awoke again, and came out of the cave to me--for I had been
milking my goats which I had in the enclosure just by; when he
espied me he came running to me, laying himself down again upon
the ground, with all the possible signs of an humble, thankful
disposition, making a great many antic gestures to show it. At
last he lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and
sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before; and after
this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and
submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me so
long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him
know I was very well pleased with him. In a little time I began to
speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and first, I let him
know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his
life: I called him so for the memory of the time. I likewise
taught him to say Master, and then let him know that was to be my
name; I likewise taught him to say yes and no, and to know the
meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an earthen pot, and let
him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it; and gave
him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly complied
with, and made signs that it was very good for him.
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day I
beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him
some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark
naked. As we went by the place where he had buried the two men, he
pointed exactly to the place, and showed me the marks that he had
made to find them again, making signs to me that we should dig
them up again and eat them. At this I appeared very angry,
expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the
thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away,
which he did immediately, with great submission.
I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies
were gone; and pulling out my glass I looked, and saw plainly the
place where they had been, but no appearance of them or their
canoes; so that it was plain they were gone, and had left their
two comrades behind them, without any search after them.
We came back to our castle, and there I fell to work for my man
Friday; and first of all I gave him a pair of linen drawers, which
I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, which I found in
the wreck, and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very
well; and then I made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as my
skill would allow (for I was now grown a tolerably good tailor);
and I gave him a cap which I made of hare's skin, very convenient,
and fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed, for the present,
tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost
as well clothed as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in
these clothes at first: wearing the drawers was very awkward to
him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the
inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained
they hurt him, and using himself to them, he took to them at
length very well.
The next day, after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to
consider where I should lodge him; and that I might do well for
him and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him
in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside
of the last, and in the outside of the first. As there was a door
or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case,
and a door to it, of boards, and set it up in the passage, a
little within the entrance; and, causing the door to open in the
inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders, too;
so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my
innermost wall without making so much noise in getting over that
it must needs awaken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof
over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the
side of the hill; which was again laid across with smaller sticks,
instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with
the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or
place which was left to go in or out by the ladder I had placed a
kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside,
would not have opened at all, but would have fallen down and made
a great noise. As to weapons, I took them all into my side every
night. But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had
a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me;
without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and
engaged; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a
child to a father, and I dare say he would have sacrificed his
life to save mine upon any occasion whatsoever; the many
testimonies he gave me of this put it out of doubt, and soon
convinced me that I needed to use no precautions for my safety on
his account.
I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach
him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and
helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when
I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar that ever was; and
particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased
when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that
it was very pleasant to me to talk to him.
Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that
could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was
never to remove from the place where I lived.
ROBINSON CRUSOE RESCUED
By Daniel Defoe
[After having been on his island for twenty-seven years, an
English vessel at last arrives. The crew had mutinied, and brought
the captain and several of the men ashore. Crusoe saves the
captain and two of the crew, and seizes the ship's boat.]
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main
strength, heaved the boat upon the beach so high that the tide
would not float her off at high-water mark, and besides had broke
a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set
down musing what we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and
make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on
board-but no boat stirred; and they fired several times, making
other signals for the boat. At last, when all their signals and
firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we
saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out and
row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that
there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had
firearms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full
view of them as 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 rowed up under shore, to come to the same place
where the other had landed, and where the boat lay; by this means,
I say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew the
persons and characters of all the men in the boat, of whom, be
said, there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were
led into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and
frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who it seems was the
chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as
outrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made
desperate in their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he
was that they would be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and
told him that men in our circumstances were past the operation of
fear; that, seeing almost every condition that could be was better
than that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that
the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a
deliverance. I asked him what he thought of the circumstances of
my life, and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for.
"And where, sir," said I, "is your belief of my being preserved
here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little
while ago? For my part," said I, "there seems to be but one thing
amiss in all the prospect of it."
"What is that?" says he.
"Why," said I, "it is that, as you say, there are three or four
honest fellows among them which should be spared; had they been
all of the wicked part of the crew I should have thought God's
providence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands;
for depend upon it, every man that comes ashore is our own, and
shall die or live as they behave to us."
As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I
found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our
business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the
ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed,
secured them effectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was
less assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the
three delivered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough,
and out of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding
their way out of the woods if they could have delivered
themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave them provisions,
and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give them
their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their
escape they should be put to death without mercy. They promised
faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very
thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and
light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made
ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he
stood sentinel over them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept
pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not able to trust them;
but the other two were taken into my service, upon the captain's
recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die
with us; so with them and the three honest men we were seven men,
well armed; and I made no doubt we should be able to deal well
enough with the ten that were coming, considering that the captain
had said there were three or four honest men among them also. As
soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran
their boat into the beach and came all on shore, hauling the boat
up after them, which I was glad to see, for I was afraid they
would rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from
the shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we should
not be able to seize the boat.
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to their
other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great
surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her,
and a great hole in her bottom. After they had mused a while upon
this, they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all
their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but
all was to no purpose. Then they came all close in a ring, and
fired a volley of their small arms, which indeed we heard, and the
echoes made the woods ring. But it was all one; those in the cave,
we were sure, could not hear; and those in our keeping, though
they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them. They
were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us
afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to their ship,
and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the long-
boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their boat
again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this,
believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail,
giving their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose
the ship, which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he
was quickly as much frightened the other way.
They had not been long put off the boat, when we perceived them
all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their
conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz., to
leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go
up into the country to look for their fellows. This was a great
disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do, as our
seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us if we
let the boat escape; because they would row away to the ship, and
then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so
our recovering the ship would be lost. However, we had no remedy
but to wait and see what the issue of things might present. The
seven men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat
put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came to an
anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come
at them in the boat. Those that came on shore kept close together,
marching towards the top of the little hill under which my
habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could
not perceive us.
We should have been very glad if they would have come nearer us,
so that we might have fired at them, or that they would have gone
farther off, that we might come abroad. But when they were come to
the brow of the hill where they could see a great way into the
valleys and woods, which lay towards the 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 shore,
nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree to
consider it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as
the other part of them had done, they had done the job for us; but
they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to
sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had to
fear.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation
of theirs, viz., that perhaps they would all fire a volley again,
to endeavor to make their fellows hear, and that we should all
sally upon them just at the juncture when their pieces were all
discharged, and they would certainly yield, and we should have
them without bloodshed. I liked this proposal, provided it was
done while we were near enough to come up to them before they
could load their pieces again. But this event did not happen; and
we lay still a long time, very irresolute what course to take. At
length I told them there would be nothing done, in my opinion,
till night; and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps
we might find a way to get between them and the shore, and so
might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on
shore. We waited a great while, though very impatient for their
removing; and were very uneasy when, after long consultation, we
saw them all start up and march down towards the sea; it seems
they had such dreadful apprehension of the danger of the place
that they resolved to go on board the, ship again, give their
companions over for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage
with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to
be as it really was, that they had given over their search, and
were going back again, and the captain, as soon as I told him my
thoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I
presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and
which answered my end to a title. I ordered Friday and the
captain's mate to go over the little creek westward, towards the
place where the savages came on shore when Friday was rescued, and
so soon as they came to a little rising ground, at about half a
mile distant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they could, and
wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as ever
they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again;
and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering
when the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island and
among the woods as possible, and then wheel about again to me by
such ways as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate
hallooed; and they presently heard them, and answering ran along
the shore westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were
stopped by the creek, where, the water being up, they could not
get over, and called for the boat to come up and set them over;
as, indeed, I expected. When they had set themselves over, I
observed that the boat being gone a good way into the creek, and,
as it were, in a harbor within the land, they took one of the
three men out of her, to go along with them, and left only two in
the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the
shore. This was what I wished for, and, immediately leaving Friday
and the captain's mate to their business, I took the rest with me;
and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two
men before they were aware--one of them lying on the shore, and
the other being in the boat. The fellow on shore was between
sleeping and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who was
foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called
out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
They needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield
when he saw five men upon him and his comrade knocked down;
besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who were not so
hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore was
easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join very
sincerely with us. In the meantime, Friday and the captain's mate
so well managed their business with the rest that they drew them,
by hallooing and answering from one hill to another, and from one
wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left
them where they were, very sure they could not reach back to the
boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired
themselves also, by the time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to
fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several
hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their
boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they
came quite up, calling to those behind to come along, and could
also hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were,
and not able to come any faster, which was very welcome news to
us. At length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible to
express their confusion when they found the boat fast aground in
the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. We could
hear them call one to another in a most lamentable manner, telling
one another they were got into an enchanted island; that either
there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or
else there were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all
carried away and devoured. They hallooed, again, and called their
two comrades by their names a great many times; but no answer.
After some time we could see them, by the little light there was,
run about, wringing their hands like men in despair, and sometimes
they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then
come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the same thing
over again.
My men would fain have had me give them leave to fall upon them at
once in the dark; but I was willing to take them at some
advantage, so as to spare them, and kill as few of them as I
could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any
of our men, knowing the others were very well armed. I resolved to
wait, to see if they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure
of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the
captain to creep upon their hands and feet, as close to the ground
as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as near
them as they could possibly before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was
the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself
the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking
towards them, with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager
at having this principal rogue so much in his power, that he could
hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him,
for they only heard his tongue before; but when they came nearer,
the captain and Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at
them. The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was
shot, in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die
till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it.
At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men, viz., myself, generalissimo;
Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and
the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with arms. We came
upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see our
number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now
one of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them to a
parley, and so perhaps might reduce them to terms; which fell out
just as we desired, for indeed it was easy to think, as their
condition then was, they would be very willing to capitulate. So
he calls out as loud as he could to one of them, "Tom Smith! Tom
Smith!"
Tom Smith answered immediately, "Is that Robinson?" for it seems
he knew the voice. The other answered,
"Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and
yield, or you are all dead men this moment,"
"Who must we yield to? Where are they?" says Smith again.
"Here they are," says he, "here's our captain and fifty men with
him, have been hunting you these two hours; the boatswain is
killed; Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do
not yield you are all lost."
"Will they give us quarter, then?" says Tom Smith, "and we will
yield."
"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," said Robinson: so he
asked the captain, and the captain himself then calls out,
"You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms
immediately and submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will
Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me
quarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I," which,
by the way, was not true, for it seems this Will Atkins was the
first man that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied,
and used him barbarously in tying his hands and giving him
injurious language. However, the captain told him he must lay down
his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor's mercy: by
which he meant me, for they all called me governor. In a word,
they all laid down their arms and begged their lives; and I sent
the man that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound them
all; and then my great army of fifty men, which, with those three,
were in all but eight, came up and seized upon them, and upon
their boat; only that I kept myself and one more out of sight for
reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the
ship; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with
them, he expostulated with them upon the villany of their
practices with him, and upon the further wickedness of their
design, and how certainly it must bring them to misery and
distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows. They all appeared
very penitent, and begged hard for their lives. As for that, he
told them they were not his prisoners, but the commander's of the
island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren,
uninhabited island, but it had pleased God so to direct them that
it was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman; that he
might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them
all quarter, he supposed he would send them all to England, to be
dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was
commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for
that he would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its
desired effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to
intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged
of him, for God's sake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come,
and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in
to be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in
the dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a
governor they had, and called the captain to me; when I called, at
a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again and say
to the captain, "Captain, the commander calls for you;" and
presently the captain replied,
"Tell his excellency I am just coming."