part of it but at that one side where I had reserved my lit-
tle 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 subdued they would
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 on what he had said, and found
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it was a very rational conclusion, and that therefore some-
thing was to be resolved on speedily, as well to draw the
men on board into some snare for their surprise as to pre-
vent 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 look for them, and that then, perhaps, they might come
armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed to be ratio-
nal. 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 of, 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 whatever 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 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),
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 again fit to carry as to the Leeward Islands, and
call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way, for I had
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them still in my thoughts.
Robinson Crusoe
CHAPTER XVIII - THE
SHIP RECOVERED
WHILE we were thus preparing our designs, and had first,
by main strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so high
that the tide would not float her off at high-water mark, and
besides, had broke a hole in her bottom too big to be quick-
ly stopped, and were set down musing what we should do,
we heard the ship fire a gun, and make a waft with her en-
sign as a signal for the boat to come on board - but no boat
stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals
for the boat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved
fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them,
by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out and row
towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that
there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had
firearms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we
had a full view of them as the came, and a plain sight even
of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to the
east of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to come
to the same place where the other had landed, and where
the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full view of them,
and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the
men in the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very
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honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this con-
spiracy by the rest, being over-powered 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 opera-
tion of fear; that seeing almost every condition that could
be was better than that which we were supposed to be in,
we ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or
life, would be sure to be a deliverance. I asked him what
he thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a
deliverance were not worth venturing for? ‘And where, sir,’
said I, ‘is your belief of my being preserved here on purpose
to save your life, which elevated you a little while ago? For
my part,’ said I, ‘there seems to be but one thing amiss in
all the prospect of it.’ ‘What is that?’ say she. ‘Why,’ said I,
‘it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows
among them which should be spared, had they been all of
the wicked part of the crew I should have thought God’s
providence had singled them out to deliver them into your
hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes ashore
is our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us.’ As I
spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I
found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our
business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat’s coming
from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and
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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 be-
ing 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 lib-
erty 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 pro-
visions and light left them; for Friday gave them candles
(such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did
not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the en-
trance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were
kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not able to
trust them; but the other two were taken into my service,
upon the captain’s recommendation, and upon their sol-
emnly 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 an-
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chor 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 com-
panions 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 after-
wards, 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, when we
perceived them all coming on shore again; but with this
new measure in their conduct, which it seems they consult-
ed together upon, viz. to leave three men in the boat, and
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the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look
for their fellows. This was a great disappointment to us, for
now we were at a loss what to do, as our seizing those seven
men on shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat
escape; because they would row away to the ship, and then
the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so
our recovering the ship would be lost. However we had no
remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things might
present. The seven men came on shore, and the three who
remained in the boat put her off to a good distance from
the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that
it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat. Those
that came on shore kept close together, marching towards
the top of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and
we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive
us. We should have been very glad if they would have come
nearer us, so that we might have fired at them, or that they
would have gone farther off, that we might come abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill where they
could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which lay
towards the north-east part, and where the island lay low-
est, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not
caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from
one another, they sat down together under a tree to consider
it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the
other part of them had done, they had done the job for us;
but they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture
to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the danger
was they had to fear.
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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, per-
haps we might find a way to get between them and the shore,
and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to
get them on shore. We waited a great while, though very
impatient for their removing; and were very uneasy when,
after long consultation, we saw them all start up and march
down towards the sea; it seems they had such dreadful ap-
prehensions of the danger of the place that they resolved to
go on board the ship again, give their companions over for
lost, and so go on with their intended voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I
imagined it to be as it really was that they had given over
their search, and were going back again; and the captain,
as soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the
apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem
to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a
tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over the
little creek westward, towards the place where the savages
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came on shore, when Friday was rescued, and so soon as
they came to a little rising round, at about half a mile dis-
tant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they could, and wait
till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as ever
they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it
again; and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, always
answering when the others hallooed, to draw them as far
into the island and among the woods as possible, and then
wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and the
mate hallooed; and they presently heard them, and answer-
ing, ran along the shore westward, towards the voice they
heard, when they were stopped by the creek, where the wa-
ter 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, hav-
ing fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for; and immediately leaving Friday
and the captain’s mate to their business, I took the rest with
me; and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised
the two men before they were aware - one of them lying on
the shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on
shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start
up; the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and
knocked him down; and then called out to him in the boat
to yield, or he was a dead man. They needed very few argu-
1
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ments 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 eas-
ily 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 be-
fore 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 impos-
sible to express their confusion when they found the boat
fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two
men gone. We could hear them call one to another in a most
lamentable manner, telling one another they were got into
an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it,
and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils
and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and de-
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voured. They hallooed again, and called their two comrades
by their names a great many times; but no answer. After
some time we could see them, by the little light there was,
run about, wringing their hands like men in despair, and
sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to rest
themselves: then come ashore again, and walk about again,
and so the same thing over again. My men would fain have
had me give them leave to fall upon them at once in the
dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so
as to spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and
especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of
our men, knowing the others were very well armed. I re-
solved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and therefore,
to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and or-
dered 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 pos-
sibly before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture when the boat-
swain, 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 pa-
tience 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
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not die till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it. At
the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men, viz. myself, generalissimo;
Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men,
and the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with
arms. We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they
could not see our number; and I made the man they had left
in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to
try if I could bring them to a parley, and so perhaps might
reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for
indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was,
they would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as
loud as he could to one of them, ‘Tom Smith! Tom Smith!’
Tom Smith answered immediately, ‘Is that Robinson?’ for
it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, ‘Ay, ay; for
God’s sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield,
or you are all dead men this moment.’ ‘Who must we yield
to? Where are they?’ says Smith again. ‘Here they are,’ says
he; ‘here’s our captain and fifty men with him, have been
hunting you these two hours; the boatswain is killed; Will
Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield
you are all lost.’ ‘Will they give us quarter, then?’ says Tom
Smith, ‘and we will yield.’ ‘I’ll go and ask, if you promise to
yield,’ said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and the cap-
tain 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, cap-
tain, give me quarter; what have I done? They have all been
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as bad as I:’ which, by the way, was not true; for it seems this
Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain
when they first mutinied, and used him barbarously in ty-
ing his hands and giving him injurious language. However,
the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discre-
tion, and trust to the governor’s mercy: by which he meant
me, for they all called me governor. In a word, they all laid
down their arms and begged their lives; and I sent the man
that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound
them all; and then my great army of fifty men, which, with
those three, were in all but eight, came up and seized upon
them, and upon their boat; only that I kept myself and one
more out of sight for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing
the ship: and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley
with them, he expostulated with them upon the villainy of
their practices with him, and upon the further wickedness
of their design, and how certainly it must bring them to
misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows.
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their
lives. As for that, he told them they were not his prisoners,
but the commander’s of the island; that they thought they
had set him on shore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it
had pleased God so to direct them that it was inhabited, and
that the governor was an Englishman; that he might hang
them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all
quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be
dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom
he was commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for
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death, for that he would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its
desired effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain
to intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest
begged of him, for God’s sake, that they might not be sent
to England.
It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance
was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring
these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the
ship; so I retired in the dark from them, that they might
not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the
captain to me; when I called, at a good distance, one of the
men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain,
‘Captain, the commander calls for you;’ and presently the
captain replied, ‘Tell his excellency I am just coming.’ This
more perfectly amazed them, and they all believed that the
commander was just by, with his fifty men. Upon the cap-
tain 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 com-
mitted 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,
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and they pinioned, the place was secure enough, consider-
ing 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 not 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; 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 deep-
est 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 to them 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
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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 ear-
nest; 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, the two
prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their charac-
ter 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
there 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 them.
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 gov-
ernor’s pleasure they should not stir anywhere but by my
direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the
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castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them
to see me as 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 fur-
nish 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, hold-
ing them in a chat till they came to the ship’s side; when the
captain and the mate entering first with their arms, imme-
diately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with
the butt-end of their muskets, being very faithfully second-
ed by their men; they secured all the rest that were upon the
main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches,
to keep them down that were below; when the other boat
and their men, entering at the forechains, secured the fore-
castle 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
firearms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow,
split open the door, the new captain and his men fired bold-
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ly 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, how-
ever, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with
his pistol, shot the new captain through the head, the bul-
let 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.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain or-
dered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed
upon with me to give me notice of his success, which, you
may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat watching
upon the shore for it till near two o’clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it
having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound,
till I was surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently
starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of ‘Gov-
ernor! Governor!’ and presently I knew the captain’s voice;
when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and,
pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms, ‘My dear
friend and deliverer,’ says he, ‘there’s your ship; for she is all
yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.’ I cast my
eyes to the ship, and there she rode, within little more than
half a mile of the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as
soon as they were masters of her, and, the weather being fair,
had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the
little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought
the pinnace in near the place where I had first landed my
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rafts, and so landed just at my door. I was at first ready to
sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, in-
deed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large
ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At
first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one word;
but as he had taken me in his arms I held fast by him, or I
should have fallen to the ground. He perceived the surprise,
and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and gave
me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for
me. After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and
though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while be-
fore I could speak a word to him. All this time the poor man
was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise
as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things to
me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the
flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confu-
sion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a little while after
I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and embraced
him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him I
looked upon him as a man sent by Heaven to deliver me,
and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of won-
ders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had
of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an
evidence that the eye of an infinite Power could search into
the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the mis-
erable whenever He pleased. I forgot not to lift up my heart
in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to
bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner pro-
vided for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate
1
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condition, but from whom every deliverance must always
be acknowledged to proceed.
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he
had brought me some little refreshment, such as the ship
afforded, and such as the wretches that had been so long
his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this, he called
aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore
that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as
if I had been one that was not to be carried away with them,
but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still. First, he
had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial wa-
ters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two
quarts each), two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve
good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork, with a
bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit; he also
brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lem-
ons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other
things. But besides these, and what was a thousand times
more useful to me, he brought me six new clean shirts, six
very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes,
a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit of
clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little: in
a word, he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind
and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in
my circumstances, but never was anything in the world of
that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it was to
me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good
things were brought into my little apartment, we began to
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consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for
it was worth considering whether we might venture to take
them with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew
to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the
captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was
no obliging them, and if he did carry them away, it must
be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at
the first English colony he could come to; and I found that
the captain himself was very anxious about it. Upon this, I
told him that, if he desired it, I would undertake to bring
the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that
he should leave them upon the island. ‘I should be very glad
of that,’ says the captain, ‘with all my heart.’ ‘Well,’ says I,
‘I will send for them up and talk with them for you.’ So I
caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now dis-
charged, 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. Be-
ing all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to be
brought before me, and I told them I had got a full account
of their villainous behaviour to the captain, and how they
had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit
further robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them
in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit
which they had dug 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
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had received the reward of his villainy, and that they would
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 but I had authority so 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 im-
plored my mercy. But I told them I knew not what mercy
to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the
island with all my men, and had taken passage with the cap-
tain to go to 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 what was best for them, un-
less they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they
desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some
inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they
could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and
said they would much rather venture to stay there than 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
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 it he might take them
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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 firearms, 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 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
next day for me; ordering him, at all events, 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 on their circumstances. I told them I thought they had
made a right choice; that if the captain had carried them
away they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the
new 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; showed 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 also of the seventeen Spaniards that were
to be expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them
promise to treat them in common with themselves. Here it
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may be noted that the captain, who had ink on board, was
greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of making ink
of charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done
things much more difficult.
I left them my firearms - viz. five muskets, three fowl-
ing-pieces, and three swords. I had above a barrel and a half
of powder left; for after the first year or two I used but lit-
tle, and wasted none. I gave them a description of the way I
managed the goats, and directions to milk and fatten them,
and to make both butter and cheese. In a word, I gave them
every part of my own story; and told them I should prevail
with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder
more, and some garden-seeds, 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.
Robinson Crusoe
CHAPTER XIX - RETURN
TO ENGLAND
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
the 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 dif-
ficulty, 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, the boat was ordered 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 power to send any 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
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one of my parrots; also, I forgot not to take the money I for-
merly 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, as also
the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. And
thus I left the island, the 19th 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 this second captivity the same day of
the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat from
among the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voy-
age, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687,
having been thirty-five years absent.
When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all
the world as if I had never been known there. My benefac-
tor and faithful steward, whom I had left my money in trust
with, 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 very easy as to what she owed me, assur-
ing her I would give her no trouble; but, on the contrary,
in gratitude for 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 proper 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
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ago given over for dead, there had been no provision made
for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or as-
sist me; and that the 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 the subject, and a present
of almost 200 pounds sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circum-
stances 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 at some information of the state of my
plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become of my
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