 section 17 of Captain Singleton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain reading by Dennis Sayers the life adventures and piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe section 17 accordingly we went about ship got our larbord tax on board set the top gallant sales and crowded for the Bay of all Saints where we came to an anchor early in the morning just out of gunshot of the forts we furled our sails with rope yarns that we might haul home the sheets without going up to loose them and lowering our main and four yards looked just as if we had lain there a good while in two hours afterwards we saw our gang standing in for the bay with all the sales she could make and she came innocently into our very mouths for we lay still till we saw her almost within gunshot when our foremost gears being stretched for a naft we first ran up our yards and then hauled home the top-sale sheets the rope yarns that furled them giving way of themselves the sails were set in a few minutes at the same time slipping our cable we came upon her before she could get underway upon the other tack they were so surprised that they made little or no resistance but struck after the first broadside we were considering what to do with her when William came to me hark the friend says he thou hast made a fine piece of work of it now has thou not to borrow thy neighbors ship here just at thy neighbor's door and never ask him leave now dust thou not think there are some men of war in the port thou has given them the alarm sufficiently thou wilt have them upon thy back before night depend upon it to ask thee wherefore thou didst so truly William said I for ought I know that may be true what then shall we do next says he thou hast but two things to do either to go in and take all the rest or else get thee gone before they come out and take thee for I see they are hoisting a top mass to yon great ship in order to put to see immediately and they won't be long before they come to talk with thee and what will thou say to them when they ask thee why thou borrowest their ship without leave as William said so it was we could see by our glasses they were all in a hurry manning and fitting some sloops they had there and a large man of war and it was planned they would soon be with us but we were not at a loss what to do we found the ship we had taken was laden with nothing considerable for our purpose except some cocoa some sugar and twenty barrels of flour the rest of her cargo was hides so we took out all we thought fit for our turn and among the rest all her ammunition great shot and small arms and turned her off we also took a cable and three anchors she had which were for our purpose and some of her sales she had enough left just to carry her into port and that was all having done this we stood on upon the brazil coast southward till we came to the mouth of the river janaro but as we had two days the wind blowing hard at southeast and south southeast we were obliged to come to an anchor under a little island and wait for a wind in this time the portuguese had it seems given notice over land to the governor there that a pirate was upon the coast so that when we came in view of the port we saw two men of war riding just without the bar where of one we found was getting under sail with all possible speed having slipped her cable on purpose to speak with us the other was not so forward but was preparing to follow in less than an hour they stood both fair after us with all the sail they could make had not the night come on william's words had been made good they would certainly have asked us the question what we did there for we found the foremost ship gained upon us especially upon one tack for we plied away from them to winward but in the dark losing sight of them we resolved to change our course and stand away directly for sea not doubting that we should lose them in the night whether the portuguese commander guessed we would do so or no i i know not but in the morning when the daylight appeared instead of having lost him we found him in chase of us about a league a stern only to our good fortune we could see but one of the two however this one was a great ship carried six and forty guns and an admirable sailor as appeared by her out sailing us for our ship was an excellent sailor too as i have said before when i found this i easily saw there was no remedy but we must engage and as we knew we could expect no quarter from these scoundrels the portuguese a nation i had an original aversion to i let captain willman know how it was the captain sick as he was jumped up in the cabin and would be led upon the deck for he was very weak to see how it was well says he will fight them our men were all in good heart before but to see the captain so brisk who had laid ill of a calendar 10 or 11 days gave them double courage and they went all hands to work to make a clear ship and be ready william the quaker comes to me with a kind of a smile friend says he what does young ship follow us for why says i to fight us you may be sure well says he and will he come up with us does thou think yes said i you see she will why then friend says the dry wretch why does thou run from her still when thou seeest she will overtake the will it be better for us to be overtaken farther off than here much as one for that says i why what would you have us do do says he let us not give the poor man more trouble than needs must let us stay for him and hear what he has to say to us he will talk to us in powder and ball said i very well then says he if that be his country language we must talk to him the same must we not or else how shall he understand us very well william says i we understand you and the captain ill as he was called to me williams right again says he as good here as a league father so he gives a word of command haul up the mainsail will shorten sail for him accordingly we shortened sail and as we expected her upon our lee side we being then upon our starboard tack brought 18 of our guns to the larbert side resolving to give him a broad side that should warn him it was about half an hour before he came up with us all which time we left up that we might keep the wind of him by which he was obliged to run up under our lee as we designed him when we got him under our quarter we edged down and received the fire of five or six of his guns by this time and you may be sure all our hands were at their quarters so we clapped our helm hard a weather let go the lee braces of the main top sail and laid it aback and so our ship fell a thwart the portuguese ship's house then we immediately poured in our broadside raking them for and aft and killed them a great many men the portuguese we could see were in the utmost confusion and not being aware of our design their ship having fresh way ran their bowsprit into the four part of our main shrouds as that they could not easily get clear of us and so we locked after that manner the enemy could not bring above five or six guns beside their small arms to bear upon us while we played our whole broadside upon him in the middle of the heat of this fight as i was very busy upon the quarter deck the captain calls to me for he never stirred from us what the devil is friend william a doing yonder says the captain has he any business upon deck i stepped forward and there was friend william with two or three stout fellows lashing the ship's bowsprit fast to our main mass for fear they should get away from us and every now and then he pulled a bottle out of his pocket and gave the men a dram to encourage them the shot flew about his ears as thick as may be supposed in such an action where the portuguese to give them their due fought very briskly believing at first they were sure of their game and trusting to their superiority but there was william as composed and in as perfect tranquility as to danger as if he had been over a bowl of punch only very busy securing the matter that a ship of 46 guns should not run away from a ship of eight and 20 this work was too hot to hold long our men behaved bravely our gunner a gallant man shouted below pouring in his shot at such a rate that the portuguese began to slacken their fire we had dismounted several of their guns by firing in at their forecastle and raking them as i say for and aft presently comes william up to me friend says he very calmly what does thou mean why does thou not visit thy neighbor in the ship the door being open for thee i understood him immediately for our guns had so torn their hull that we had beat two port holes into one and the bulkhead of their steerage was split to pieces so that they could not retire to their close quarters so i gave the word immediately to board them our second lieutenant with about 30 men entered in an instant over the forecastle followed by some more with the boson and cutting in pieces about 25 men that they found upon the deck and then throwing some granados into the steerage they entered there also upon which the portuguese cried quarter presently and we mastered the ship contrary indeed to our own expectation for we would have compounded with them if they would have sheared off but laying them a thwart the haws at first and following our fire furiously without giving them any time to get clear of us and work their ship by this means though they had six and forty guns they were not able to fight above five or six as i said above for we beat them immediately from their guns in the forecastle and killed them abundance of men between decks so that when we entered they had hardly found men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck the surprise of joy to hear the portuguese cry quarter and see their ancient struck was so great to our captain who as i have said was reduced very weak and with a high fever that it gave him new life nature conquered the distemper and the fever abated that very night so that in two or three days he was sensibly better his strength began to come and he was able to give his orders effectually in everything that was material and in about 10 days was entirely well and about the ship in the meantime i took possession of the portuguese man of war and captain wilmett made me or rather i made myself captain of her for the present about 30 of their seamen took service with us some of which were french some genoese and we set the rest on shore the next day on a little island on the coast of brazil except some wounded men who were not in a condition to be removed and whom we were bound to keep on board but we had an occasion afterwards to dispose of them at the cape where at their own request we set them on shore captain wilmett as soon as the ship was taken and the prisoners stowed was for standing in for the river genero again not doubting but we should meet with the other man of war who not having been able to find us and having lost the company of her comrade would certainly be returned and might be surprised by the ship we had taken if we carried portuguese colors and our men were all for it but our friend william gave us better counsel for he came to me friend says he i understand the captain is for sailing back to the real genero in hopes to meet with the other ship that was in chase of the yesterday is it true dust thou intend it why yes says i william pray why not nay says he thou mayst do so if thou wilt well i know that too william said i but the captain is a man will be ruled by reason what have you to say to it why says william gravely i only ask what is thy business and the business of all the people thou hast with the is it not to get money yes william it is so in our honest way and what's thou says he rather have money without fighting or fighting without money i mean which would thou have by choice suppose it to be left to thee oh william says i the first of the two to be sure why then says he what great gain hast thou made of the prize that was taken now though it has cost the lives of 13 of thy men besides some hurt it is true thou hast got the ship and some prisoners but the wits have had twice the booty in a merchant ship with not one quarter of the fighting and how does thou know either what force or what number of men may be in the other ship and what loss thou mayst suffer and what gain it shall be to thee if thou take her i think indeed thou mayst much better let her alone william it is true said i and i'll go tell the captain what your opinion is and bring you word what he says accordingly in i went to the captain and told him william's reasons and the captain was of his mind that our business was indeed fighting when we could not help it but that our main affair was money and that with as few blows as we could so that adventure was laid aside and we stood along shore again south for the river de la plata expecting some purchase thereabouts especially we had our eyes upon some of the spanish ships from Buenos Aires which are generally very rich in silver and one such prize would have done our business we plied about here in the latitude of blank south for near a month and nothing offered and here we began to consult what we should do next for we had come to no resolution yet indeed my design was always for the cape to bonus spranza and so to the east and these i had heard some flaming stories of captain avary and the fine things he had done in the indies which were doubled and doubled even ten thousand fold and from taking a great prize in the bay of bengal where he took a lady said to be the great mogul's daughter with a great quantity of jewels about her we had a story told us that he took a mogul ship so the foolish sailors called it laden with diamonds i would feign have had friend williams advice with her we should go but he always put it off with some quaking quibble or other in short he did not care for directing us neither whether he made a piece of conscience of it or whether he did not care to venture having it come against him afterwards or no this i know not but we concluded at last without him we were however pretty long and resolving and hankered about the rio de la plata a long time at last we spied a sail to winward and it was such a sail as i believe had not been seen in that part of the world a great while it wanted not that we should give it chase for it stood directly towards us as well as they that steered could make it and even that was more accident of weather than anything else for if the wind had chopped about anywhere they must have gone with it i leave any man that is a sailor or understands anything of the ship to judge what a figure this ship made when we first saw her and what we could imagine was the matter with her her main top mast was come by the board about six foot above the cap and fell forward the head of the top galant mass hanging in the fore shrouds by the stay at the same time the peril of the mizzen top sail yard by some accident giving way the mizzen top sail braces the standing part of which being fast to the main top sail shrouds brought the mizzen top sail yard and all down with it which spread over part of the quarter deck like an awning the four top sail was hoisted up two-thirds of the mast but the sheets were flown the four yard was lowered down upon the forecastle the sail loose and part of it hanging overboard in this manner she came down upon us with the wind quartering in a word the figure the whole ship made was the most confounding to men that understood the sea that ever was seen she had no boat neither had she any colors out when we came near to her we fired a gun to bring her to she took no notice of it nor of us but came on us as she did before we fired again but it was all one at length we came within pistol shot of one another but nobody answered nor appeared so we began to think that it was a ship gone ashore somewhere in distress and the men having forsaken her the high tide had floated her off to sea coming nearer to her we ran up alongside of her so close that we could hear a noise within her and see the motion of several people through her ports upon this we manned our two boats full of men and very well armed and ordered them to board her at the same minute as near as they could and to enter one at her four chains on the one side and the other amid ships on the other side as soon as they came to the ship side a surprising multitude of black sailors such as they were appeared upon deck and in short terrified our men so much that the boat which was to enter her men and the waist stood off again and durst not bored her and the men that entered out of the other boat finding the first boat as they thought beaten off and seeing the ship full of men jumped all back again into their boat and put off not knowing what the matter was upon this we prepared to pour in a broad side upon her but our friend William set us to rights again here for it seems he guessed how it was sooner than we did and coming up to me for it was our ship that came up with her friend says he I am of opinion that thou art wrong in this matter and thy men have been wrong also in their conduct I'll tell thee how thou shalt take the ship without making use of those things called guns how can that be William said I why said he thou mayst take her with thy helm thou cease they keep no steerage and thou cease the condition they are in board her with thy ship upon her lee quarter and so enter her from the ship I am persuaded thou wilt take her without fighting for there is some mischief has befallen the ship which we know nothing of in a word it being a smooth sea and little wind I took his advice and laid her aboard immediately our men entered the ship where we found a large ship with upwards of 600 negroes men and women boys and girls and not one christian or white man on board I was struck with horror at the site for immediately I concluded as was partly the case that these black devils had got loose had murdered all the white men and thrown them into the sea and I had no sooner told my mind to the men but the thought so enraged them that I had much adieu to keep my men from cutting them all in pieces but William with many persuasions prevailed upon them by telling them that it was nothing but what if they were in the negroes condition they would do if they could and that the negroes had really the highest injustice done them to be sold for slaves without their consent and that the law of nature dictated it to them for they ought not to kill them and that it would be willful murder to do it this prevailed with them and cooled their first heat so they only knocked down 20 or 30 of them and the rest ran all down between decks to their first places believing as we fancied that we were their first masters come again it was a most unaccountable difficulty we had next for we could not make them understand one word we said nor could we understand one word ourselves that they said we endeavored by signs to ask them whence they came but they could make nothing of it we pointed to the great cabin to the roundhouse to the cook room then to our faces to ask if they had no white men on board and where they were gone but they could not understand what we meant on the other hand they pointed to our boat and to their ship asking questions as well as they could and said a thousand things and expressed themselves with great earnestness but we could not understand a word of it or know what they meant by any of their signs we knew very well they must have been taken on board the ship as slaves and that it must be by some european people too we could easily see that the ship was a dutch built ship but very much altered having been built upon and as we supposed in france for we found two or three french books on board and afterwards we found clothes linen lace some old shoes and several other things we found among the provisions some barrels of irish beef some newfoundland fish and several other evidences that there had been christians on board but saw no remains of them we found not a sword gun pistol or weapon of any kind except some cutlasses and the negroes had hid them below where they lay we asked them what was become of all the small arms pointing to our own and to the places where those belonging to the ship had hung one of the negroes understood me presently and beckoned to me to come upon the deck where taking my fuzzy which i never let go out of my hand for some time after we had mastered the ship i say offering to take hold of it he made the proper motion of throwing it into the sea by which i understood as i did afterwards that they had thrown all the small arms powder shot swords etc into the sea as i supposed those things would kill them though the men were gone after we understood this we made no question but that the ship's crew having been surprised by these desperate rogues had gone the same way and had been thrown overboard also we looked all over the ship to see if we could find any blood and we thought we did perceive some in several places but the heat of the sun melting the pitch and tar upon the decks made it impossible for us to discern it exactly except in the roundhouse where we plainly saw that there had been much blood we found the scuttle open by which we supposed that the captain and those that were with him had made their retreat into the great cabin or those in the cabin had made their escape up into the roundhouse but that which confirmed us most of all and what had happened was that upon further inquiry we found that there were seven or eight of the negroes very much wounded two or three of them was shot whereof one had his leg broken and lay in a miserable condition the flesh being mortified and as our friend William said in two days more he would have died William was a most dexterous surgeon and he showed it in his cure for though all the surgeons we had on board both our ships and we had no less than five that called themselves bread surgeons besides two or three who were pretenders or assistants though all these gave their opinions that the negroes leg must be cut off and that his life could not be saved without it that the mortification had touched the marrow in the bone that the tendons were mortified and that he could never have the use of his leg if it should be cured William said nothing in general but that his opinion was otherwise and that he desired the wound might be searched and that he would then tell them further accordingly he went to work with the leg and as he desired that he might have some of the surgeons to assist him we appointed him two of the ableest of them to help and all of them to look on if they thought fit end of section 17 read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto California for LibriVox section 18 of Captain Singleton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Dennis Sayers the life adventures and piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe William went to work his own way and some of them pretended to find fault at first however he proceeded and searched every part of the leg where he suspected the mortification had touched it in a word he cut off a great deal of mortified flesh in all which the poor fellow felt no pain William proceeded till he brought the vessels which he had cut to bleed and the man to cry out then he reduced the splinters of the bone and calling for help set it as we call it and bound it up and laid the man to rest who found himself much easier than before at the first opening the surgeons began to triumph the mortification seemed to spread and a long red streak of blood appeared from the wound upwards to the middle of the man's thigh and the surgeons told me the man would die in a few hours I went to look at it and found William himself under some surprise but when I asked him how long he thought the poor fellow could live he looked gravely at me and said as long as thou canst I am not at all apprehensive of his life said he but I would cure him if I could without making a cripple of him I found he was not just then upon the operation as to his leg but was mixing up something to give the poor creature to repel as I thought the spreading contagion and to abate or prevent any feverish temper that might happen in the blood after which he went to work again and opened the leg in two places above the wound cutting out a great deal of mortified flesh which it seems was occasioned by the bandage which had pressed the parts too much and with all the blood being at the time in a more than common disposition to mortify might assist to spread it well our friend William conquered all this cleared the spreading mortification and the red streak went off again the flesh began to heal and matter to run and in a few days the man's spirits began to recover his pulse beat regular he had no fever and gathered strength daily and in a word he was a perfect sound man in about 10 weeks and we kept him amongst us and made him an able seaman but to return to the ship we never could come at a certain information about it till some of the negroes which we kept on board and whom we talked to speak English gave the account of it afterwards and this maimed man in particular we inquired by all the signs and motions we could imagine what was become of the people and yet we could get nothing from them our lieutenant was for torturing some of them to make them confess but William opposed that vehemently and when he heard it was under consideration he came to me friend says he I make a request to the not to put any of these poor wretches to torment why William said I why not you see they will not give any account of what has become of the white man nay says William do not say so I suppose they have given the a full account of every particular of it how so says I pray what are we the wiser for all their jabbering nay says William that may be thy fault for ought I know thou wilt not punish the poor men because they cannot speak English and perhaps they never heard a word of English before now I may very well suppose that they have given thee a large account of everything for thou cease with what earnestness and how long some of them have talked to thee and if thou can't not understand their language nor they thine how can they help that at the best thou dost but suppose that they have not told thee the whole truth of the story and on the contrary I suppose they have and how wilt thou decide the question whether thou art right or whether I am right besides what can they say to thee when thou ask them a question upon the torture and at the same time they do not understand the question and thou dost not know whether they say I or no it is no compliment to my moderation to say I was convinced by these reasons and yet we had all much adieu to keep our second lieutenant from murdering some of them to make them tell what if they had told he did not understand one word of it but he would not be persuaded but that the negro's must needs understand him when he asked them whether the ship had any boat or no like ours and what was become of it but there was no remedy but to wait till we made these people understand English and to adjourn the story till that time the case was thus where they were taken on board the ship that we could never understand because they never knew the English names which we give to those coasts or what nation they were who belonged to the ship because they knew not one tongue from another but thus far the negro I examined who was the same whose leg William had cured told us that they did not speak the same language as we spoke nor the same our Portuguese spoke so that in all probability they must be French or Dutch then he told us that the white men use them barbarously that they beat them unmercifully that one of the negro men had a wife and two negro children one a daughter about 16 years old that a white man abused the negro man's wife and afterwards his daughter which as he said made all the negro men mad and that the woman's husband was in a great rage at which the white man was so provoked that he threatened to kill him but in the night the negro man being loose got a great club by which he made us understand he meant a hand spike and that when the same Frenchman if it was a Frenchman came among them again he began again to abuse the negro man's wife at which the negro taking up the hand spike knocked his brains out at one blow and then taking the key from him with which he usually unlocked the handcuffs which the negroes were fettered with he set about a hundred of them at liberty who getting up upon the deck by the same scuttle that the white men came down and taking the man's cutlass who was killed and laying hold of what came next to them they fell upon the men that were upon the deck and killed them all and afterwards those they found upon the fossil that the captain and his other men who were in the cabin and the roundhouse defended themselves with great courage and shot out at the loopholes at them by which he and several other men were wounded and some killed but they broke into the roundhouse after a long dispute where they killed two of the white men but owned that the two white men killed 11 of their men before they could break in and then the rest having got down the scuttle into the great cabin wounded three more of them that after this the gunner of the ship having secured himself in the gun room one of his men hauled up the long boat close under the stern and putting into her all the arms and ammunition that they could come at got all into the boat and afterwards took in the captain and those that were with him out of the great cabin when they were all thus embarked they resolved to lay the ship aboard again and try to recover it that they boarded the ship in a desperate manner and killed at first all that stood in their way but the Negroes being by this time all loose and having gotten some arms though they understood nothing of powder and bullet or guns yet the men could never master them however they lay under the ship's bow and got out all the men they had left in the cookroom who had maintained themselves there not withstanding all the Negroes could do and with their small arms killed between 30 and 40 of the Negroes but were at last forced to leave them they could give me no account whereabouts this was whether near the coast of Africa or far off or how long it was before the ship fell into our hands only in general it was a great while ago as they called it and by all we could learn it was within two or three days after they had set sail from the coast they told us that they had killed about 30 of the white men having knocked them on the head with crows and hand spikes and such things as they could get and one strong Negro killed three of them with an iron crow after he was shot twice through the body and that he was afterwards shot through the head by the captain himself at the door of the roundhouse which he had split open with the crow and this we supposed was the occasion of the great quantity of blood which we saw at the roundhouse door the same Negro told us that they threw all the powder and shot they could find into the sea and they would have thrown the great guns into the sea if they could have lifted them being asked how they came to have their sails in such a condition his answer was they know understand they know know what the sails do that was they did not so much as know that it was the sails that made the ship go or understand what they meant or what to do with them when we asked him wither they were going he said they did not know but believed they should go home to their own country again i asked him in particular what he thought we were when we first came up with them he said they were terribly frightened believing we were the same white men that had gone away and their boats and were come again in a great ship with the two boats with them and expected they would kill them all this was the account we got out of them after we had taught them to speak English and to understand the names and use of the things belonging to the ship which they had occasion to speak of and we observed that the fellows were too innocent to deassemble in their relation and that they all agreed in the particulars and were always in the same story which confirmed very much the truth of what they said having taken the ship our next difficulty was what to do with the Negroes the Portuguese and the Brazils would have bought them all of us and been glad of the purchase if we had not showed ourselves enemies there and been known for pirates but as it was we durced not go ashore anywhere thereabouts or treat with any of the planters because we should raise the whole country upon us and if there were any such things as men of war and any of their ports we should be sure to be attacked by them and by all the force they had by land or sea nor could we think of any better success if we went northward to our own plantations one while we determined to carry them all the way to Buenos Aires and sell them there to the Spaniards but they were really too many for them to make use of and to carry them round to the south seas which was the only remedy that was left was so far that we should be no way able to subsist them for so long a voyage at last our old never-failing friend William helped us out again as he had often done at a dead lift his proposal was this that we should go as master of the ship and about 20 men much as we could best trust and attempt to trade privately upon the coast of Brazil with the planters not at the principal ports because they would not be admitted we all agreed to this and appointed to go away ourselves towards the Rio de la Plata where we had thought of going before and to wait for him not there but at Puerto St Pedro as the Spaniards called it lying at the mouth of the river which they call Rio Grande and where the Spaniards had a small fort and a few people but we believe there was nobody in it here we took up our station cruising off and on to see if we could meet any ships going to or coming from the Buenos Aires or the Rio de la Plata but we met with nothing worth notice however we employed ourselves in things necessary for our going off to sea where we filled all our water casts and got some fish for our present use to spare as much as possible our ship's doors William in the meantime went away to the north and made the land about the Cate de Saint Thomas and betwixt that and the Il de Tuberon he found means to trade with the planters for all his Negroes as well the women as the men and at a very good price too for William who spoke Portuguese pretty well told them a fair story enough that the ship was in scarcity of provisions that they were driven a great way out of their way and indeed as we say out of their knowledge and that they must go up to the northward as far as Jamaica or sell there upon the coast this was a very plausible tale it was easily believed and if you observe the manner of the Negro sailing and what happened in their voyage was every word of it true by this method and being true to one another William passed for what he was I mean for a very honest fellow and by the assistance of one planter who sent to some of his neighbor planters and managed the trade among themselves he got a quick market for in less than five weeks William sold all his Negroes and at last sold the ship itself and shipped himself and his 20 men with two Negro boys whom he had left in a sloop one of those which the planters used to send on board for the Negroes with this sloop Captain William as we then called him came away and found us at Port Saint Pedro in the latitude of 32 degrees 30 minutes south nothing was more surprising to us than to see a sloop come along the coast carrying Portuguese colors and come in directly to us after we were assured he had discovered both our ships we fired a gun upon her nearer approach to bring her to an anchor but immediately she fired five guns by way of salute and spread her English ancient and then we began to guess it was friend William but wondered what was the meaning of his being in a sloop whereas we sent him away in a ship of near 300 tons but he soon let us into the whole history of his management with which we had a great deal of reason to be very well satisfied as soon as he had brought the sloop to an anchor he came aboard of my ship and there he gave us an account of how he began to trade by the help of a Portuguese planter who lived near the seaside how he went on shore and went up to the first house he could see and asked the man of the house to sell him some hogs pretending at first he only stood in upon the coast to take in fresh water and buy some provisions and the man not only sold him seven fat hogs but invited him in and gave him and five men he had with him a very good dinner and he invited the planter on board his ship and in return for his kindness gave him a negro girl for his wife this so obliged the planter that the next morning he sent him on board in a great luggage boat a cow and two sheep with a chest of sweet meats and some sugar and a great bag of tobacco and invited captain William on shore again that after this they grew from one kindness to another that they began to talk about trading for some negroes and William pretending it was to do him service consented to sell him 30 negroes for his private use in his plantation for which he gave William ready money in gold at the rate of five and thirty moindores per head but the planter was obliged to use great caution in bringing them on shore for which purpose he made William way and stand out to sea and put in again about 50 miles farther north where at a little creek he took the negroes on shore at another plantation being a friend of his whom it seems he could trust this remove brought William into a further intimacy not only with the first planter but also with his friends who desired to have some of the negroes also so that from one to another they bought so many till one overgrown planter took 100 negroes which was all William had left and sharing them with another planter that other planter chafered with William for ship and all giving him in exchange a very clean large well built sloop of near 60 tons very well furnished carrying six guns but we made her afterwards carry 12 guns William had 300 moindores of gold besides the sloop in payment for the ship and with this money he stored the sloop as full as she could hold with provisions especially bread some pork and about 60 hogs alive among the rest William got 80 barrels of good gunpowder which was very much for our purpose and all the provisions which were in the French ship he took out also this was a very agreeable account to us especially when we saw that William had received in gold coin or by weight and some Spanish silver 60 000 pieces of eight besides a new sloop and a vast quantity of provisions we were very glad of the sloop in particular and began to consult what we should do whether we had not best turn off our great Portuguese ship and stick to our first ship and the sloop seeing we had scarce men enough for all three and that the biggest ship was thought too big for our business however another dispute which was now decided brought the first to a conclusion the first dispute was wither we should go my comrade as i called him now that is to say he that was my captain before we took this Portuguese man of war was for going to the south seas and coasting up the west side of America where we could not fail of making several good prizes upon these spaniards and that then if occasion required it we might come home by the south seas to the east and these and so go around the globe as others had done before us but my head lay another way i had been in the east and these and had entertained a notion ever since that if we went thither we could not fail of making good work of it and that we might have a safe retreat and good beef to victual our ship among my old friends the natives of Zanzibar on the coast of Mozambique or the island of st. Lawrence i say my thoughts lay this way and i read so many lectures to them all of the advantages they would certainly make of their strength by the prizes they would take in the Gulf of Mocha or the Red Sea and on the coast of Malabar or the Bay of Bengal that i amazed them with these arguments i prevailed on them and we all resolved to steer away southeast for the Cape of Good Hope and in consequence of this resolution we concluded to keep the sloop and sail with all three not doubting as i assured them but we should find men there to make up the number wanting and if not we might cast any of them off when we pleased we could do no less than make our friend William captain of the sloop which with such good management he had brought us and should be entirely under our command however William was not so easy as before and indeed as we afterwards wanted the sloop to cruise for purchase and a right thorough paced pirate in her so i was in such pain for William that i could not be without him for he was my privy counsellor and companion upon all occasions so i put a scotsman a bold enterprising gallant fellow into her named Gordon and made her carry 12 guns and four petereros though indeed we wanted men for we were none of us manned in proportion to our force end of section 14 of captain singleton read by denis sears in modesto california for LibriVox section 19 of captain singleton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by denis sears the life adventures and piracies of captain singleton by daniel defoe we sailed away for the cape of good hope the beginning of october 1706 passed by inside of the cape the 12th of november following having met with a great deal of bad weather we saw several merchant ships and the roads there as well english as dutch whether outward bound or homeward we could not tell be at what it would we did not think fit to come to an anchor not knowing what they might be or what they might attempt against us when they knew what we were however as we wanted fresh water we sent the two boats belonging to the portuguese man of war with all portuguese seamen or negroes in them to the watering place to take in water and in the meantime we hung out a portuguese ancient at sea and lay by all that night they knew not what we were but it seems we passed for anything but really what we was our boats returning the third time loaded about five o'clock next morning we thought ourselves sufficiently watered and stood away to the eastward but before our men returned the last time the wind blowing an easy gale at west we perceived a boat in the gray of the morning under sail crowding to come up with us as if they were afraid we should be gone we soon found it was an english long boat and that it was pretty full of men we could not imagine what the meaning of it should be but as it was but a boat we thought there could be no great harm in it to let them come on board and if it appeared they came only to inquire who we were we would give them a full account of our business by taking them along with us seeing we wanted men as much as anything but they saved us the labor of being in doubt how to dispose of them for it seems our portuguese seamen who went for water had not been so silent at the watering places as we thought they would have been but the case in short was this captain blank i forbear his name at present for a particular reason captain of an east india merchant ship bound afterwards for china had found some reason to be very severe with his men and had handled some of them very roughly at saint elena in so much that they threatened among themselves to leave the ship the first opportunity and had long wished for that opportunity some of these men it seems had met with our boat at the watering place and inquiring of one another who we were and upon what account whether the portuguese seamen by faltering in their account made them suspect that we were out upon the cruise or whether they told it in plain english or no for they all spoke english enough to be understood but so it was that as soon as ever the men carried the news on board that the ships which lay by to the eastward were english and that they were going upon the account which by the way was a c term for a pirate i say as soon as ever they heard it they went to work and getting all things ready in the night their chests and clothes and whatever else they could they came away before it was day and came up with us about seven o'clock when they came by the ship's side which i commanded we hailed them in the usual manner to know what and who they were and what their business they answered they were englishmen and desired to come on board we told them they might lay the ship on board but ordered they should let only one man enter the ship till the captain knew their business and that he should come without any arms they said i with all their hearts we presently found their business and that they desired to go with us and as for their arms they desired we would send men on board the boat and that they would deliver them all to us which was done the fellow that came up to me told me how they had been used by their captain how he had starved the men and used them like dogs and that if the rest of the men knew they should be admitted he was satisfied two-thirds of them would leave the ship we found the fellows were very hardy in their resolution and jolly brisk sailors they were so i told them i would do nothing without our admiral that was the captain of the other ship so i sent my penis on board captain wilmett to desire him to come on board but he was indisposed and being to leeward excused his coming but left it all to me but before my boat was returned captain wilmett called to me by his speaking trumpet which all the men might hear as well as i thus calling me by name i hear they are honest fellows pray tell them they are all welcome and make them a bowl of punch as the men heard it as well as i there was no need to tell them what the captain said and as soon as the trumpet had done they sent up a hasa that showed us they were very hardy in their coming to us but we bound them to us by a stronger obligation still after this for when we came to madagascar captain wilmett with consent of all the ship's company ordered that these men should have as much money given them out of the stock as was due to them for their pay in the ship they had left and after that we allowed them 20 pieces of eight a man bounty money and thus we entered them upon shares as we were all and brave stout fellows they were being eighteen a number were of two were midshipman and one a carpenter it was the 28th of november when having had some bad weather we came to an anchor in the road off saint augustin bay at the southwest end of my old acquaintance the isle of madagascar we lay here a while and trafficked with the natives for some good beef though the weather was so hot that we could not promise ourselves to salt any of it up to keep but i showed them the way which we practiced before to salt it first with salt peter then cure it by drying it in the sun which made it eat very agreeably though not so wholesome for our men that not agreeing with our way of cooking this boiling with pudding brewers etc and particularly this way would be too salt and the fat of the meat be rusty or dried away so as not to be eaten this however we could not help and made ourselves amends by feeding heartily on the fresh beef while we were there which was excellent good and fat every way as tender and as well relished as in england and thought to be much better to us who had not tasted any in england for so long a time having now for some time remained here we began to consider that this was not a place for our business and i that had some views a particular way of my own told them that this was not a station for those who looked for purchase that there were two parts of the island which were particularly proper for our purposes first the bay on the east side of the island and from thence to the island of meridius which was the usual way which ships that came from the malibar coast or the coast of coromandel fort st george etc used to take and where if we waited for them we ought to take our station but on the other hand as we did not resolve to fall upon the european traders who were generally ships of force and well man and where blows must be looked for so i had another prospect which i promised myself would yield equal profit or perhaps crater without any of the hazard and difficulty of the former and this was the gulf of mocha or the red sea i told them that the trade here was great the ships rich and the straight of babamandel narrow so that there was no doubt but we might cruise so as to let nothing slip our hands having the seas open from the red sea along the coast of arabia to the persian gulf and the malibar side of the indies i told them what i had observed when i sailed around the island in my former progress how that on the northernmost point of the island there were several very good harbors and roads for our ships that the natives were even more civil and tractable if possible than those where we were not having been so often ill treated by european sailors as those had in the south and east sides and that we might always be sure of a retreat if we were driven to put in by any necessity either of enemies or weather they were easily convinced of the reasonableness of my scheme and captain wilment whom i now called our admiral though he was at first of the mine to go and lie at the island of meridius and wait for some of the european merchant ships from the road of coromandel or the bay of bengal was now of my mind it is true we were strong enough to have attacked an english east indiaship of the greatest force though some of them were said to carry 50 guns but i represented to him that we were sure to have blows and blood if we took them and after we had done their loading was not of equal value to us because we had no room to dispose of their merchandise and as our circumstances stood we had rather have taken one outward bound east indiaship with her ready cash on board perhaps to the value of 40 or 50 000 pounds then three homework bound though their loading would at london be worth three times the money because we knew not wither to go to dispose of the cargo whereas the ships from london had abundance of things we knew how to make use of besides their money such as their stores of provisions and liquors and great quantities of the like sent to the governors and factories at the english settlements for their use so that if we resolved to look for our own country ships it would be those that were outward bound not the london ships homework all these things considered brought the admiral to be of my mind entirely so after taking in water and some fresh provisions where we lay which was near cape saint mary on the southwest corner of the island we wade and stood away south and afterwards south southeast to round the island and in about six days sail got out of the wake of the island and steered away north till we came off port dofan and then north by east to the latitude of 13 degrees 40 minutes which was in short just at the farthest part of the island and the admiral keeping ahead made the open sea fair to the west clear of the whole island upon which he brought to and we sent the sloop to stand in round the farthest point north and coast along the shore and sea for a harbor to put into which they did and soon brought us an account that there was a deep bay with a very good road and several little islands under which they found good writing in 10 to 17 fathom water and accordingly there we put in however we afterwards found occasion to remove our station as you shall hear presently we had now nothing to do but go on shore and acquaint ourselves a little with the natives take in fresh water and some fresh provisions and then to see again we found the people very easy to deal with and some cattle they had but it being at the extremity of the island they had not such quantities of cattle here however for the present we resolved to appoint this our place of rendezvous and go and look out this was about the latter end of april accordingly we put the sea and cruised away to the northward for the arabian coast it was a long run but as the winds generally blow trade from the south and south southeast from may to september we had good weather and in about 20 days we made the island of sukotra lying south from the arabian coast and east southeast from the mouth of the gulf of mocha or the red sea here we took in water and stood off and on upon the arabian shore we had not cruised here above three days or thereabouts but i spied a sail and gave her chase but when we came up with her never was such a poor prize chased by pirates that looked for booty for we found nothing in her but poor half naked turks going a pilgrimage to mecca to the tomb of their prophet muhammad the junk that carried them had no one thing worth taking away but a little rice and some coffee which was all the poor wretches had for their subsistence so we let them go for indeed we knew not what to do with them the same evening we chased another junk with two masts and and something better plight to look at than the former when we came on board we found them upon the same errand but only that they were people of some better fashion than the other and here we got some plunder some turkish stores a few diamonds in the eardrops of five or six persons some fine persian carpets of which they made their saffras to lie upon and some money so we let them go also we continued here 11 days longer and saw nothing but now and then a fishing boat but the 12th day of our cruise we spied a ship and indeed i thought at first it had been an english ship but it appeared to be an european freighted for a voyage from goa on the coast of malibar to the red sea and was very rich we chased her and took her without any fight though they had some guns on board too but not many we found her manned with portuguese seamen but under the direction of five merchant turks who had hired her on the coast of malibar of some portugal merchants and had laden her with pepper salt peter and some spices and the rest of the loading was chiefly calicoes and rocked silks some of them very rich we took her and carried her to sucotra but we really knew not what to do with her for the same reasons as before for all their goods were of little or no value to us after some days we found means to let one of the turkish merchants know that if he would ransom the ship we would take a sum of money and let them go he told me that if i would let one of them go on shore for the money they would do it so we adjusted the value of the cargo at 30 000 ducats upon this agreement we allowed the sloop to carry him on shore at dofar in arabia where a rich merchant laid down the money for them and came off with our sloop and on payment of the money we very fairly and honestly let them go some days after this we took an arabian junk going from the gulf of persia to mocha with a good quantity of pearl on board we gutted him of the pearl which it seems was belonging to some merchants at mocha and let him go for there was nothing else worth our taking we continued cruising up and down here till we began to find our provisions grow low when captain wilmint our admiral told us it was time to think of going back to the rendezvous and the rest of the men said the same being a little weary of beating about for above three months together and meeting with little or nothing compared to our great expectations but i was very loathe to part with the renci at so cheap a rate and pressed them to tarry a little longer which at my instance they did but three days afterwards to our great misfortune understood that by landing the turkish merchants at dofar we had alarmed the coast as far as the gulf of persia so that no vessel would stir that way and consequently nothing was to be expected on that side i was greatly mortified at this news and could no longer withstand the importunities of the men to return to madagascar however as the wind continued still to blow at south southeast by south we were obliged to stand away towards the coast of africa and the cape gardefui the winds being more variable under the shore than in the open sea here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for and which made amends for all our waiting for the very same hour that we made land we spied a large vessel sailing along the shore to the southward the ship was a bengal belonging to the great mogul's country but had on board a dutch pilot whose name if i remember right was van der geest and several european seamen were of three were english she was in no condition to resist us the rest of her seamen were indians of the mogul's subjects some malabars and some others there were five indian merchants on board and some armenians it seems they had been at mocha with spices silks diamonds pearls calico etc such goods as the country afforded and had little on board now but money and pieces of eight which by the way was just what we wanted and the three english seamen came along with us and the dutch pilot would have done so too but the two armenian merchants entreated us not to take him for that he being their pilot there was none of the men knew how to guide the ship so at their request we refused him but we made them promise he should not be used ill for being willing to go with us we got near 200 000 pieces of eight in this vessel and if they said true there was a jew of goa who intended to have embarked with them who had 200 000 pieces of eight with him all his own but his good fortune springing out of his ill fortune hindered him or he fell sick at mocha and could not be ready to travel which was the saving of his money there was none with me at the taking this prize but the sloop for captain wilmits ship proving leaky he went away for the rendezvous before us and arrived there the middle of december but not liking the port he left a great cross on shore with directions written on a plate of lead fixed to it for us to come after him to the great bays at manga hale where he found a very good harbor but we learned a piece of news there that kept us from him a great while which the admiral took offense at but we stopped his mouth with his share of 200 000 pieces of eight to him and his ship's crew but the story which interrupted our coming to him was this between manga heli and another point called cape saint sebastian there came on shore in the night and european ship and whether by stress of whether or want of a pilot i know not but the ship stranded and could not be got off we lay in the cove or harbor where as i have said our rendezvous was appointed and had not yet been on shore so we had not seen the directions our admiral had left for us our friend william of whom i have said nothing a great while had a great mind one day to go on shore and and pertuned me to let him have a little troop to go with him for safety that they might see the country i was mightily against it for many reasons but particularly i told him he knew the natives were but savages and they were very treacherous and i desired him that he would not go and had he gone on much farther i believe i should have downright refused him and commanded him not to go but in order to persuade me to let him go he told me he would give me an account of the reason why he was so important it he told me the last night he had a dream which was so forcible and made such an impression upon his mind that he could not be quiet till he had made the proposal to me to go and if i refused him then he thought his dream was significant and if not then his dream was at an end his dream was he said that he went on shore with 30 men of which the coxswain he said was one upon the island and that they found a mine of gold and enriched them all but this was not the main thing he said but that the same morning he had dreamed so the coxswain came to him just then and told him that he dreamed he went on shore on the island of Madagascar and that some men came to him and told him they would show him where he should get a prize which would make them all rich these two things put together began to weigh with me a little though i was never inclined to give any heed to dreams but william's importunity turned me effectually for i always put a great deal of stress upon his judgment so that in short i gave them leave to go but i charged them not to go far off from the seacoast that if they were forced down to the seaside upon any occasion we might perhaps see them and fetch them off with our boats they went away early in the morning one and 30 men of them in number very well armed and very stout fellows they traveled all the day and at night made us a signal that all was well from the top of a hill which we had agreed on by making a great fire next day they marched down the hill on the other side inclining towards the seaside as they had promised and saw a very pleasant valley before them with a river in the middle of it which a little farther below them seemed to be big enough to bear small ships they marched a pace towards this river and were surprised with the noise of a piece going off which by the sound could not be far off they listened long but could hear no more so they went on to the riverside which was a very fine fresh stream but widened a pace and they kept on by the banks of it till almost at once it opened or widened into a good large creek or harbor about five miles from the sea and that which was still more surprising as they marched forward they plainly saw in the mouth of the harbor or creek the wreck of a ship end of section 19 of captain singleton read by denis sears in modesto california for 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