August 7, 2025 • 48 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three, wrecked on a desert island. After the stop,
we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began
to abate very much, and going no oftener to the
shore than we were obliged to for fresh water. My
(00:24):
design in this was to make the river Gambia or Senegal,
that is to say, anywhere about the Cape de Verde,
where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship.
And if I did not, I knew not what course
I had to take, but to seek for the islands
or perish there among the negroes. I knew that all
(00:48):
the ships from Europe which sailed either to the coast
of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies,
made this cape or those islands. And in a word,
I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point,
either that I must meet with some ship or must perish.
(01:10):
When I had pursued this resolution, about ten days longer,
as I have said, I began to see that the
land was inhabited, And in two or three places as
we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore
to look at us. We could also perceive that they
were quite black and naked. I was once inclined to
(01:30):
have gone on shore to them, but Shurey was my
better counselor, and said to me, no go, no go. However,
I hauled in nearer the shore that I might to
talk to them, and I found that they ran along
the shore by me a good way. I observed that
they had no weapons in their hand, except one which
(01:53):
had a long slender stick, which Shurry said was a lance,
and that could target them a great way with good aim.
So I kept at a distance, but talked with them
by signs as well as I could, and particularly made
signs for something to eat. They beckoned me stop my
(02:15):
boat and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this
I lowered the top of my sail and lay by,
and two of them ran up into the country, and
unless then half an hour came back and brought with
them two pieces of dried flesh and some corn, such
as is the produce of their country. But we neither
(02:36):
knew what the one or the other was. However, we
were willing to accept it, but how to come at
it was our next dispute, for I would not venture
on shore to them and they were as much afraid
of us, but they took a safe way for us
all for they brought it to the shore and laid
it down, and went and stood a great way off
(02:58):
till we fetched it on board, and then came close
to us again. We made signs of thanks to them,
for we had nothing to make them amends, but an
opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully, For
while we were lined by the shore, came two mighty creatures,
(03:19):
one pursuing the other as we took it with great
fury from the mountains towards the sea. Whether it was
the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in
sport or in rage, we could not tell any more
than we could tell whether it was usual or strange.
But I believe it was the latter, because in the
(03:41):
first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appeared but in the night.
And in the second place we found the people terribly frightened,
especially the women. The man that had the lance or
dart did not fly from them, but the rest did. However,
as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they
did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes,
(04:03):
but plunged themselves into the sea and swam about as
if they had come there for diversion. At last one
of them began to come nearer our boat than at
first I expected. But I lay ready for him, for
I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and
bade Shui load both the others. As soon as he
(04:25):
came fairly within my reach, I fired and shot him
directly in the head. Immediately he sank down into the water,
but rose instantly and plunged up and down as if
he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was.
He immediately made to the shore, but between the wound,
which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water,
(04:48):
he died just before he reached the shore. It is
impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at
the noise and fire of my gun. Some of them
were even ready to die for fear, and fell down
as dead with the very terror. And when they saw
the creature dead and sunk in the water, and that
(05:09):
I made signs to them to come to the shore,
they took heart and came and began to search for
the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water,
and by the help of a rope which I slung
round him and gave the negroes to haul. They dragged
him on shore and found that it was the most
(05:30):
curious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and
the negroes held up their hands with admiration to think
what it was I had killed him with the other
creature frighted with the flash of fire and the noise
of the gun, swam on shore and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came. Nor could I,
(05:52):
at that distance know what it was. I found quickly
the Negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature,
so I was willing to have them take it as
a favor from me, which when I made signs to
them that they might take them, they were very thankful,
for immediately they fell to work with him, and though
(06:12):
they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood,
they took off his skin as readily, and much more
readily than we could have done with a knife. They
offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, pointing
out that I would give it to them, but made
signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely,
and brought me a great deal more of their provisions,
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which though I did not understand yet, I accepted. I
then made signs to them for some water, and held
out one of the jars to them, turning the bottom
upward to show that it was empty, and that I
wanted to have it filled. They immediately called to some
of their friends, and there came two women and brought
(06:54):
a great vessel made of earth and burnt as I
supposed in the sun. This they said down to me
as before, and I sent sury on shore with my
jars and filled them all. Three the women were as
naked as the men. I was now furnished with roots
and corn such as it was in water, and leaving
(07:16):
my friendly negroes, I made forward for about eleven days
more without offering to go near the shore, till I
saw the land run out a great length to the sea,
at about the distance of four or five leagues before me,
and the sea being very calm, I kept a large
offing to make this point at length, doubling the point
(07:38):
at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly
land on the other side to seaward then I concluded,
as it was most certain indeed, that this was the
Cape de Verde, and those the islands called from thence
Cape de Verde Islands. However, they were at a great distance,
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and I could not tell well what I had best
to do, for if I should be taken with the
fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or other
in this dilemma. As I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin and sat down, surey having the helm,
when on a sudden the boy cried out, master Master
(08:21):
a ship with a sail. And the foolish boy was
frighted out of his wits, thinking it must be some
of his master ships sent to pursue us. But I
knew we were far enough out of their reach. I
jumped out of the cabin and immediately saw not only
the ship, but that it was a Portuguese ship, and,
as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea
(08:44):
for negroes. But when I observed the course she steered,
I was soon convinced they were bound some other way,
and did not design to come any nearer to the
shore upon which I stretched out to sea as much
as I could, resolving to speak with them if possis.
With all the sale I could make, I found I
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should not be able to come in their way, but
that they would be gone by before I could make
any signal to them. But after I had crowded to
the utmost and began to despair, they it seems, saw
by the help of their glasses that it was some
European boat, which they supposed must belong to some ship
that was lost. So they shortened sailed to let me
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come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I
had my patrons ancient on board, I made a waft
of it to them for a signal of distress, and
fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told
me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear
the gun. Upon these signals, they very kindly brought to
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and lay by for me, and in about three hours
time I came up with them. They asked me what
I was in Portuguese, and in Spanish and in French,
but I understood none of them. But at last a
Scotch sailor who was on board called to me, and
I answered him and told him I was an Englishman,
(10:08):
that I had made my escape out of slavery from
the moors at Sali. They then bade me come on board,
and very kindly took me in and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which anyone will
believe that I was thus delivered as I esteemed it,
from such a miserable and hopeless condition as I was in.
(10:31):
And I immediately offered all I had to the captain
of the ship as a return for my deliverance. But
he generously told me he would take nothing from me,
but that all I had should be delivered safe to
me when I came to the Brazils. For says he,
I have saved your life on no other terms than
I would be glad to be saved myself. And it may,
(10:55):
one time or other be my lot to be taken
up in the same condition, said he. When I carry
you to the Brazils, so great away from your own country,
if I should take from you what you have, you
will be starved there, And then I only take away
that life I have given. No no, says he signor inglese,
(11:17):
mister Englishman. I will carry you thither in charity, and
those things which help to buy your subsistence there and
your passage home again as he was charitable in his proposal,
so he was just in the performance to a tittle,
for he ordered the Sevan that none should touch anything
(11:38):
that I had. Then he took everything into his own
possession and gave me back an exact inventory of them,
that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one,
and that he saw and told me he would buy
it of me for his ship's use, and asked me
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what I would have for it. I told him he
had been so generous to me in everything that I
could not offer to make any price of the boat,
but left it entirely to him, upon which he told
me he would give me a note of hand to
pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil,
and when it came there, if any one offered to
(12:21):
give more, he would make it up. He offered me
also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Surey,
which I was loath to take. Not that I was
unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was
very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when
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I let him know my reason. He owned it to
be just and offered me this medium that he would
give the boy an obligation to set him free in
ten years if he turned Christian upon this, and surely
saying he was willing to go with him, I let
the captain have him. We had a very good voyage
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to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay de
Todos Losantos or All Saints Bay, in about twenty two
days after. And now I was once again delivered from
the most miserable of all conditions of life. And what
to do next with myself? I was to consider the
generous treatment the captain gave me. I can never enough remember.
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He would take nothing of me for my passage. Gave
me twenty ducats for the leopard skin and forty for
the lion skin which I had in my boat, and
caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually
delivered to me, and what I was willing to sell
he bought of me, such as the case of bottles,
two of my guns, and a piece of the lumpum beeswax,
(13:50):
for I had made candles. Of the rest. In a word,
I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight
of all my cargo, and with this stock I went
on shore in the Brazils. I had not been long
here before I was recommended to the house of a good,
honest man like himself, who had an Inhano as they
(14:12):
call it, that is, a plantation and a sugar house.
I lived with him some time and acquainted myself, by
that means, with the manner of planting and making of sugar,
and seeing how well the planters lived and how they
got rich. Suddenly I resolved, if I could get a
license to settle there, I would turn planter among them.
(14:33):
Resolving in the meantime to find out some way to
get my money, which I had left in London remitted
to me to this purpose, getting a kind of letter
of naturalization. I purchased as much land that was uncured
as my money would reach, and formed a plan for
my plantation and settlement such a wan as might be
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suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to
receive from England. I had a neighbor of Portuguese of Lisbon,
but born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and
in much such circumstances as I was, I called him
my neighbor, because his plantation lay next to mine, and
(15:17):
as we went on very sociably together, my stock was
but low as well as his, and we rather planted
for food than anything else. For about two years, however,
we began to increase in our land began to come
into order, so that the third year we planted some
tobacco and made each of us a large piece of
(15:39):
ground ready for planting canes in the year to come.
But we both wanted help, and now I found more
than before. I had done wrong in parting with my boy, surey,
But alas for me to do wrong that never did right,
was no great wonder. I hailed no remedy, but to
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go on. I had got into an employment quite remote
to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I
delighted in, and for which I forsook my father's house
and broke through all his good advice. Nay, I was
coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of
low life, which my father advised me to before, and
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which if I resolved to go on with, I might
as well have stayed at home and never have fatigued
myself in the world as I had done. And I
used often to say to myself, I could have done
this as well in England among my friends, as I
have gone five thousand thousand miles off to do it
(16:44):
among strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at such
a distance as never to hear from any part of
the world that had the least knowledge of me. In
this manner, I used to look upon my condition with
the utmost regret. I had no ready to converse with
but now and then this neighbor, no work to be
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done but by the labor of my hands. And I
used to say, I lived just like a man cast
away upon some desolate island that had nobody there but himself.
But how just has it been? And how should all
men reflect that when they compare their present conditions with
(17:25):
others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make
the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by
their experience. I say, how just has it been that
the true solitary life I reflected on in an island
of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so
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often unjustly compared it with the life which I then
led in which had I continued, I had in all
probability been exceeding prosperous and rich. I was in some
degree settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation.
Before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that
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took me up at sea, went back for the ship,
remained there in providing his lady and preparing for his
voyage nearly three months. When telling him what little stock
I had left behind me in London, he gave me
this friendly and sincere advice. Signor Inglese says he for
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so he always called me, if you will give me
letters and a procuration informed to me with orders to
the person who has your money in London to send
your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct,
and in such goods as are proper for this country,
I will bring you the produce of them, God willing
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at my return. But since human affairs are all subject
to changes and disasters, I would have you give orders
but for one one hundred pounds sterling, which you say
is half your stock, and let the hazard be run
for the first, so that if it comes safe, you
may order the rest the same way, and if it miscarry,
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you may have the other half to have recourse to
for your supply. This was so wholesome advice and looked
so friendly that I could not but be convinced it
was the best course I could take. So I accordingly
prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left
my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain. As
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he desired. I wrote the English captain's widow, a full
account of all my adventures, my slavery escape, and now
I had met with the Portuguese captain at sea, and
the humanity of his behavior, and what condition I was
now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply.
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And when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found
means by some English merchants there to send over not
the order only, but a full account of my story
to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to her.
Whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of
her own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very handsome
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present for his humanity and charity to me. The merchant
in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods such
as the captain had written for, sent them directly to
him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to
me to the brazils, among which, without my direction, for
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I was too young in my business to think of them,
he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, ironwork,
and utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were of
great use to me. When this cargo arrived, I thought
my fortune made, for I was surprised with the joy
of it, and my stood steward. The captain had laid
(21:03):
out the five pounds which my friend had sent him
for present for himself to purchase and bring me over
a servant under bond for six years service, and would
not accept of any consideration except a little tobacco, which
I would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all all my goods, being all English manufacturers,
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such as cloths, stuffs, bays, and things particularly valuable and
desirable in the country. I found means to sell them
to a very great advantage, so that I might say
I had more than four times the value of my
first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor.
I mean in the ambatsement of my plantation. For the
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first thing I did I bought me a Negro slave
and an European servant also, I mean another one besides
that which the captain brought me from Lisbon. But as abused,
prosperity is sometimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.
So it was with me. I went on the next
(22:11):
year with great success in my plantation. I raised fifty
great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than
I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors. And
these fifty roles, being each of above a hundredweight, were
well cured and laid by against the return of the
fleet from Lisbon. And, now increasing in business and wealth,
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my head began to be full of prospects and undertakings
beyond my reach, such as are indeed often the ruin
of the best heads in business. Had I continued in
the station I was now in, I had room for
all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life,
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and of which he had so sensibly described the middle
station of life to be full of. But other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful
agent of all my own miseries, and particularly to increase
my fault and double the reflections upon myself, which in
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my future sorrows I should have leisure to make. All
these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinates, adhering to
my foolish inclination of wandering about and pursuing that inclination
in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good
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in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and
those measures of life which nature and Providence concurred to
present me with, and to make my duty as I
had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents.
So I could not be content now, But I must
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go and leave the happy view I had of being
a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only
to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster
than the nature of the thing admitted. And thus I
cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human
misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be
(24:24):
consistent with life and a state of health in the
world to come. Then, by the just degrees to the
particulars of this part of my story, you may suppose that,
having now lived almost four years in the Brazils, and
beginning to thrive and prosper very well. Upon my plantation.
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I had not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters, well as among
the merchants of Saint Salvador, which was our port, and
that in my discourses among them, I had frequently given
them an account of my two voyages to the coast
of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes there,
(25:06):
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast
for trifles such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits
of glass and the like, not only gold dust, guinea grains,
elephant teeth, et cetera, but negroes for the service of
the Brazils in great numbers. They listened always very attentively
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to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that
part which related to the buying of negroes, which was
a trade at that time not only not far entered into,
but as far as it was, had been carried on
by ascientos or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal,
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and engrossed in the public stock, so that few negroes
were bought in these excessively. Dear. It happened being in
company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, and
talking of those things very earnestly. Three of them came
to me next morning and told me they had been
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musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them
of the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me, And after enjoining me to secrecy,
they told me they had a mind to fit out
a ship to go to Guinea, that they had all
plantations as well as I, and were straightened for nothing
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so much as servants. That because it was a trade
that could not be carried on, because they could not
publicly sell the Negroes when they came home, so they
desired to make but one voyage to bring the Negroes
on shore privately and divide them among their own plantations.
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And in a word, the question was whether I would
go their supercargo in the ship to manage the trading
part upon the coast of Guinea. And they offered me
that I should have my equal share of the Negroes
without providing any part of the stock. This was a
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fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to any one that had not had a settlement and
a plantation of his own to look after, which was
in a fair way of coming to be very considerable,
and with a good stock upon it. But for me
that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to
do but to go on as I had begun for
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three or four more years, and to have sent for
the other hundred pounds from England, And who in that time,
and with that little addition could scarce have failed of
being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, And that
increasing too for me to think of such a voyage
was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such
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circumstances could be guilty of. But I, that was born
to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the
offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs from
my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word,
I told them I would go with all my heart
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if they would undertake to look after my plantation in
my absence, and would dispose of it such as I
should direct. If I miscarried this, they all engaged to do,
and entered into writings or covenants to do so, and
I made a formal will disposing of my plantation and
effects in case of my death, making the captain of
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the ship that had saved my life as before my
universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects
as I had directed to my will, one half of
the produce being to himself, and the other to be
shipped to England. In short, I took all possible caution
to preserve my affects and to keep up my plantation.
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Had I used half as much prudence to have looked
into my own interest and have made a judgment of
what I ought to have done and not to have done,
I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking,
leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and
gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its
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common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had
to expect particular misfortunes to myself. But I was hurried
on and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather
than my reason. And accordingly, the ship being fitted out
and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by
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agreement by my partners in the voyage. I went on
board in an evil hour, the first September sixteen fifty nine,
being the same day eight years that I went from
my father and mother at Hull, in order to act
the rebel to their authority and the fool to my
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own interests. Our ship was about one hundred and twenty
tons burden, carried six guns and fourteen men. Besides the master,
his boy and myself. We had on board no large
cargo of goods, except to such toys as were fit
for trade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells,
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and other trifles, especially little looking glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets,
and the like. The same day I went on board,
we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our
own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast.
When we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude,
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which it seems was the manner of course in those days,
we had very good weather, only excessively hot all the
way upon our own coast, till we came to the
height of Cape San Augustino. From wentce keeping further off
at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as
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if we were bound for the Isle Fernando de Noronha,
holding our course northeast by north and leaving those isles
on the east. In this course we passed the line
in about twelve days time, and were, by our last
observation in seven degrees twenty two minutes northern latitude, when
(31:41):
a violin tornado or hurricane took us quite out of
our knowledge. It began from the southeast, came about to
the northwest, and then settled in the northeast. From whence
it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve
days together we could do nothing but drive and scudding
(32:01):
away before it let it carry us, whether fate and
the fury of the winds directed and during these twelve days,
I need not say that I expected every day to
be swallowed up, nor indeed did any in the ship
expect to save their lives in this distress we had.
Besides the terror of the storm, one of our men
(32:23):
die of the calender, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,
the master made an observation as well as he could,
and found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude,
but that he was twenty two degrees of longitude difference
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west from Cape Saint Augustino, so that he found he
was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part
of Brazil, beyond the River Amazon, toward that of the
River Orinoco, called the Great River, and began to consult
with me what course he should take, for the ship
(33:05):
was leaky and very much disabled, and he was going
directly back to the coast of Brazil. I was positively
against that, and looking over the charts of the sea
coast of America with him, we concluded there was no
inhabited country for us to have recourse to till we
came within the circle of the Caribbee Islands, and therefore
(33:28):
resolved to stand away for Barbados, which, by keeping off
at sea to avoid the draft of the Bay or
Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped
in about fifteen days sail, whereas we could not possibly
make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some
assistance both to our ship and to ourselves. With this design,
(33:52):
we changed our course and steered away northwest by west
in order to reach some of our English islands, where
I hoped for relief, But our voyage was otherwise determined.
For being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes,
a second storm came upon us, which carried us away
(34:13):
with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out
of the way of all human commerce, that had all
our lives been saved as to the sea, we were
rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever
returning to our own country. In this distress, the wind
still blowing very hard, one of our men early in
(34:36):
the morning cried out land, and we had no sooner
run out of the cabin to look out and in
hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were. Than
the ship struck upon a sand and in a moment,
her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her
in such a manner that we expected we should all
(34:58):
have perished immediately, And we were immediately driven to our
close quarters to shelter us from the very foam and
spray of the sea. It is not easy for any
one who has not been in the like condition to
describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances.
We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land
(35:20):
it was we were driven, whether an island or the main,
whether inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the
wind was still great, though rather less than at first,
we could not so much as hope to have the
ship hold many minutes without breaking into pieces, unless the winds,
by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. In
(35:43):
a word, we sat looking upon one another and expecting
death every moment, and every man accordingly preparing for another world,
For there was little or nothing more for us to
do in this That which was our our present comfort,
and all the comfort we had was that, contrary to
(36:04):
our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that
the Master said the wind began to abate now, though
we thought that the wind did a little debate. Yet
the ship having thus struck upon the sand and striking
too fast and sticking for us to expect her getting off,
(36:28):
We were in a dreadful condition, indeed, and had nothing
to do but to think of saving our lives as
well as we could. We had a boat at our
stern just before the storm, but she was first staved
by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the second
place she broke away and either sunk or was driven
off to sea. So there was no hope from her.
(36:51):
We had another boat on board, but how to get
her off into the sea was a doubtful thing. However,
there was no time to debate, for we fancied that
the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some
told us she was actually broken already. In this distress,
the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat,
(37:12):
and with the help of the rest of the men,
got her slung over the ship's side. In getting all
in to her, let go and committed ourselves, being eleven
in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea. And
though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran
dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well called
(37:33):
denviled z, as the Dutch called the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal, indeed, for we
all saw plainly that the sea went so high that
the boat could not live, and that we should be
inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor
if we had, could we have done anything with it.
(37:56):
So we worked at the oar towards the land, though
with heavy hearts like men going to execution, For we
all knew that when the boat came near the shore,
she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the
breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to
God in the most earnest manner, and the wind driving
(38:17):
us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our
own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep
or shoal, we knew not. The only hope that could
rationally give us at least some shadow of expectation was
(38:40):
if we might find some bay or gulf, or the
mouth of some river, where by great chance we might
have run our boat in or got under the lee
of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there
was nothing like this appeared. But as we may nearer
and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than
(39:01):
the sea. After we had rowed, or rather driven about
a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a
raging wave mountainlike came rolling astern of us, and plainly
bade us expect the coupdi gras it took us with
such a fury that it overset the boat at once,
(39:22):
and separating us as well from the boat as from
one another, gave us no time to say, Oh God,
for we were all swallowed up in a moment. Nothing
can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when
I sank into the water, For though I swam very well,
yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so
(39:43):
as to draw a breath till that wave, having driven me,
or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore,
and having spent itself, went back and left me upon
the land, almost dry but half dead. With the water
I took in, I had so so much presence of
mind as well as breath left that seen myself nearer
(40:04):
the mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet
and endeavored to make on towards the land as fast
as I could before another wave should return and take
me up again. But I soon found it was impossible
to avoid it, for I saw the sea come after
me as high as a great hill, and as furious
as an enemy, which I had no means or strength
(40:25):
to contend with. My business was to hold my breath
and raise myself upon the water if I could, and
so by swimming to preserve my breathing and pilot myself
towards the shore if possible, my greatest concern now being
that the sea, as it would carry me a great
way towards the shore when it came on, might not
(40:47):
carry me back again with it when it gave back
towards the sea. The wave that came upon me again
buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in
its own body, and I could feel myself cared, carried
with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a
very great way. But I held my breath and assisted
(41:07):
myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when as
I felt myself rising up, so to my immediate relief,
I found my head and hands shoot out of the
surface of the water. And though it was not two
seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet
(41:28):
it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new courage.
I was covered again with water a good while, but
not so long, but I held it out, and, finding
the water had spent itself and began to return, I
struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt
ground again with my feet. I stood still a few
(41:49):
moments to recover breath till the waters went from me,
and then took to my heels and ran with what
strength I had further towards the shore. But neither would
this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which
came pouring in after me. And twice more I was
lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before,
(42:10):
the shore being very flat. The last time of these
two had well nigh been fatal to me, for the sea,
having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather
dashed me against a piece of rock, and that was
such force that it left me senseless and indeed helpless
as to my own deliverance. For the blow taking my
(42:33):
side and breast beat the breath as it were quite
out of my body, and had it returned again immediately,
I must have been strangled in the water. But I
recovered a little before the return of the waves, and
seeing I should be covered again with the water, I
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock,
and so to hold my breath if possible, till the
(42:54):
wave went back. Now as the waves were not so
high as I first. Being nearer land, I held my
hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run,
which brought me so near the shore that the next wave,
though it went over me, yet did not so swallow
me up as to carry me away. And the next
(43:16):
run I took I got to the mainland, where, to
my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the
shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger.
And I was now landed and safe on shore, and
began to look up and thank God that my life
was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes
(43:37):
before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is
impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and
transports of the soul are when it is so saved,
as might say, out of the very grave. I do
not wonder now at the custom when a malefactor who
(43:58):
has the halter around his is tied up and just
going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought
to him, I say, I do not wonder that they
bring a surgeon with it to let him blood. That
very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise
may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and
(44:19):
overwhelm him for sudden joys like griefs confound. At first,
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands
and my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up
in a contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures
and motions which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my
(44:42):
comrades that were drowned, and that there should be not
one soul saved but myself. For as for them, I
never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except
three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows. I cast my eye to the stranded vessel,
(45:08):
when the breach and froth of the sea being so
big I could hardly see it it lay so far off,
and considered, Lord, how was it possible I could get
on shore. After I had solaced my mind with the
comfortable part of my condition, I began to look around
(45:29):
me to see what kind of place I was in
and what was next to be done. And I soon
found my comforts a bait, and that, in a word,
I had a dreadful deliverance, for I was wet, had
no clothes, to shift me, nor anything either to eat
or drink to comfort me. Neither did I see any
(45:50):
prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or
being devoured by wild beasts. And that which was particularly
afflicting to me was that I had no weapon, either
to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or
to defend myself against any other creature that might desire
to kill me for theirs. In a word, I had
(46:13):
nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco pipe, and
a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions.
And this threw me into such terrible agonies of mine
that for a while I ran about like a madman.
Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy heart
(46:33):
to consider what would be my lot if there were
any ravenous beasts in that country, as at night they
always come abroad for their prey. All the remedy that
offered to my thoughts at that time was to get
up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir but thorny,
which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit
(46:57):
all night and consider the next day death I should die,
for as yet I saw no prospect of life I
walked about a furlong from the shore to see if
I could find any fresh water to drink, which I
did to my great joy, And having drank and put
a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, I
(47:19):
went to the tree, and, getting up into it, endeavored
to place myself so that if I should sleep, I
might not fall. And having cut me a short stick
like a trencheon for my defense, I took up my lodging, and,
having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept
(47:41):
as comfortably as I believe few could have done in
my condition, and found myself more refreshed with it than
I think I ever was on such an occasion. End
of Chapter three
Chapter three, wrecked on a desert island. After the stop,
we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began
to abate very much, and going no oftener to the
shore than we were obliged to for fresh water. My
(00:24):
design in this was to make the river Gambia or Senegal,
that is to say, anywhere about the Cape de Verde,
where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship.
And if I did not, I knew not what course
I had to take, but to seek for the islands
or perish there among the negroes. I knew that all
(00:48):
the ships from Europe which sailed either to the coast
of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies,
made this cape or those islands. And in a word,
I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point,
either that I must meet with some ship or must perish.
(01:10):
When I had pursued this resolution, about ten days longer,
as I have said, I began to see that the
land was inhabited, And in two or three places as
we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore
to look at us. We could also perceive that they
were quite black and naked. I was once inclined to
(01:30):
have gone on shore to them, but Shurey was my
better counselor, and said to me, no go, no go. However,
I hauled in nearer the shore that I might to
talk to them, and I found that they ran along
the shore by me a good way. I observed that
they had no weapons in their hand, except one which
(01:53):
had a long slender stick, which Shurry said was a lance,
and that could target them a great way with good aim.
So I kept at a distance, but talked with them
by signs as well as I could, and particularly made
signs for something to eat. They beckoned me stop my
(02:15):
boat and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this
I lowered the top of my sail and lay by,
and two of them ran up into the country, and
unless then half an hour came back and brought with
them two pieces of dried flesh and some corn, such
as is the produce of their country. But we neither
(02:36):
knew what the one or the other was. However, we
were willing to accept it, but how to come at
it was our next dispute, for I would not venture
on shore to them and they were as much afraid
of us, but they took a safe way for us
all for they brought it to the shore and laid
it down, and went and stood a great way off
(02:58):
till we fetched it on board, and then came close
to us again. We made signs of thanks to them,
for we had nothing to make them amends, but an
opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully, For
while we were lined by the shore, came two mighty creatures,
(03:19):
one pursuing the other as we took it with great
fury from the mountains towards the sea. Whether it was
the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in
sport or in rage, we could not tell any more
than we could tell whether it was usual or strange.
But I believe it was the latter, because in the
(03:41):
first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appeared but in the night.
And in the second place we found the people terribly frightened,
especially the women. The man that had the lance or
dart did not fly from them, but the rest did. However,
as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they
did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes,
(04:03):
but plunged themselves into the sea and swam about as
if they had come there for diversion. At last one
of them began to come nearer our boat than at
first I expected. But I lay ready for him, for
I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and
bade Shui load both the others. As soon as he
(04:25):
came fairly within my reach, I fired and shot him
directly in the head. Immediately he sank down into the water,
but rose instantly and plunged up and down as if
he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was.
He immediately made to the shore, but between the wound,
which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water,
(04:48):
he died just before he reached the shore. It is
impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at
the noise and fire of my gun. Some of them
were even ready to die for fear, and fell down
as dead with the very terror. And when they saw
the creature dead and sunk in the water, and that
(05:09):
I made signs to them to come to the shore,
they took heart and came and began to search for
the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water,
and by the help of a rope which I slung
round him and gave the negroes to haul. They dragged
him on shore and found that it was the most
(05:30):
curious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and
the negroes held up their hands with admiration to think
what it was I had killed him with the other
creature frighted with the flash of fire and the noise
of the gun, swam on shore and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came. Nor could I,
(05:52):
at that distance know what it was. I found quickly
the Negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature,
so I was willing to have them take it as
a favor from me, which when I made signs to
them that they might take them, they were very thankful,
for immediately they fell to work with him, and though
(06:12):
they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood,
they took off his skin as readily, and much more
readily than we could have done with a knife. They
offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, pointing
out that I would give it to them, but made
signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely,
and brought me a great deal more of their provisions,
(06:34):
which though I did not understand yet, I accepted. I
then made signs to them for some water, and held
out one of the jars to them, turning the bottom
upward to show that it was empty, and that I
wanted to have it filled. They immediately called to some
of their friends, and there came two women and brought
(06:54):
a great vessel made of earth and burnt as I
supposed in the sun. This they said down to me
as before, and I sent sury on shore with my
jars and filled them all. Three the women were as
naked as the men. I was now furnished with roots
and corn such as it was in water, and leaving
(07:16):
my friendly negroes, I made forward for about eleven days
more without offering to go near the shore, till I
saw the land run out a great length to the sea,
at about the distance of four or five leagues before me,
and the sea being very calm, I kept a large
offing to make this point at length, doubling the point
(07:38):
at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly
land on the other side to seaward then I concluded,
as it was most certain indeed, that this was the
Cape de Verde, and those the islands called from thence
Cape de Verde Islands. However, they were at a great distance,
(07:59):
and I could not tell well what I had best
to do, for if I should be taken with the
fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or other
in this dilemma. As I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin and sat down, surey having the helm,
when on a sudden the boy cried out, master Master
(08:21):
a ship with a sail. And the foolish boy was
frighted out of his wits, thinking it must be some
of his master ships sent to pursue us. But I
knew we were far enough out of their reach. I
jumped out of the cabin and immediately saw not only
the ship, but that it was a Portuguese ship, and,
as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea
(08:44):
for negroes. But when I observed the course she steered,
I was soon convinced they were bound some other way,
and did not design to come any nearer to the
shore upon which I stretched out to sea as much
as I could, resolving to speak with them if possis.
With all the sale I could make, I found I
(09:04):
should not be able to come in their way, but
that they would be gone by before I could make
any signal to them. But after I had crowded to
the utmost and began to despair, they it seems, saw
by the help of their glasses that it was some
European boat, which they supposed must belong to some ship
that was lost. So they shortened sailed to let me
(09:25):
come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I
had my patrons ancient on board, I made a waft
of it to them for a signal of distress, and
fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told
me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear
the gun. Upon these signals, they very kindly brought to
(09:47):
and lay by for me, and in about three hours
time I came up with them. They asked me what
I was in Portuguese, and in Spanish and in French,
but I understood none of them. But at last a
Scotch sailor who was on board called to me, and
I answered him and told him I was an Englishman,
(10:08):
that I had made my escape out of slavery from
the moors at Sali. They then bade me come on board,
and very kindly took me in and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which anyone will
believe that I was thus delivered as I esteemed it,
from such a miserable and hopeless condition as I was in.
(10:31):
And I immediately offered all I had to the captain
of the ship as a return for my deliverance. But
he generously told me he would take nothing from me,
but that all I had should be delivered safe to
me when I came to the Brazils. For says he,
I have saved your life on no other terms than
I would be glad to be saved myself. And it may,
(10:55):
one time or other be my lot to be taken
up in the same condition, said he. When I carry
you to the Brazils, so great away from your own country,
if I should take from you what you have, you
will be starved there, And then I only take away
that life I have given. No no, says he signor inglese,
(11:17):
mister Englishman. I will carry you thither in charity, and
those things which help to buy your subsistence there and
your passage home again as he was charitable in his proposal,
so he was just in the performance to a tittle,
for he ordered the Sevan that none should touch anything
(11:38):
that I had. Then he took everything into his own
possession and gave me back an exact inventory of them,
that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one,
and that he saw and told me he would buy
it of me for his ship's use, and asked me
(11:59):
what I would have for it. I told him he
had been so generous to me in everything that I
could not offer to make any price of the boat,
but left it entirely to him, upon which he told
me he would give me a note of hand to
pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil,
and when it came there, if any one offered to
(12:21):
give more, he would make it up. He offered me
also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Surey,
which I was loath to take. Not that I was
unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was
very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when
(12:42):
I let him know my reason. He owned it to
be just and offered me this medium that he would
give the boy an obligation to set him free in
ten years if he turned Christian upon this, and surely
saying he was willing to go with him, I let
the captain have him. We had a very good voyage
(13:02):
to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay de
Todos Losantos or All Saints Bay, in about twenty two
days after. And now I was once again delivered from
the most miserable of all conditions of life. And what
to do next with myself? I was to consider the
generous treatment the captain gave me. I can never enough remember.
(13:27):
He would take nothing of me for my passage. Gave
me twenty ducats for the leopard skin and forty for
the lion skin which I had in my boat, and
caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually
delivered to me, and what I was willing to sell
he bought of me, such as the case of bottles,
two of my guns, and a piece of the lumpum beeswax,
(13:50):
for I had made candles. Of the rest. In a word,
I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight
of all my cargo, and with this stock I went
on shore in the Brazils. I had not been long
here before I was recommended to the house of a good,
honest man like himself, who had an Inhano as they
(14:12):
call it, that is, a plantation and a sugar house.
I lived with him some time and acquainted myself, by
that means, with the manner of planting and making of sugar,
and seeing how well the planters lived and how they
got rich. Suddenly I resolved, if I could get a
license to settle there, I would turn planter among them.
(14:33):
Resolving in the meantime to find out some way to
get my money, which I had left in London remitted
to me to this purpose, getting a kind of letter
of naturalization. I purchased as much land that was uncured
as my money would reach, and formed a plan for
my plantation and settlement such a wan as might be
(14:56):
suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to
receive from England. I had a neighbor of Portuguese of Lisbon,
but born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and
in much such circumstances as I was, I called him
my neighbor, because his plantation lay next to mine, and
(15:17):
as we went on very sociably together, my stock was
but low as well as his, and we rather planted
for food than anything else. For about two years, however,
we began to increase in our land began to come
into order, so that the third year we planted some
tobacco and made each of us a large piece of
(15:39):
ground ready for planting canes in the year to come.
But we both wanted help, and now I found more
than before. I had done wrong in parting with my boy, surey,
But alas for me to do wrong that never did right,
was no great wonder. I hailed no remedy, but to
(16:02):
go on. I had got into an employment quite remote
to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I
delighted in, and for which I forsook my father's house
and broke through all his good advice. Nay, I was
coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of
low life, which my father advised me to before, and
(16:23):
which if I resolved to go on with, I might
as well have stayed at home and never have fatigued
myself in the world as I had done. And I
used often to say to myself, I could have done
this as well in England among my friends, as I
have gone five thousand thousand miles off to do it
(16:44):
among strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at such
a distance as never to hear from any part of
the world that had the least knowledge of me. In
this manner, I used to look upon my condition with
the utmost regret. I had no ready to converse with
but now and then this neighbor, no work to be
(17:05):
done but by the labor of my hands. And I
used to say, I lived just like a man cast
away upon some desolate island that had nobody there but himself.
But how just has it been? And how should all
men reflect that when they compare their present conditions with
(17:25):
others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make
the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by
their experience. I say, how just has it been that
the true solitary life I reflected on in an island
of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so
(17:49):
often unjustly compared it with the life which I then
led in which had I continued, I had in all
probability been exceeding prosperous and rich. I was in some
degree settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation.
Before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that
(18:10):
took me up at sea, went back for the ship,
remained there in providing his lady and preparing for his
voyage nearly three months. When telling him what little stock
I had left behind me in London, he gave me
this friendly and sincere advice. Signor Inglese says he for
(18:30):
so he always called me, if you will give me
letters and a procuration informed to me with orders to
the person who has your money in London to send
your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct,
and in such goods as are proper for this country,
I will bring you the produce of them, God willing
(18:51):
at my return. But since human affairs are all subject
to changes and disasters, I would have you give orders
but for one one hundred pounds sterling, which you say
is half your stock, and let the hazard be run
for the first, so that if it comes safe, you
may order the rest the same way, and if it miscarry,
(19:13):
you may have the other half to have recourse to
for your supply. This was so wholesome advice and looked
so friendly that I could not but be convinced it
was the best course I could take. So I accordingly
prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left
my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain. As
(19:34):
he desired. I wrote the English captain's widow, a full
account of all my adventures, my slavery escape, and now
I had met with the Portuguese captain at sea, and
the humanity of his behavior, and what condition I was
now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply.
(19:55):
And when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found
means by some English merchants there to send over not
the order only, but a full account of my story
to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to her.
Whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of
her own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very handsome
(20:18):
present for his humanity and charity to me. The merchant
in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods such
as the captain had written for, sent them directly to
him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to
me to the brazils, among which, without my direction, for
(20:39):
I was too young in my business to think of them,
he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, ironwork,
and utensils necessary for my plantation, and which were of
great use to me. When this cargo arrived, I thought
my fortune made, for I was surprised with the joy
of it, and my stood steward. The captain had laid
(21:03):
out the five pounds which my friend had sent him
for present for himself to purchase and bring me over
a servant under bond for six years service, and would
not accept of any consideration except a little tobacco, which
I would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all all my goods, being all English manufacturers,
(21:26):
such as cloths, stuffs, bays, and things particularly valuable and
desirable in the country. I found means to sell them
to a very great advantage, so that I might say
I had more than four times the value of my
first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor.
I mean in the ambatsement of my plantation. For the
(21:49):
first thing I did I bought me a Negro slave
and an European servant also, I mean another one besides
that which the captain brought me from Lisbon. But as abused,
prosperity is sometimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.
So it was with me. I went on the next
(22:11):
year with great success in my plantation. I raised fifty
great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than
I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors. And
these fifty roles, being each of above a hundredweight, were
well cured and laid by against the return of the
fleet from Lisbon. And, now increasing in business and wealth,
(22:34):
my head began to be full of prospects and undertakings
beyond my reach, such as are indeed often the ruin
of the best heads in business. Had I continued in
the station I was now in, I had room for
all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life,
(22:56):
and of which he had so sensibly described the middle
station of life to be full of. But other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful
agent of all my own miseries, and particularly to increase
my fault and double the reflections upon myself, which in
(23:17):
my future sorrows I should have leisure to make. All
these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinates, adhering to
my foolish inclination of wandering about and pursuing that inclination
in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good
(23:37):
in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and
those measures of life which nature and Providence concurred to
present me with, and to make my duty as I
had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents.
So I could not be content now, But I must
(24:00):
go and leave the happy view I had of being
a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only
to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster
than the nature of the thing admitted. And thus I
cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human
misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be
(24:24):
consistent with life and a state of health in the
world to come. Then, by the just degrees to the
particulars of this part of my story, you may suppose that,
having now lived almost four years in the Brazils, and
beginning to thrive and prosper very well. Upon my plantation.
(24:45):
I had not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters, well as among
the merchants of Saint Salvador, which was our port, and
that in my discourses among them, I had frequently given
them an account of my two voyages to the coast
of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes there,
(25:06):
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast
for trifles such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits
of glass and the like, not only gold dust, guinea grains,
elephant teeth, et cetera, but negroes for the service of
the Brazils in great numbers. They listened always very attentively
(25:32):
to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that
part which related to the buying of negroes, which was
a trade at that time not only not far entered into,
but as far as it was, had been carried on
by ascientos or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal,
(25:52):
and engrossed in the public stock, so that few negroes
were bought in these excessively. Dear. It happened being in
company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, and
talking of those things very earnestly. Three of them came
to me next morning and told me they had been
(26:12):
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them
of the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me, And after enjoining me to secrecy,
they told me they had a mind to fit out
a ship to go to Guinea, that they had all
plantations as well as I, and were straightened for nothing
(26:34):
so much as servants. That because it was a trade
that could not be carried on, because they could not
publicly sell the Negroes when they came home, so they
desired to make but one voyage to bring the Negroes
on shore privately and divide them among their own plantations.
(26:55):
And in a word, the question was whether I would
go their supercargo in the ship to manage the trading
part upon the coast of Guinea. And they offered me
that I should have my equal share of the Negroes
without providing any part of the stock. This was a
(27:16):
fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to any one that had not had a settlement and
a plantation of his own to look after, which was
in a fair way of coming to be very considerable,
and with a good stock upon it. But for me
that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to
do but to go on as I had begun for
(27:37):
three or four more years, and to have sent for
the other hundred pounds from England, And who in that time,
and with that little addition could scarce have failed of
being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, And that
increasing too for me to think of such a voyage
was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such
(27:59):
circumstances could be guilty of. But I, that was born
to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the
offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs from
my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word,
I told them I would go with all my heart
(28:20):
if they would undertake to look after my plantation in
my absence, and would dispose of it such as I
should direct. If I miscarried this, they all engaged to do,
and entered into writings or covenants to do so, and
I made a formal will disposing of my plantation and
effects in case of my death, making the captain of
(28:40):
the ship that had saved my life as before my
universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects
as I had directed to my will, one half of
the produce being to himself, and the other to be
shipped to England. In short, I took all possible caution
to preserve my affects and to keep up my plantation.
(29:03):
Had I used half as much prudence to have looked
into my own interest and have made a judgment of
what I ought to have done and not to have done,
I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking,
leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and
gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its
(29:26):
common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had
to expect particular misfortunes to myself. But I was hurried
on and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather
than my reason. And accordingly, the ship being fitted out
and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by
(29:48):
agreement by my partners in the voyage. I went on
board in an evil hour, the first September sixteen fifty nine,
being the same day eight years that I went from
my father and mother at Hull, in order to act
the rebel to their authority and the fool to my
(30:10):
own interests. Our ship was about one hundred and twenty
tons burden, carried six guns and fourteen men. Besides the master,
his boy and myself. We had on board no large
cargo of goods, except to such toys as were fit
for trade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells,
(30:33):
and other trifles, especially little looking glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets,
and the like. The same day I went on board,
we set sail, standing away to the northward upon our
own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast.
When we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude,
(30:55):
which it seems was the manner of course in those days,
we had very good weather, only excessively hot all the
way upon our own coast, till we came to the
height of Cape San Augustino. From wentce keeping further off
at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as
(31:17):
if we were bound for the Isle Fernando de Noronha,
holding our course northeast by north and leaving those isles
on the east. In this course we passed the line
in about twelve days time, and were, by our last
observation in seven degrees twenty two minutes northern latitude, when
(31:41):
a violin tornado or hurricane took us quite out of
our knowledge. It began from the southeast, came about to
the northwest, and then settled in the northeast. From whence
it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve
days together we could do nothing but drive and scudding
(32:01):
away before it let it carry us, whether fate and
the fury of the winds directed and during these twelve days,
I need not say that I expected every day to
be swallowed up, nor indeed did any in the ship
expect to save their lives in this distress we had.
Besides the terror of the storm, one of our men
(32:23):
die of the calender, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,
the master made an observation as well as he could,
and found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude,
but that he was twenty two degrees of longitude difference
(32:44):
west from Cape Saint Augustino, so that he found he
was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part
of Brazil, beyond the River Amazon, toward that of the
River Orinoco, called the Great River, and began to consult
with me what course he should take, for the ship
(33:05):
was leaky and very much disabled, and he was going
directly back to the coast of Brazil. I was positively
against that, and looking over the charts of the sea
coast of America with him, we concluded there was no
inhabited country for us to have recourse to till we
came within the circle of the Caribbee Islands, and therefore
(33:28):
resolved to stand away for Barbados, which, by keeping off
at sea to avoid the draft of the Bay or
Gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped
in about fifteen days sail, whereas we could not possibly
make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some
assistance both to our ship and to ourselves. With this design,
(33:52):
we changed our course and steered away northwest by west
in order to reach some of our English islands, where
I hoped for relief, But our voyage was otherwise determined.
For being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes,
a second storm came upon us, which carried us away
(34:13):
with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out
of the way of all human commerce, that had all
our lives been saved as to the sea, we were
rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever
returning to our own country. In this distress, the wind
still blowing very hard, one of our men early in
(34:36):
the morning cried out land, and we had no sooner
run out of the cabin to look out and in
hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were. Than
the ship struck upon a sand and in a moment,
her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her
in such a manner that we expected we should all
(34:58):
have perished immediately, And we were immediately driven to our
close quarters to shelter us from the very foam and
spray of the sea. It is not easy for any
one who has not been in the like condition to
describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances.
We knew nothing where we were, or upon what land
(35:20):
it was we were driven, whether an island or the main,
whether inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the
wind was still great, though rather less than at first,
we could not so much as hope to have the
ship hold many minutes without breaking into pieces, unless the winds,
by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. In
(35:43):
a word, we sat looking upon one another and expecting
death every moment, and every man accordingly preparing for another world,
For there was little or nothing more for us to
do in this That which was our our present comfort,
and all the comfort we had was that, contrary to
(36:04):
our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that
the Master said the wind began to abate now, though
we thought that the wind did a little debate. Yet
the ship having thus struck upon the sand and striking
too fast and sticking for us to expect her getting off,
(36:28):
We were in a dreadful condition, indeed, and had nothing
to do but to think of saving our lives as
well as we could. We had a boat at our
stern just before the storm, but she was first staved
by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the second
place she broke away and either sunk or was driven
off to sea. So there was no hope from her.
(36:51):
We had another boat on board, but how to get
her off into the sea was a doubtful thing. However,
there was no time to debate, for we fancied that
the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some
told us she was actually broken already. In this distress,
the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat,
(37:12):
and with the help of the rest of the men,
got her slung over the ship's side. In getting all
in to her, let go and committed ourselves, being eleven
in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea. And
though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran
dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well called
(37:33):
denviled z, as the Dutch called the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal, indeed, for we
all saw plainly that the sea went so high that
the boat could not live, and that we should be
inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor
if we had, could we have done anything with it.
(37:56):
So we worked at the oar towards the land, though
with heavy hearts like men going to execution, For we
all knew that when the boat came near the shore,
she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the
breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to
God in the most earnest manner, and the wind driving
(38:17):
us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our
own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep
or shoal, we knew not. The only hope that could
rationally give us at least some shadow of expectation was
(38:40):
if we might find some bay or gulf, or the
mouth of some river, where by great chance we might
have run our boat in or got under the lee
of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there
was nothing like this appeared. But as we may nearer
and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than
(39:01):
the sea. After we had rowed, or rather driven about
a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a
raging wave mountainlike came rolling astern of us, and plainly
bade us expect the coupdi gras it took us with
such a fury that it overset the boat at once,
(39:22):
and separating us as well from the boat as from
one another, gave us no time to say, Oh God,
for we were all swallowed up in a moment. Nothing
can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when
I sank into the water, For though I swam very well,
yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so
(39:43):
as to draw a breath till that wave, having driven me,
or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore,
and having spent itself, went back and left me upon
the land, almost dry but half dead. With the water
I took in, I had so so much presence of
mind as well as breath left that seen myself nearer
(40:04):
the mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet
and endeavored to make on towards the land as fast
as I could before another wave should return and take
me up again. But I soon found it was impossible
to avoid it, for I saw the sea come after
me as high as a great hill, and as furious
as an enemy, which I had no means or strength
(40:25):
to contend with. My business was to hold my breath
and raise myself upon the water if I could, and
so by swimming to preserve my breathing and pilot myself
towards the shore if possible, my greatest concern now being
that the sea, as it would carry me a great
way towards the shore when it came on, might not
(40:47):
carry me back again with it when it gave back
towards the sea. The wave that came upon me again
buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in
its own body, and I could feel myself cared, carried
with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a
very great way. But I held my breath and assisted
(41:07):
myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when as
I felt myself rising up, so to my immediate relief,
I found my head and hands shoot out of the
surface of the water. And though it was not two
seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet
(41:28):
it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new courage.
I was covered again with water a good while, but
not so long, but I held it out, and, finding
the water had spent itself and began to return, I
struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt
ground again with my feet. I stood still a few
(41:49):
moments to recover breath till the waters went from me,
and then took to my heels and ran with what
strength I had further towards the shore. But neither would
this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which
came pouring in after me. And twice more I was
lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before,
(42:10):
the shore being very flat. The last time of these
two had well nigh been fatal to me, for the sea,
having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather
dashed me against a piece of rock, and that was
such force that it left me senseless and indeed helpless
as to my own deliverance. For the blow taking my
(42:33):
side and breast beat the breath as it were quite
out of my body, and had it returned again immediately,
I must have been strangled in the water. But I
recovered a little before the return of the waves, and
seeing I should be covered again with the water, I
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock,
and so to hold my breath if possible, till the
(42:54):
wave went back. Now as the waves were not so
high as I first. Being nearer land, I held my
hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run,
which brought me so near the shore that the next wave,
though it went over me, yet did not so swallow
me up as to carry me away. And the next
(43:16):
run I took I got to the mainland, where, to
my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the
shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger.
And I was now landed and safe on shore, and
began to look up and thank God that my life
was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes
(43:37):
before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is
impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and
transports of the soul are when it is so saved,
as might say, out of the very grave. I do
not wonder now at the custom when a malefactor who
(43:58):
has the halter around his is tied up and just
going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought
to him, I say, I do not wonder that they
bring a surgeon with it to let him blood. That
very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise
may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and
(44:19):
overwhelm him for sudden joys like griefs confound. At first,
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands
and my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up
in a contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures
and motions which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my
(44:42):
comrades that were drowned, and that there should be not
one soul saved but myself. For as for them, I
never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except
three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows. I cast my eye to the stranded vessel,
(45:08):
when the breach and froth of the sea being so
big I could hardly see it it lay so far off,
and considered, Lord, how was it possible I could get
on shore. After I had solaced my mind with the
comfortable part of my condition, I began to look around
(45:29):
me to see what kind of place I was in
and what was next to be done. And I soon
found my comforts a bait, and that, in a word,
I had a dreadful deliverance, for I was wet, had
no clothes, to shift me, nor anything either to eat
or drink to comfort me. Neither did I see any
(45:50):
prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or
being devoured by wild beasts. And that which was particularly
afflicting to me was that I had no weapon, either
to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or
to defend myself against any other creature that might desire
to kill me for theirs. In a word, I had
(46:13):
nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco pipe, and
a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions.
And this threw me into such terrible agonies of mine
that for a while I ran about like a madman.
Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy heart
(46:33):
to consider what would be my lot if there were
any ravenous beasts in that country, as at night they
always come abroad for their prey. All the remedy that
offered to my thoughts at that time was to get
up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir but thorny,
which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit
(46:57):
all night and consider the next day death I should die,
for as yet I saw no prospect of life I
walked about a furlong from the shore to see if
I could find any fresh water to drink, which I
did to my great joy, And having drank and put
a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, I
(47:19):
went to the tree, and, getting up into it, endeavored
to place myself so that if I should sleep, I
might not fall. And having cut me a short stick
like a trencheon for my defense, I took up my lodging, and,
having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept
(47:41):
as comfortably as I believe few could have done in
my condition, and found myself more refreshed with it than
I think I ever was on such an occasion. End
of Chapter three
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