, and they
should all be murdered, or else
there were devils and spirits in it,
and they should be all carried
away and devoured. They hallooed
again, and called their two
comrades by their names a great many
times; but no answer. After
some time we could see them, by the
little light there was, run
about, wringing their hands like men
in despair, and sometimes they
would go and sit down in the boat to
rest themselves: then come
ashore again, and walk about again,
and so the same thing over
again. My men would fain have had me
give them leave to fall upon
them at once in the dark; but I was
willing to take them at some
advantage, so as to spare them, and
kill as few of them as I could;
and especially I was unwilling to
hazard the killing of any of our
men, knowing the others were very
well armed. I resolved to wait,
to see if they did not separate; and
therefore, to make sure of
them, I drew my ambuscade nearer,
and ordered Friday and the
captain to creep upon their hands
and feet, as close to the ground
as they could, that they might not
be discovered, and get as near
them as they could possibly before
they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that
posture when the boatswain, who was
the principal ringleader of the
mutiny, and had now shown himself
the most dejected and dispirited of
all the rest, came walking
towards them, with two more of the
crew; the captain was so eager
at having this principal rogue so
much in his power, that he could
hardly have patience to let him come
so near as to be sure of him,
for they only heard his tongue
before: but when they came nearer,
the captain and Friday, starting up
on their feet, let fly at them.
The boatswain was killed upon the
spot: the next man was shot in
the body, and fell just by him,
though he did not die till an hour
or two after; and the third ran for
it. At the noise of the fire I
immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men,
viz. myself, generalissimo; Friday,
my lieutenant-general; the
captain and his two men, and the
three prisoners of war whom we had
trusted with arms. We came upon
them, indeed, in the dark, so that
they could not see our number; and I
made the man they had left in
the boat, who was now one of us, to
call them by name, to try if I
could bring them to a parley, and so
perhaps might reduce them to
terms; which fell out just as we
desired: for indeed it was easy to
think, as their condition then was,
they would be very willing to
capitulate. So he calls out as loud
as he could to one of them,
"Tom Smith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith
answered immediately, "Is that
Robinson?" for it seems he knew the
voice. The other answered,
"Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith,
throw down your arms and yield,
or you are all dead men this
moment." "Who must we yield to?
Where are they?" says Smith again.
"Here they are," says he;
"here's our captain and fifty men
with him, have been hunting you
these two hours; the boatswain is
killed; Will Fry is wounded, and
I am a prisoner; and if you do not
yield you are all lost." "Will
they give us quarter, then?" says
Tom Smith, "and we will yield."
"I'll go and ask, if you promise to
yield," said Robinson: so he
asked the captain, and the captain
himself then calls out, "You,
Smith, you know my voice; if you lay
down your arms immediately and
submit, you shall have your lives,
all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out,
"For God's sake, captain, give me
quarter; what have I done? They have
all been as bad as I:" which,
by the way, was not true; for it
seems this Will Atkins was the
first man that laid hold of the
captain when they first mutinied,
and used him barbarously in tying
his hands and giving him
injurious language. However, the
captain told him he must lay down
his arms at discretion, and trust to
the governor's mercy: by which
he meant me, for they all called me
governor. In a word, they all
laid down their arms and begged
their lives; and I sent the man
that had parleyed with them, and two
more, who bound them all; and
then my great army of fifty men,
which, with those three, were in
all but eight, came up and seized
upon them, and upon their boat;
only that I kept myself and one more
out of sight for reasons of
state.
Our next work was to repair the
boat, and think of seizing the
ship: and as for the captain, now he
had leisure to parley with
them, he expostulated with them upon
the villainy of their
practices with him, and upon the
further wickedness of their
design, and how certainly it must
bring them to misery and distress
in the end, and perhaps to the
gallows. They all appeared very
penitent, and begged hard for their
lives. As for that, he told
them they were not his prisoners,
but the commander's of the
island; that they thought they had
set him on shore in a barren,
uninhabited island; but it had
pleased God so to direct them that
it was inhabited, and that the
governor was an Englishman; that he
might hang them all there, if he
pleased; but as he had given them
all quarter, he supposed he would
send them to England, to be dealt
with there as justice required,
except Atkins, whom he was
commanded by the governor to advise
to prepare for death, for that
he would be hanged in the morning.
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. |
