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 centinel 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 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 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; as 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 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 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
endeavour 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 consultations, we saw them all start up,
and march down towards 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 to 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 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, run 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 a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbour
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. 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 mean time, 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 to one 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 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 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 to spare them, and kill as few of
them as I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing
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 run 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 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, "Is that Robinson?"
For it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, "Aye aye; 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," says 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 neither; 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, particularly 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
at length 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 none of 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 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, as 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 a coming." This more perfectly amused them, and
they all believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men.
Upon the captain's coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the
ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in
execution the next morning. But, in order to execute it with more art,
and to be secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners,
and that he should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of
them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This was
committed to Friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a
dismal place, especially to men in their condition. The others I
ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full
description; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was
secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a
parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought
they might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. He
talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were
brought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter for
their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to
England, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if
they would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would
have the governor's engagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men
in their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, and
promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to
him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and
would go with him all over the world; that they would own him as a
father as long as they lived. "Well," says the captain, "I must go and
tell the governor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him to
consent to it." So he brought me an account of the temper he found them
in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful. However, that we
might be very secure, I told him he should go back again and choose out
those five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men, that
he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that the
governor would keep the other two, and the three that were sent
prisoners to the castle (my cave) as hostages for the fidelity of those
five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five
hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore. This looked
severe, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest: however,
they had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the business
of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five
to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, The
captain, his mate, and passenger: second, Then the two prisoners of the
first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I had
given their liberty, and trusted them with arms: third, The other two
that I had kept till now in my bower pinioned, but, on the captain's
motion, had now released: fourth, These five released at last: so that
they were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave
for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on
board the ship: but as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was
proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was
employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with
victuals. As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but
Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and
I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where
Friday was to take it.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who
told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look after them:
and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir any where
but by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the
castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see
me as a governor, I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the
governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two
boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger
captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and five
more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well,
for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came within
call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they had
brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before
they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came
to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate entering first, with
their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with
the but end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their
men; they secured all the rest that were upon the mainland quarterdecks,
and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below; when
the other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured the
forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the
cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. When this was
done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three
men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, who
having taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got
fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow, split open the
door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded
the mate with a musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more
of the men, but killed nobody. The mate calling for help, rushed,
however, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol
shot the new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth,
and came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word
more: upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually,
without any more lives lost.