Robinson Crusoe

SLAVERY AND ESCAPE

That evil influence which carried me first away from my father’s
house—which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising
my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to
make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the
commands of my father—I say, the same influence, whatever it was,
presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I
went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors
vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship
myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a little
harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the
duty and office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualified
myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was
always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money
in my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board
in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the
ship, nor learned to do any.

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,
which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows
as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for
them very early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted with
the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,
having had very good success there, was resolved to go again. This
captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all
disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the
world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no
expense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and if I could
carry anything with me, I should have all the advantage of it that the
trade would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this
captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with
him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested
honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me
to buy. These £40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some of
my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my
father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my
first adventure.

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my
adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the
captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics
and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the
ship’s course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some
things that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took
delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this
voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five
pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in
London, at my return, almost £300; and this filled me with those
aspiring thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that I
was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the
excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the
coast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.

I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great
misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the same
voyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his
mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship.
This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not
carry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left,
which I had lodged with my friend’s widow, who was very just to me, yet
I fell into terrible misfortunes. The first was this: our ship making
her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands
and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she
could make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread,
or our masts carry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon
us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to
fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three
in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just
athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we
brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a
broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning our
fire, and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred men
which he had on board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men
keeping close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend
ourselves. But laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter,
he entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting
and hacking the sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them
twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our
ship being disabled, and three of our men killed, and eight wounded, we
were obliged to yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a
port belonging to the Moors.

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended;
nor was I carried up the country to the emperor’s court, as the rest of
our men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper
prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his
business. At this surprising change of my circumstances, from a
merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I
looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to me, that I should
be miserable and have none to relieve me, which I thought was now so
effectually brought to pass that I could not be worse; for now the hand
of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but,
alas! this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will
appear in the sequel of this story.

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was
in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again,
believing that it would some time or other be his fate to be taken by a
Spanish or Portugal man-of-war; and that then I should be set at
liberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the
common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home again
from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the
ship.

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take to
effect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it;
nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I had
nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me—no fellow-slave,
no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for two
years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I never
had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.

After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which put
the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.
My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,
which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to take the
ship’s pinnace and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always
took me and young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very
merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that
sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the
youth—the Maresco, as they called him—to catch a dish of fish for him.

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fog
rose so thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, we
lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we
laboured all day, and all the next night; and when the morning came we
found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well
in again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the
wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but we were all very
hungry.

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of
himself for the future; and having lying by him the longboat of our
English ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing
any more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the
carpenter of his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little
state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a
barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul home the
main-sheet; the room before for a hand or two to stand and work the
sails. She sailed with what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the
boom jibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and
had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat
on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he
thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.

We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happened
that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or
for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place,
and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent
on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary;
and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot,
which were on board his ship, for that they designed some sport of
fowling as well as fishing.

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning
with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and
everything to accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patron came on
board alone, and told me his guests had put off going from some
business that fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual,
to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends
were to sup at his house, and commanded that as soon as I got some fish
I should bring it home to his house; all which I prepared to do.

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,
for now I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command; and
my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing
business, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as
consider, whither I should steer—anywhere to get out of that place was
my desire.

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, to
get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must not
presume to eat of our patron’s bread. He said that was true; so he
brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh
water, into the boat. I knew where my patron’s case of bottles stood,
which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some English
prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on shore,
as if they had been there before for our master. I conveyed also a
great lump of beeswax into the boat, which weighed about half a
hundred-weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and
a hammer, all of which were of great use to us afterwards, especially
the wax, to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which he
innocently came into also: his name was Ismael, which they call Muley,
or Moely; so I called to him—“Moely,” said I, “our patron’s guns are on
board the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be we
may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I
know he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” “Yes,” says he, “I’ll
bring some;” and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, which
held a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with
shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into
the boat. At the same time I had found some powder of my master’s in
the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in the
case, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and
thus furnished with everything needful, we sailed out of the port to
fish. The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we
were, and took no notice of us; and we were not above a mile out of the
port before we hauled in our sail and set us down to fish. The wind
blew from the N.N.E., which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown
southerly I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it
would, I would be gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave
the rest to fate.

After we had fished some time and caught nothing—for when I had fish on
my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them—I said to
the Moor, “This will not do; our master will not be thus served; we
must stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran the boat
out near a league farther, and then brought her to, as if I would fish;
when, giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was,
and making as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by
surprise with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard
into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called
to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world
with me. He swam so strong after the boat that he would have reached me
very quickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into
the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at
him, and told him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I
would do him none. “But,” said I, “you swim well enough to reach to the
shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I
will do you no harm; but if you come near the boat I’ll shoot you
through the head, for I am resolved to have my liberty;” so he turned
himself about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he
reached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.

I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he was
gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him,
“Xury, if you will be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if
you will not stroke your face to be true to me”—that is, swear by
Mahomet and his father’s beard—“I must throw you into the sea too.” The
boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently that I could not
distrust him, and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world
with me.

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directly
to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might
think me gone towards the Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that had
been in their wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly Barbarian
coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with
their canoes and destroy us; where we could not go on shore but we
should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human
kind.

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, and
steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towards
the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, fresh
gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe
by the next day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made
the land, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south of
Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions, or indeed of
any other king thereabouts, for we saw no people.

Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadful
apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop,
or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I
had sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to the
southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of
me, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast,
and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,
nor where, neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the principal
thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the
country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful
noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we
knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and
begged of me not to go on shore till day. “Well, Xury,” said I, “then I
won’t; but it may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad to
us as those lions.” “Then we give them the shoot gun,” says Xury,
laughing, “make them run wey.” Such English Xury spoke by conversing
among us slaves. However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I
gave him a dram (out of our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up.
After all, Xury’s advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in
two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to
call them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling
themselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, that I
never indeed heard the like.

Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were both
more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming
towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his
blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it was a
lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me to
weigh the anchor and row away; “No,” says I, “Xury; we can slip our
cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us
far.” I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever
it was) within two oars’ length, which something surprised me; however,
I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at
him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shore
again.

But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries
and howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as
higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing
I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before:
this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night
on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another
question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages
had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and
tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other
for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to
get to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with
one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some
to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in
the boat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me love him
ever after. Says he, “If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey.”
“Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go and if the wild mans come, we
will kill them, they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piece
of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottles
which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore
as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but
our arms and two jars for water.

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place
about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him
come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or
frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his
shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but
different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it,
and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with,
was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for
a little higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh
when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filled
our jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on
our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of
the country.

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that
the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay
not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing,
or at least remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where
to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I
might now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was,
that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the
English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual
design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that
country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the
negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes
having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, and
the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness;
and indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious number of
tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour
there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go
like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near
a hundred miles together upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste,
uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring
of wild beasts by night.

Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,
being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a
great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also
going too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left
this place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came to
an anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and the
tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes
were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and
tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; “For,” says he,
“look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast
asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed,
for it was a terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore,
under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little
over him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore and kill him.” Xury,
looked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!”—one
mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie
still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and
loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it
down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for we
had three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best
aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he
lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit
his leg about the knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling at
first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon
three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a
little surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up
the second piece immediately, and though he began to move off, fired
again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop
and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took
heart, and would have me let him go on shore. “Well, go,” said I: so
the boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam
to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the
muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite.

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry
to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good
for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he
comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. “For what, Xury?”
said I. “Me cut off his head,” said he. However, Xury could not cut off
his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a
monstrous great one.

I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one
way or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his
skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much
the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it
took us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him,
and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it
in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.