Journeys Through Bookland Volume Iii Part 8

Master.--Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men they take; do they carry them away and eat them, as these did?

Friday.--Yes, my nation eat mans too, eat all up.

Master.--Where do they carry them?

Friday.--Go to other place, where they think.

Master.--Do they come hither?

Friday.--Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.

Master.--Have you been here with them?

Friday.--Yes, I been here (points to the N.W. side of the island, which it seems was their side).

By this, I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used to come on sh.o.r.e on the further part of the island, on the same man-eating occasions that he was now brought for: and, some time after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he was there once, when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them, by laying so many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.

CRUSOE AND THE PIRATES

I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "Master, Master, they are come, they are come!" I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went, as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I was surprised, when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a league and a half distant, standing in for the sh.o.r.e, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed presently, that they did not come from that side which the sh.o.r.e lay on, but from the southernmost end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective gla.s.s, to see what I could make of them; and, having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything, to take my view the plainer, without being discovered.

I had scarce set my foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a s.h.i.+p lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, S.S.E., but not above a league and a half from the sh.o.r.e. By my observation, it appeared plainly to be an English s.h.i.+p, and the boat appeared to be an English longboat.

I cannot express the confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing a s.h.i.+p, and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some secret doubts about me--I cannot tell from whence they came--bidding me keep upon my guard; for that I had better continue as I was, than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I DISCOVERED A s.h.i.+P LYING AT ANCHOR]

I saw the boat draw near the sh.o.r.e, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of landing; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on sh.o.r.e, upon the beach, at about half a mile from me; which was very happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my door, as I may say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all I had. When they were on sh.o.r.e, I was fully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were unarmed, and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on sh.o.r.e, they took those three out of the boat, as prisoners. One of the three I could perceive using the most pa.s.sionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be.

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cutla.s.s, as the seamen call it, or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins. I wished heartily that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of them, that I might have secured the three men, for I saw no firearms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground very pensive, and looked like men in despair.

It was just at high water when these people came on sh.o.r.e; and while they rambled about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterward, having drunk a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them, waking a little sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed out for the rest, who were straggling about; upon which they all soon came to the boat; but it was past all their strength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the sh.o.r.e on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. In this condition, like true seamen, who are, perhaps, the least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled about the country again; and I heard one of them say aloud to another, calling them off from the boat, "Why, let her alone, Jack, can't you? she'll float next tide"; by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of what countrymen they were. All this while I kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of my castle any further than to my place of observation; and very glad I was to think how well it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat could float again, and by that time it would be dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had any. In the meantime, I fitted myself up for a battle, as before, though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another kind of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I took myself two fowling pieces, and I gave him three muskets; my figure, indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable goatskin coat on, with my great cap, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder.

It was my design not to have made any attempt till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, I found that they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as I thought, laid down to sleep; the three poor distressed men, too anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn something of their condition. Immediately I marched as above, my man Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I was. I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye, gentlemen?" They started up at the noise, but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in English.

"Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me; perhaps you may have a friend near, when you did not expect it."

"He must be sent directly from Heaven, then," said one of them very gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our condition is past the help of man."

"All help is from Heaven, sir," said I; "but can you put a stranger in the way to help you? for you seem to be in some great distress. I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to make application to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them lift up his sword to kill you."

The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned--

"Am I talking to G.o.d, or man? Is it a real man, or an angel?"

"Be in no fear about that, sir," said I; "if G.o.d had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and armed after another manner than you see me in; pray lay aside your fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to a.s.sist you; you see I have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? What is your case?"

"Our case, sir," said he, "is too long to tell you, while our murderers are so near us; but in short, sir, I was commander of that s.h.i.+p; my men have mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and at last have set me on sh.o.r.e in this desolate place, with these two men with me--one my mate, the other a pa.s.senger; where we expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not what to think of it."

"Where are those brutes, your enemies," said I; "do you know where they are gone?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: THEY STARTED UP]

"There they lie, sir," said he, pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and heard you speak: if they have, they will certainly murder us all."

"Have they any firearms?" said I.

"They had only two pieces," he answered, "one of which they left in the boat."

"Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are all asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather take them prisoners?"

He told me there were two desperate villains among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to their duty. I asked him which they were. He told me he could not at that distance distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in everything I would direct.

"Well," said I, "let us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve further."

So they willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us from them.

"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions with me?" He antic.i.p.ated my proposals by telling me that both he and the s.h.i.+p, if recovered, should be wholly directed and commanded by me in everything; and if the s.h.i.+p was not recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the world soever I would send him, and the two other men said the same.

"Well," said I, "my conditions are but two: first--that while you stay in this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if I put arms in your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this island, and in the meantime be governed by my orders; secondly--that if the s.h.i.+p is or may be recovered, you will carry me and my man to England pa.s.sage free."

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked if either of them were the men who, he had said, were the heads of the mutiny. He said, "No."

"Well, then," said I, "you may let them escape; Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now," said I, "if the rest escape you, it is your fault."

Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand. The two men who were with him going first made some noise, at which one of the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, for the moment he cried out they fired, I mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain, stepping up to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon G.o.d to forgive his villainy, and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more; there were three more in the company, and one of them was slightly wounded; by this time I was come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives if they would give him an a.s.surance of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the s.h.i.+p, and afterward in carrying her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired; and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was not against; only that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were upon the island.

While this was being done, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sail, which they did; and by and by three straggling men, that were (happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing the captain, who was before their prisoner, now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also, and so our victory was complete.

At present our business was to consider how to recover the s.h.i.+p, and the captain agreed with me that there should be no attacking them with so small a number as we were.

It presently occurred to me that in a little while the s.h.i.+p's crew, wondering what was become of their comrades and of the boat, would certainly come on sh.o.r.e in their other boat to look for them, and that then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us; this he allowed to be rational. Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off; and taking everything out of her, leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim; accordingly, we went on board, took the arms which were left on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas (the sugar was five or six pounds); all which was very welcome to me.

When we had carried all these things on sh.o.r.e (the oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried before), we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat. Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover the s.h.i.+p; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, I did not much question to make her again fit to carry us to the Leeward Islands.

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so high that the tide would not float her off at high-water mark; and besides, had broken a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what we should do, we heard the s.h.i.+p fire a gun, and make a waft with her ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board; but no boat stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the boat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my gla.s.ses, hoist another boat out, and row toward the sh.o.r.e; and we found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had firearms with them.

As the s.h.i.+p lay almost two leagues from the sh.o.r.e, we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rode up under sh.o.r.e, to come to the same place where the other had landed, and where the boat lay.

As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into the beach and came all on sh.o.r.e, hauling the boat up after them; which I was glad to see, for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the sh.o.r.e, with some hands in her, to guard her, and so we should not be able to seize the boat. Being on sh.o.r.e, the first thing they did, they ran all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom. After they had mused awhile upon this, they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose. Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring; but it was all one; our first prisoners, who were in the cave, could not hear; and those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that as they told us afterward, they resolved to go all on board again to their s.h.i.+p, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the longboat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their boat again, and got all of them on board.

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this, believing they would go on board the s.h.i.+p again, and set sail, giving their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose the s.h.i.+p, which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frighted the other way.

They had not been long put off with the boat, when we perceived them all coming on sh.o.r.e again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz., to leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on sh.o.r.e, and go up into the country to look for their fellows.

We had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things might present; the seven men came on sh.o.r.e, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good distance from the sh.o.r.e, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat. Those that came on sh.o.r.e kept close together, marching toward the top of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive us; we should have been very glad if they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them, or that they would have gone further off, that we might come abroad. But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which lay toward the northeast part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the sh.o.r.e, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree to consider it.