 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, winter 2006. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Chapter 1. Start in life. I was born in the year 1632 in the city of York of a good family. Though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who first settled at Hall. He got a good estate by merchandise and, leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Critchnare. But by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, may we call ourselves and write our name, Crusoe. And so my companions always called me. I had two elder brothers, one of whom was Lieutenant Colonel, to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother, I never knew any more than my father or mother knew what became of me. Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house education and a country-free school generally go, and designed me for the law. But I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea, and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, may the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery, which was to befall me. My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon the subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house in my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road. That these things were all either too far above me or too far below me, that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found by long experience was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and suffering of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the happiness of the state by this one thing, that is, that this was the state of life which all other people envied, that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great, that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind. But that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those who were, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labor, want a necessaries and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living, that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments, that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune, that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures were the blessings attending the middle station of life, that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the laborers of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which robbed soul of peace and the body of rust, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things. But in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly. After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries, which nature and the station of life I was born in seemed to have provided against, that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread, that he would do well for me, and endeavor to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had just been recommending to me, and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt. In a word, that as he would do very kind things for me, if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away. And to close all, he told me, I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the low country wars, but could not prevail. His young desires prompting him to run into the army where he was killed. And though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself. I say I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed, and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse and told me his heart was so full he could say no more to me. I was sincerely affected with this discourse and indeed who could be otherwise, and I resolved not to think of going abroad anymore, but to settle at home according to my father's desire. But, alas, a few days wore it all off, and in short, to prevent any of my father's further opportunities in a few weeks after, I resolved to run quite away from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily, as the first heat of my resolution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had better had better give me his consent than force me to go without it, that I was now 18 years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney, and that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my time, but I should certainly run away from my master before my time was out and go to sea, and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home again and did not like it I would go no more, and I would promise by a double diligence to recover the time I had lost. This put my mother into a great passion. She told me she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father, upon any such subject that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to anything so much for my hurt, and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father in such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me, and that in short if I would ruin myself there was no help for me, but I might depend I should never have their consent to it, that for her part she would not so much have hand in my destruction, and I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when my father was not, though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father after showing a great concern at it said to her with a sigh, that boy might be happy if he would stay at home, but if he goes abroad he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was born. I can give no consent to it. It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to, but being one day at Hall, where I went casually and without any purpose of making an allotment at that time, but I say being there, and one of my companions being about to sail to London in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them with the common allurement of seafaring men, that it should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father nor mother anymore, nor so much as sent them word of it, but leaving them to hear of it as they might without asking God's blessing or my father's, without any consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind began to blow, and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner, and as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of heaven from my wicked leaving my father's house and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties came now fresh into my mind, and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the contempt of advice and the breach of my duty to God and my father. All this while the storm increased and the sea went very high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since, no nor what I saw a few days after, but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor and had never known anything of the manner. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down as I thought it did in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more. In this act of mind I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God despair my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father and never set it into a ship again while I lived. That I would take his advice and never run myself into such miseries as these anymore. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never have been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore, and I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father. These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted and a deed some time after, but the next day the wind was abated and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little enured to it. However, I was very gray for all that day, being also a little seasick still, but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over and a charming fine evening followed. The sun went down perfectly clear and rose so the next morning, and having little or no wind and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, I thought, the most delightful that ever I saw. I had slept well in the night, and was now no more seasick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion who enticed me away comes to me. Well, Bob, says he, clapping me upon the shoulder. How do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted, weren't you, last night, when it blew but a cap full of wind? A cap full, do you call it? said I. It was a terrible storm. A storm, you fool you, replies he. Do you call that a storm? Why, it was nothing at all. Give us but a good ship and sea room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind is that. But you're but a fresh water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that. Do you see what charming weather it is now? To make short, the sad part of my story. We went the way of all sailors. The punch was made, and I was made half drunk with it, and in that one night's wickedness, I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions being swallowed up by the sea, being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I found indeed some intervals of reflection, and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavored to return again sometimes. But I shook them off, and roused myself from them, as if it were from a distemper, and implying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits, for so I called them, and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for it still, and Providence, as in such cases, generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse, for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of. The sixth day of our being at sea, we came into Yarmouth roads. The wind hadn't been contrary, and the weather calm. We had made but little ways since the storm. Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we lay the wind continuing contrary, that is at southwest, for seven or eight days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same roads as the common harbor where the ships might wait for a wind for the river. We had not, however, rid here so long, but we would have tidied it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and after that we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. However, the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, the anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth after the manner of the sea. But the eighth day in the morning the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our top masts, and make everything snug and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode for Castle Inn, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home, upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor, so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the bitter end. By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed, and now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. The master, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say several times, Lord be merciful to us, we shall all be lost, we shall all be undone, and the like. During these first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper. I could ill-resume the first penitence which I had so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against. I thought the bitterness of death had been passed, and that this would be nothing like the first. But when the master himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got up out of my cabin and looked, but such a dismal sight I never saw. The sea ran mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes. When I could look about I could see nothing but distress round us. Two ships that rode near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden, and our men cried that a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered. Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and that was with not a mast standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so much laboring in the sea. But two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their spritzail out before the wind. Towards the evening, the mate and Bosen begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which he was very unwilling to do. But the Bosen protesting to him that if he did not the ship would founder, he consented. And when they had cut away the foremast, the main mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and make a clear deck. Anyone may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and they having returned from them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself. And these added to the terror of the storm put me into such a condition that I can find by no words a way to describe it. But the worst was yet to come. The storm continued with such fury that the seamen themselves acknowledged that they had never seen a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea. So that the seamen every now and then cried out she would founder. It was my advantage, in one respect, that I did not know what they meant by founder till I inquired. However, the storm was so violent that I saw what is not often seen, the master, the bosom, and some other more sensible than the rest at their prayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had been down to sea cried out we had sprung a leak. Another said there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. At that word my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat into the cabin. However, the men roused me, and told me that I, that was able to do nothing more, was as well able to pump as another, at which I stirred up and went to the pump and worked very heartily. While this was doing, the master, seeing some light colliers who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful thing happened. In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon, as this was a time when everybody had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me. But another man stepped up to the pump, and, thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead. And it was a great while before I came to myself. We worked on, but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would found her. And though the storm began to abate a little, yet it was not possible she could swim till we might run into any port. So the master continued firing guns for help, and a light ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very heartily and venturing their lives to save ours. Our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they, after much labor and hazard, took hold of. And we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching their own ship. So all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could. And our master promised them that if the boat was staved upon shore, he would make it good to their master. So partly rowing, and partly driving, our boat went away to the north, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness. We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship, till we saw her sink. And then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look upon it, when the seaman told me she was sinking. For from the moment that they rather put me into the boat than that I might be said to go in it, my heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind, and with the thoughts of what was yet before me. While we were in this condition, the men laboring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see when our boat mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore. A great many people running along the strand to assist us when we should come near. But we made but slow way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach the shore till, being past the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind. Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where as the unfortunate men we were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hull, as we thought fit. Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull and have gone home, I had been happy. And my father, as in our blessed Savior's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me. For hearing the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth roads. It was a great while before he had assurances that I was not drowned. But my ill fate pushed me on, now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist. And though I had several times loud calls for my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be done before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open. Certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery, which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as I had met within my first attempt. My comrade, who had helped me to harden before, and who was the master son, was now less forward than I. The first time he spoke to me, after we were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several quarters, I say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered, and, looking very melancholy and shaking his head, he asked me how I did, and telling his father who I was, and how I had come, this voyage only for a trial, in order to go further abroad, his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone. Young man, says he, you ought never to go to see any more. You ought to take this for a plain invisible token, that you are not to be a seafaring man. Why, sir, said I, will you go to see no more? That is another case, says he, it is my calling, and therefore my duty. But as you have made this voyage on trial, you see what a taste heaven has given you, of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray, continues he, what are you, and on what account did you go to see? Upon that, I told him some of my story, at the end of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion. What had I done, says he, that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds. This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his lost, and was further than he could have afforded to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin, telling me I might see a visible hand of heaven against me. And young man said he, Depend upon it, if you do not go back wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon you. We parted soon after, for I made him little answer, and I saw him no more. Which way he went, I knew not. As for me, having some money in my pocket, I traveled to London by land, and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself, what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home or to sea. As to going home? Shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts. And it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even everybody else. From which I have since often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, that is, that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent, not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men. In this state of life, however, I remained, some time, uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home, and as I stayed away a while, the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off. And as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it. Till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. End of chapter one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, winter 2006. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Chapter 2. 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 misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship myself as a sailor, when, though I might have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learned the duty and office of a four-mast man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate, or a 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 the captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went to 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 forty pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. These forty pounds 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 and London at my return almost three hundred pounds, and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which ever 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 Jenny 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 one hundred pounds of my newly gained wealth, so that I left two hundred pounds, 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 toward the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the gray of the morning by a Turkish rover of Salee 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 masks 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 upon us, and bringing two by mistake just a thwart, our quarter, instead of a thwart, 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 sure 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, powdered 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 Silly, 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 the 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 sometime 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 unsure to look after his little garden and do the common drudgery of slaves around 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 affect 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 and out 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 one of money. He used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimes often or if the weather was fair, to take the ship's penis and go out into the road of fishing. And as he always took me and the young morresco with him to row the boat, we made him very merry and I proved very dexterous in catching fish in so much that sometimes he would send me with a moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth, the morresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him. It happened one time that going to fishing in a calm morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, we'd lost sight of it. And rowing, we knew not wither or which way. We labored 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 shore, and that we were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well and again, though with a great deal of labor 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 long boat of our English ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go fishing any more without a compass and some provision. So he ordered the carpenter of his ship, which was also an English slave, to build a little state room or cabin in the middle of the longboat, 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 at 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 of 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 fuses with powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they designed some spork of fouling, as well as fishing. I got all things ready, as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat wash clean, her ancient impendence 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, wither I should steer anywhere to get out of that place was my desire. My first contrivance was to make a pretense to speak to this more, 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 bottle 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 from a candle. Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into also, his name was Ishmael, which they called mooly, or moly, so I called him moly, 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 kill some alchamis, a foul 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 was shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat. At the same time, I found some powder of my masters in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case, which is 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 north northeast, 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 for some time and caught nothing, for when I had fished 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, beg 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 following 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 more 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 Shuri, and said to him, Shuri, 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 Muhammad 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 straight's mouth, as indeed anyone 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 boats and destroy us. Where we could not go on shore, but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of the humankind. 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 believed 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 Salih, 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 fare 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 the coast, and come 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, Shuri 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 chute gun, said Shuri laughing, make them run away. Such English Shuri spoke by conversing among 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, Shuri'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 seashore, 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. Shuri 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. Shuri said it was a lion, and it might be so, for odd I know. But poor Shuri cried to me, to weigh the anchor and row away. No, says I, Shuri, we can slip our cable with the boy 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, 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. Sure he 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 should 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 man's come, they eat me, you go away. Well, Sure he said I, we will both go, and if the wild man's come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us. So I gave Sure a piece of rust bread to eat in a dram out of our patron's case of bottles, which I mentioned before, and we hauled the boat in as near to the shore as we thought was proper, and so waited 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 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 color and longer legs. However, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat. But the great joy that poor Sure came with was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild man's. 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, and so we filled our jars and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go 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 see 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 numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbor 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 Tenerife, being the high top of the mountain Tenerife in the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out in hopes of reaching thither. But having tried twice, I was forced again in by contrary winds, to see 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 the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high. In the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Shuri, 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. Four, 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 if it were a little over him. Shuri says I, you shall on shore and kill him. Shuri looked frightened and said me kill, he eat me 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 slug hit his knee and broke the bone. He started up growling at first, but finding his leg broken fell down again, and then got up 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 and 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 Shuri 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, and coming close to the creature put the muzzle of the piece to his ear and shot him in the head again, which dispatched him quite. This was game indeed to us, but this was not 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 Shuri said he would have some for him. So he comes on board and asks me to give him the hatchet. For what Shuri said I? Me cut off his head, said he. However Shuri 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 be thought myself however that perhaps the skin of him might one way or another be of some value to us, and I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Shuri and I went to work with him, but Shuri was much better the workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it took both of us 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. End of chapter 2