_Robinson Discovers Himself to the English Captain--Assists Him In
Reducing His Mutinous Crew, Who Submit to Him_
It was just at the top of high-water when these people came on shore;
and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners they brought,
and partly 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 afterwards, having
drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep. However, one of them
waking sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground
for him to stir it, hallooed 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 shore 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 ye?
she will 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 farther than to my place of observation near the top
of the hill; 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 be on 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 goat-skin coat on, with the great cap
I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt, and
a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till
it was dark; but about two o’clock, being the heat of the day, I found
that, in short, they were all gone straggling into the wood, and, as I
thought, were laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too
anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, set 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 in the figure as above, my man
Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I,
but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did.
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 you, 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 how to help you, for you
seem to me to be in some great distress? I saw you when you landed; and
when you seemed to make applications 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 God, or man? Is it
a real man, or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I.
“If God 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 assist
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,” said he, “sir, is too long to tell you while our murderers
are so near; but in short, sir, I was commander of that ship; my men
have mutinied against me, they have been hardly prevailed on not to
murder me; and at last have set me on shore in this desolate place,
with these two men with me, one my mate, the other a passenger, where
we expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know
not yet what to think of it.”
“Where are those brutes, your enemies?” said I. “Do you know where
they are gone?” “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. He answered, “They have only two
pieces, and one 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 describe them, but he would obey my orders
in anything I would direct. “Well,” says I, “let us retreat out of
their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve farther.”
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 anticipated my proposals,
by telling me that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be
wholly directed and commanded by me in everything; and if the ship 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,” says I, “my conditions are but two. 1. That while you stay on
this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if
I put arms into 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. 2. That if the ship is, or may be,
recovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage free.”
He gave me all the assurances that the invention and faith of man
could devise that he would comply with these most reasonable demands;
and, besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all
occasions, as long as he lived.
“Well then,” said I, “here are three muskets for you, with powder and
ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be done.” He showed
all the testimony of his gratitude that he was able, but offered to
be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it was hard venturing
anything; but the best method I could think of was to fire upon them at
once, as they lay; and if any was not killed at the first volley, and
offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon God’s
providence to direct the shot.
He said very modestly that he was loth to kill them, if he could help
it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the
authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should
be undone still; for they would go on board and bring the whole
ship’s company, and destroy us all. “Well then,” says I, “necessity
legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives.”
However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told him they
should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient.
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 him if either of them
were of the men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny? He said,
“No.” “Well then,” said I, “you may let them escape; and Providence
seems to have wakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now,” says I,
“if the rest escape you, it is your fault.”
Animated by 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 man
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 upon
his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other. But the captain
stepping to him, told him ’twas too late to cry for help, he should
call upon God 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 also 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 any assurance of
their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would
swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards 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 I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they
were upon the island.
While this was doing, 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 their captain, who before was their prisoner, now their
conqueror, they submitted to be bound also, and so our victory was
complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one
another’s circumstances. I began first, and told him my whole history,
which he heard with an attention even to amazement; and particularly
at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and
ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders,
it affected him deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon himself,
and how I seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his
life, the tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more.
After this communication was at an end, I carried him and his two men
into my apartment, leading them in just where I came out, viz., at the
top of the house, where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had,
and showed them all the contrivances I had made during my long, long
inhabiting that place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but
above all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly I
had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been
now planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster
than in England, was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was
impassable in any part of it but at that one side where I had reserved
my little winding passage into it. I told him this was my castle and
my residence, but that I had a seat in the country, as most princes
have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, and I would show him
that too another time; but at present, our business was to consider
how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as to that but told me he
was perfectly at a loss what measures to take, for that there were
still six and twenty hands on board, who having entered into a cursed
conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives to the law,
would be hardened in it now by desperation, and would carry it on,
knowing that if they were reduced, they should be brought to the
gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of the English
colonies; and that therefore there would be no attacking them with so
small a number as we were.
I mused for some time upon what he said, and found it was a very
rational conclusion, and that therefore something was to be resolved
on very speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for
their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us.
Upon this it presently occurred to me that in a little while the ship’s
crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat,
would certainly come on shore in their other boat to see for them; and
that then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us.
This he allowed was 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 what 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 of which was very welcome to me, especially the
brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, mast, sail,
and rudder of the boat were carried away before, as above), 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 ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, I
did not much question to make her fit again to carry us away to the
Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way;
for I had them still in my thoughts.
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main
strength, heaved the boat up upon the beach so high that the tide would
not fleet her off at high-water mark; and besides, had broke a hole in
her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what
we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft
with her flag 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 firings 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 was 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 of the men, even of their faces;
because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other
boat, they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the
other had landed, and where the boat lay.
By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew
the persons and characters of all the men in the boat, of whom he said
that 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’s that?” said he. “Why,” said I, “’tis 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 of that that comes
ashore are 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 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 a 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 free to trust them; but the other
two were taken into my service, upon their 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
a-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 was to run to their other
boat; and it was easy to see that 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 there 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 ship again, and set sail, giving their
comrades for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which he
was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much
frightened the other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat but 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; for our seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage
to us if we let the boat escape, because they would then 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 could have been very
glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at
them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we might have come
abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a
great way into the valleys and woods which lay towards the north-east
part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till
they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the
shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree,
to consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there,
as the other party 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
neither.
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 the 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 to be 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 consultations, we saw them start all
up, and march down toward the sea. It seems they had such dreadful
apprehensions upon them 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 for
going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts,
was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently thought
of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a
tittle.
I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over the little creek
westward, towards the place where the savages came on shore when Friday
was rescued, and as soon as they came to a little rising ground, at
about half a mile distance, I bade them halloo 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 presently
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
up 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.
That 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 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.
There 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 ’tis 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 to
one another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were
gotten onto an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants
on it, and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils and
spirits on 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 that 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 me give them leave to fall upon them at once
in the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so to
spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was
unwilling to hazard the killing any of our own 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 but that 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 their crew. The captain was so eager, as 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 into 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 we had left in the boat, who was now one of
us, call to them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley,
and so might perhaps 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, “Who’s that? Robinson?” For it seems he knew his 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 this two hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye 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,” says Robinson. So he asked
the captain, and the captain then calls himself 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.”