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. I was now master, all on a sudden,
of above five thousand pounds
sterling in money, and had an
estate, as I might well call it, in
the Brazils, of above a thousand
pounds a year, as sure as an
estate of lands in England: and, in
a word, I was in a condition
which I scarce knew how to
understand, or how to compose myself
for
the enjoyment of it. The first thing
I did was to recompense my
original benefactor, my good old
captain, who had been first
charitable to me in my distress,
kind to me in my beginning, and
honest to me at the end. I showed
him all that was sent to me; I
told him that, next to the
providence of Heaven, which disposed
all
things, it was owing to him; and
that it now lay on me to reward
him, which I would do a
hundred-fold: so I first returned to
him
the hundred moidores I had received
of him; then I sent for a
notary, and caused him to draw up a
general release or discharge
from the four hundred and seventy
moidores, which he had
acknowledged he owed me, in the
fullest and firmest manner
possible. After which I caused a
procuration to be drawn,
empowering him to be the receiver of
the annual profits of my
plantation: and appointing my
partner to account with him, and
make
the returns, by the usual fleets, to
him in my name; and by a
clause in the end, made a grant of
one hundred moidores a year to
him during his life, out of the
effects, and fifty moidores a year
to his son after him, for his life:
and thus I requited my old man. I had now to consider which way to
steer my course next, and what
to do with the estate that
Providence had thus put into my
hands;
and, indeed, I had more care upon my
head now than I had in my
state of life in the island where I
wanted nothing but what I had,
and had nothing but what I wanted;
whereas I had now a great charge
upon me, and my business was how to
secure it. I had not a cave
now to hide my money in, or a place
where it might lie without lock
or key, till it grew mouldy and
tarnished before anybody would
meddle with it; on the contrary, I
knew not where to put it, or
whom to trust with it. My old
patron, the captain, indeed, was
honest, and that was the only refuge
I had. In the next place, my
interest in the Brazils seemed to
summon me thither; but now I
could not tell how to think of going
thither till I had settled my
affairs, and left my effects in some
safe hands behind me. At
first I thought of my old friend the
widow, who I knew was honest,
and would be just to me; but then
she was in years, and but poor,
and, for aught I knew, might be in
debt: so that, in a word, I had
no way but to go back to England
myself and take my effects with
me. It was some months, however, before
I resolved upon this; and,
therefore, as I had rewarded the old
captain fully, and to his
satisfaction, who had been my former
benefactor, so I began to
think of the poor widow, whose
husband had been my first
benefactor, and she, while it was in
her power, my faithful steward
and instructor. So, the first thing
I did, I got a merchant in
Lisbon to write to his correspondent
in London, not only to pay a
bill, but to go find her out, and
carry her, in money, a hundred
pounds from me, and to talk with
her, and comfort her in her
poverty, by telling her she should,
if I lived, have a further
supply: at the same time I sent my
two sisters in the country a
hundred pounds each, they being,
though not in want, yet not in
very good circumstances; one having
been married and left a widow;
and the other having a husband not
so kind to her as he should be.
But among all my relations or
acquaintances I could not yet pitch
upon one to whom I durst commit the
gross of my stock, that I might
go away to the Brazils, and leave
things safe behind me; and this
greatly perplexed me. I had once a mind to have gone to
the Brazils and have settled
myself there, for I was, as it were,
naturalised to the place; but
I had some little scruple in my mind
about religion, which
insensibly drew me back. However, it
was not religion that kept me
from going there for the present;
and as I had made no scruple of
being openly of the religion of the
country all the while I was
among them, so neither did I yet;
only that, now and then, having
of late thought more of it than
formerly, when I began to think of
living and dying among them, I began
to regret having professed
myself a Papist, and thought it
might not be the best religion to
die with. But, as I have said, this was not
the main thing that kept me from
going to the Brazils, but that
really I did not know with whom to
leave my effects behind me; so I
resolved at last to go to England,
where, if I arrived, I concluded
that I should make some
acquaintance, or find some
relations, that would be faithful to
me;
and, accordingly, I prepared to go
to England with all my wealth. In order to prepare things for my
going home, I first (the Brazil
fleet being just going away)
resolved to give answers suitable to
the just and faithful account of
things I had from thence; and,
first, to the Prior of St. Augustine
I wrote a letter full of
thanks for his just dealings, and
the offer of the eight hundred
and seventy-two moidores which were
undisposed of, which I desired
might be given, five hundred to the
monastery, and three hundred
and seventy-two to the poor, as the
prior should direct; desiring
the good padre's prayers for me, and
the like. I wrote next a
letter of thanks to my two trustees,
with all the acknowledgment
that so much justice and honesty
called for: as for sending them
any present, they were far above
having any occasion of it.
Lastly, I wrote to my partner,
acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation, and his
integrity in increasing the stock
of the works; giving him
instructions for his future
government of
my part, according to the powers I
had left with my old patron, to
whom I desired him to send whatever
became due to me, till he
should hear from me more
particularly; assuring him that it
was my
intention not only to come to him,
but to settle myself there for
the remainder of my life. To this I
added a very handsome present
of some Italian silks for his wife
and two daughters, for such the
captain's son informed me he had;
with two pieces of fine English
broadcloth, the best I could get in
Lisbon, five pieces of black
baize, and some Flanders lace of a
good value. Having thus settled my affairs, sold
my cargo, and turned all my
effects into good bills of exchange,
my next difficulty was which
way to go to England: I had been
accustomed enough to the sea, and
yet I had a strange aversion to go
to England by the sea at that
time, and yet I could give no reason
for it, yet the difficulty
increased upon me so much, that
though I had once shipped my
baggage in order to go, yet I
altered my mind, and that not once
but two or three times. It is true I had been very
unfortunate by sea, and this might
be
one of the reasons; but let no man
slight the strong impulses of
his own thoughts in cases of such
moment: two of the ships which I
had singled out to go in, I mean
more particularly singled out than
any other, having put my things on
board one of them, and in the
other having agreed with the
captain; I say two of these ships
miscarried. One was taken by the
Algerines, and the other was lost
on the Start, near Torbay, and all
the people drowned except three;
so that in either of those vessels I
had been made miserable. Having been thus harassed in my
thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, pressed me
earnestly not to go by sea, but
either to go by land to the Groyne,
and cross over the Bay of
Biscay to Rochelle, from whence it
was but an easy and safe journey
by land to Paris, and so to Calais
and Dover; or to go up to
Madrid, and so all the way by land
through France. In a word, I
was so prepossessed against my going
by sea at all, except from
Calais to Dover, that I resolved to
travel all the way by land;
which, as I was not in haste, and
did not value the charge, was by
much the pleasanter way: and to make
it more so, my old captain
brought an English gentleman, the
son of a merchant in Lisbon, who
was willing to travel with me; after
which we picked up two more
English merchants also, and two
young Portuguese gentlemen, the
last going to Paris only; so that in
all there were six of us and
five servants; the two merchants and
the two Portuguese, contenting
themselves with one servant between
two, to save the charge; and as
for me, I got an English sailor to
travel with me as a servant,
besides my man Friday, who was too
much a stranger to be capable of
supplying the place of a servant on
the road. In this manner I set out from
Lisbon; and our company being very
well mounted and armed, we made a
little troop, whereof they did me
the honour to call me captain, as
well because I was the oldest
man, as because I had two servants,
and, indeed, was the origin of
the whole journey. As I have troubled you with none of
my sea journals, so I shall
trouble you now with none of my land
journals; but some adventures
that happened to us in this tedious
and difficult journey I must
not omit. When we came to Madrid, we, being
all of us strangers to Spain,
were willing to stay some time to
see the court of Spain, and what
was worth observing; but it being
the latter part of the summer, we
hastened away, and set out from
Madrid about the middle of October;
but when we came to the edge of
Navarre, we were alarmed, at
several towns on the way, with an
account that so much snow was
falling on the French side of the
mountains, that several
travellers were obliged to come back
to Pampeluna, after having
attempted at an extreme hazard to
pass on. When we came to Pampeluna itself, we
found it so indeed; and to me,
that had been always used to a hot
climate, and to countries where
I could scarce bear any clothes on,
the cold was insufferable; nor,
indeed, was it more painful than
surprising to come but ten days
before out of Old Castile, where the
weather was not only warm but
very hot, and immediately to feel a
wind from the Pyrenean
Mountains so very keen, so severely
cold, as to be intolerable and
to endanger benumbing and perishing
of our fingers and toes. Poor Friday was really frightened
when he saw the mountains all
covered with snow, and felt cold
weather, which he had never seen
or felt before in his life. To mend
the matter, when we came to
Pampeluna it continued snowing with
so much violence and so long,
that the people said winter was come
before its time; and the
roads, which were difficult before,
were now quite impassable; for,
in a word, the snow lay in some
places too thick for us to travel,
and being not hard frozen, as is the
case in the northern
countries, there was no going
without being in danger of being
buried alive every step. We stayed
no less than twenty days at
Pampeluna; when (seeing the winter
coming on, and no likelihood of
its being better, for it was the
severest winter all over Europe
that had been known in the memory of
man) I proposed that we should
go away to Fontarabia, and there
take shipping for Bordeaux, which
was a very little voyage. But, while
I was considering this, there
came in four French gentlemen, who,
having been stopped on the
French side of the passes, as we
were on the Spanish, had found out
a guide, who, traversing the country
near the head of Languedoc,
had brought them over the mountains
by such ways that they were not
much incommoded with the snow; for
where they met with snow in any
quantity, they said it was frozen
hard enough to bear them and
their horses. We sent for this
guide, who told us he would
undertake to carry us the same way,
with no hazard from the snow,
provided we were armed sufficiently
to protect ourselves from wild
beasts; for, he said, in these great
snows it was frequent for some
wolves to show themselves at the
foot of the mountains, being made
ravenous for want of food, the
ground being covered with snow. We
told him we were well enough
prepared for such creatures as they
were, if he would insure us from a
kind of two-legged wolves, which
we were told we were in most danger
from, especially on the French
side of the mountains. He satisfied
us that there was no danger of
that kind in the way that we were to
go; so we readily agreed to
follow him, as did also twelve other
gentlemen with their servants,
some French, some Spanish, who, as I
said, had attempted to go, and
were obliged to come back again. Accordingly, we set out from
Pampeluna with our guide on the 15th
of November; and indeed I was
surprised when, instead of going
forward, he came directly back with
us on the same road that we
came from Madrid, about twenty
miles; when, having passed two
rivers, and come into the plain
country, we found ourselves in a
warm climate again, where the
country was pleasant, and no snow to
be seen; but, on a sudden, turning
to his left, he approached the
mountains another way; and though it
is true the hills and
precipices looked dreadful, yet he
made so many tours, such
meanders, and led us by such winding
ways, that we insensibly
passed the height of the mountains
without being much encumbered
with the snow; and all on a sudden
he showed us the pleasant and
fruitful provinces of Languedoc and
Gascony, all green and
flourishing, though at a great
distance, and we had some rough way
to pass still. We were a little uneasy, however,
when we found it snowed one whole
day and a night so fast that we
could not travel; but he bid us be
easy; we should soon be past it all:
we found, indeed, that we
began to descend every day, and to
come more north than before; and
so, depending upon our guide, we
went on. It was about two hours before night
when, our guide being something
before us, and not just in sight,
out rushed three monstrous
wolves, and after them a bear, from
a hollow way adjoining to a
thick wood; two of the wolves made
at the guide, and had he been
far before us, he would have been
devoured before we could have
helped him; one of them fastened
upon his horse, and the other
attacked the man with such violence,
that he had not time, or
presence of mind enough, to draw his
pistol, but hallooed and cried
out to us most lustily. My man
Friday being next me, I bade him
ride up and see what was the matter.
As soon as Friday came in
sight of the man, he hallooed out as
loud as the other, "O master!
O master!" but like a bold fellow,
rode directly up to the poor
man, and with his pistol shot the
wolf in the head that attacked
him. It was happy for the poor man that
it was my man Friday; for,
having been used to such creatures
in his country, he had no fear
upon him, but went close up to him
and shot him; whereas, any other
of us would have fired at a farther
distance, and have perhaps
either missed the wolf or endangered
shooting the man. But it was enough to have terrified
a bolder man than I; and,
indeed, it alarmed all our company,
when, with the noise of
Friday's pistol, we heard on both
sides the most dismal howling of
wolves; and the noise, redoubled by
the echo of the mountains,
appeared to us as if there had been
a prodigious number of them;
and perhaps there was not such a few
as that we had no cause of
apprehension: however, as Friday had
killed this wolf, the other
that had fastened upon the horse
left him immediately, and fled,
without doing him any damage, having
happily fastened upon his
head, where the bosses of the bridle
had stuck in his teeth. But
the man was most hurt; for the
raging creature had bit him twice,
once in the arm, and the other time
a little above his knee; and
though he had made some defence, he
was just tumbling down by the
disorder of his horse, when Friday
came up and shot the wolf. It is easy to suppose that at the
noise of Friday's pistol we all
mended our pace, and rode up as fast
as the way, which was very
difficult, would give us leave, to
see what was the matter. As
soon as we came clear of the trees,
which blinded us before, we saw
clearly what had been the case, and
how Friday had disengaged the
poor guide, though we did not
presently discern what kind of
creature it was he had killed. |
