caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their
comrades having performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to
the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the
bower, and keep them there till I came.
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, and now I was
called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused
the men to be brought before me, and I told them, I had had a full
account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they had
run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies;
but that Providence, had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they
were fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.
I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been seized, that
she lay now in the road, and they might see by and by, that their new
captain had received the reward of his villany; for that they might see
him hanging at the yard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what they
had to say, why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact,
as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to
say but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them their
lives, and they humbly implored my mercy: but I told them I knew not
what mercy to shew them; for, as for myself, I had resolved to quit the
island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for
England: and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England,
other than as prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny, and running
away with the ship; the consequence of which they must needs know, would
be the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them, unless
they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired that,
I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; I had some inclination to
give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They
seemed very thankful for it; said they would much rather venture to stay
there, than to be carried to England to be hanged; so I left it on
that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he
durst not leave them there: upon this I seemed to be a little angry with
the captain, and told him, that they were my prisoners, not his; and
that seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my
word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set
them at liberty as I found them; and if he did not like that, he might
take them again if he could catch them.
Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at
liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence they
came, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some
directions how they should live very well, if they thought fit.
Upon this, I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain,
that I would stay that night to prepare my things; and desired him to go
on board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send the
boat on shore the next day for me; ordering him in the meantime to cause
the new captain who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these
men might see him.
When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,
and entered seriously into discourse with them of their circumstances: I
told them, I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain
carried them away, they would certainly be hanged: I shewed them their
captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had
nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them,
I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into
the way of making it easy to them: accordingly I gave them the whole
history of the place, and of my coming to it: shewed them my
fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I told
them the story of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expected; for
whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common with
themselves.
I left them my fire-arms; viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and
three swords: I had about a barrel of powder left; for after the first
year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a
description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, to make both butter and cheese.
In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and I told them, I
would prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder
more, and some garden-seed, which I told them I would have been very
glad of; also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought
me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board the
ship: we prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night: the
next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship’s
side, and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged
to be taken into the ship for God’s sake, for they should be murdered;
and begged the captain to take them on board though he hanged them
immediately.
Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me; but after
some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were
taken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled;
after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, I went with the boat on shore, the tide being up,
with the things promised to the men, to which the captain, at my
intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they
took, and were very thankful for: I also encouraged them, by telling
them, that if it lay in my way to send a vessel to take them in, I would
not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board for relics the
great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also
I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by
me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could
hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled;
and also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.
And thus I left the island the nineteenth of December, as I found by the
ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it
eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days: being delivered
from the second captivity the same day of the month that I first made
my escape in the barco-longo, from among the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the eleventh
of June, in the year 1687; having been thirty and five years absent.
When I came to England, I was a perfect stranger to all the world, as if
I had never been known there: my benefactor, and faithful steward, whom
I had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great
misfortunes in the world, was become a widow the second time, and very
low in the world: I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her I
would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude to her
former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock
would afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do but little
for her: but I assured her, I would never forget her former kindness to
me; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to help her; as shall be
observed in its place.
I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my
mother and all the family extinct; except that I found two sisters, and
two of the children of one of my brothers: and as I had been long ago
given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me, so that,
in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that little
money I had, would not do much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and
this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered,
and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners, of the manner how I had saved the lives
of the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them and some other
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment
upon that subject, and a present of almost two hundred pounds sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life,
and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I
resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by some
information of the state of my plantation in the Brasils, and what was
become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years now
given me over for dead.
With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April
following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these
ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions.
When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular
satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship, who first took me
up at sea, off the shore of Africa: he was now grown old, and had left
off the sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his
ship; and who still used the Brasil trade. The old man did not know me,
and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought myself to his
remembrance, when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I inquired,
you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner; the old man told
me, he had not been in the Brasils for about nine years; but that he
could assure me, that when he came away, my partner was living; but the
trustees, whom I had joined with him, to take cognizance of my part,
were both dead; that, however, he believed that I would have a very good
account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the general
belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the
account of the produce of my part of the plantation, to the procurator
fiscal; who had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one
third to the king, and two thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to
be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the
Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I appeared, or any one for
me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the
improvement, or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses,
could not be restored; but he assured me, that the steward of the
king’s revenue, (from lands) and the provedore, or steward of the
monastery, had taken great care all along, that the incumbent, that is
to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce,
of which they received duly my moiety.
I asked him, if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the
plantation; and whether he thought it might be worth looking after; or
whether, on my going thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my
possessing my just right in the moiety.
He told me, he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was
improved; but this he knew, that my partner was growing exceeding rich
upon the enjoying but one half of it; and that, to the best of his
remembrance, he had heard, that the king’s third of my part, which was,
it seems, granted away to some other monastery, or religious house,
amounted to above two hundred moidores a year; that, as to my being
restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made
of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being
also enrolled in the register of the county. Also he told me, that the
survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very
wealthy, and he believed I would not only have their assistance for
putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm,
while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as
above, which, as he remembered, was about twelve years.
I shewed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain, how it came to pass, that the trustees
should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will,
and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that, as there was no proof of my being
dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should
come of my death; and that, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle
with a thing so remote: that it was true, he had registered my will, and
put in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead
or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of
the _ingenio_, (so they called the sugarhouse) and had given his son,
who was now at the Brasils, order to do it.
“But,” says the old man, “I have one piece of news to tell you, which
perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, that
believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your
partner and trustees did offer to account to me in your name, for six or
eight of the first years of profit, which I received; but there being at
that time,” says he, “great disbursements for increasing the works,
building an _ingenio_ and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so
much as afterwards it produced: however,” says the old man, “I shall
give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I have
disposed of it.”
After a few days farther conference with this ancient friend, he brought
me an account of the six first years income of my plantation, signed by
my partner, and the merchants’ trustees, being always delivered in
goods; viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses,
&c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found by this
account, that every year the income considerably increased: but, as
above, the disbursement being large, the sum at first was small:
however, the old man let me see, that he was debtor to me four hundred
and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen
double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship, he having been
shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving
the place.
The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had
been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him
a share in a new ship; “however, my old friend,” says he, “you shall
not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you
shall be fully satisfied.”
Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me two hundred Portugal
moidores in gold; and giving me the writings of his title to the ship
which his son was gone to the Brasils in, of which he was a quarter part
owner, and his son another, he puts them both in my hands for security
of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man, to
be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he
had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all
occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I
could hardly refrain weeping at what he said to me: therefore, first I
asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at
that time, and if it would not straiten him? He told me he could not say
but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I
might want it more than he.
Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly
refrain from tears while he spake. In short, I took one hundred of the
moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them;
then I returned him the rest, and told him, if ever I had possession of
the plantation, I would return the other to him also, as indeed I
afterwards did; and then, as to the bill of sale of his part in his
son’s ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted the
money, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but
came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a
penny more from him.
When this was past, the old man began to ask me if he should put me in a
method to make my claim to my plantation. I told him, I thought to go
over to it myself. He said, I might do so if I pleased; but that if I
did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to
appropriate the profits to my use; and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon, just ready to go away to Brasil, he made me enter my name in
a public register, with his affidavit, affirming upon oath that I was
alive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for the
planting the said plantation at first.
This being regularly attested by a notary, and the procuration affixed,
he directed me to send it with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of
his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my staying with him
till an account came of the return.
Never any thing was more honourable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet
from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, on whose account I
went to sea, in which were the following particular letters and
papers enclosed.
First, There was the account current of the produce of my farm, or
plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old
Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be 1171
moidores in my favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more while they kept the
effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which
they call _civil-death_; and the balance of this, the value of
plantation increasing, amounted to 38892 crusadoes, which made 3241 moidores.
Thirdly, There was the prior of the Augustines account, who had received
the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to account for
what was disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared he had 872
moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged to my account. As to the
king’s part, that refunded nothing.
There was also a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me very
affectionately upon my being alive; giving me an account how the estate
was improved, and what it produced a year, with a particular of the
number of squares or acres that it contained; how planted, how many
slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for
blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to thank the Blessed
Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and
take possession of my own; and in the mean time to give him orders to
whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come my self; concluding
with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family, and sent
me, as a present, seven fine leopard’s skins, which he had it seems
received from Africa, by some other ship which he had sent thither, and
who it seems had made a better voyage than I: he sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and an hundred pieces of gold uncoined,
not quite so large as moidores.
By the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped me 1,200 chests of
sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole Account in gold.
I might well say, now indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than
the beginning. It is impossible to express here the flutterings of my
very heart, when I looked over these letters, and especially when I
found all my wealth about me; for as the Brasil ships come all in
fleets, the same ships which brought my letters, brought my goods; and
the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand.
In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and
fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprize of joy had overset
nature, and I had died upon the spot.
Nay after that, I continued very ill, and was so some hours, ’till a
physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness
being known, he ordered me to be let blood; after which, I had relief,
and grew well: but I verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent
given in that manner, to the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above 5000_l_. sterling in money,
and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brasils, of above a
thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England: and in
a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or
how to compose my self, for the enjoyment of it.
The first thing I did, was to recompense my original benefactor, my good
old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to
me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end: I shewed him all that
was sent me, I told him, that next to the Providence of Heaven, which
disposes all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to
reward him, which I would do a hundred fold: so I first returned to him
the hundred moidores I had received of him, then I sent for a notary,
and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470
moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and
firmest manner possible; after which, I caused a procuration to be
drawn, impowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my
plantation, and appointing my partner to account to him, and make the
returns by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end,
being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him, during his life, out of the
effects, and 50 moidores a year to his son after him, for his life: and
thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do
with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and indeed I
had more care upon my head now, than I had in my silent state of life in
the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but
what I wanted: whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my business
was how to secure it. I had ne’er a cave now to hide my money in, or a
place where it might lie without lock or key, ’till it grew mouldy and
tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on the contrary, I knew
not where to put it, or who to trust with it. My old patron, the
captain, indeed was honest, and that was the only refuge I had.
In the next place, my interest in the Brasils seemed to summon me
thither, but now I could not tell, how to think of going thither, ’till
I had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind
me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew was
honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but
poor, and for ought I knew, might be in debt; so that in a word, I had
no way but to go back to England my self, and take my effects with me.
It was some months however before I resolved upon this; and therefore,
as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who
had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor widow,
whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her
power, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did, I
got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, not
only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money, an
hundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her
poverty, by telling her she should, if I lived, have a further supply:
at the same time I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them an
hundred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good
circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the other
having a husband not so kind to her as he should be.
But among all my relations, or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon
one, to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away
to the Brasils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly
perplexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled my self
there; for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but I had some
little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back,
of which I shall say more presently. However, it was not religion that
kept me from going thither for the present; and as I had made no scruple
of being openly of the religion of the country, all the while I was
among them, so neither did I yet; only that now and then having of late
thought more of it than formerly, when I began to think of living and
dying among them, I began to regret my having professed myself a Papist,
and thought it might not be the best religion to die in.