CHAPTER XVIII. THE SHIP RECOVERED

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main

strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so high that the tide would

not float her off at high-water mark, and besides, had broke a hole in

her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what

we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and make a waft with her

ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board—but no boat stirred;

and they fired several times, making other signals for the boat. At

last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they

found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses,

hoist another boat out and row towards the shore; and we found, as they

approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they

had firearms with them.

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view

of them as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because

the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they

rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had

landed, and where the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full

view of them, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all

the men in the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very honest

fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest,

being over-powered and frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who

it seems was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were

as outrageous as any of the ship’s crew, and were no doubt made

desperate in their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was

that they would be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him

that men in our circumstances were past the operation of fear; that

seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that which

we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence,

whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance. I asked him

what he thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a

deliverance were not worth venturing for? “And where, sir,” said I, “is

your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life,

which elevated you a little while ago? For my part,” said I, “there

seems to be but one thing amiss in all the prospect of it.” “What is

that?” say he. “Why,” said I, “it is, that as you say there are three

or four honest fellows among them which should be spared, had they been

all of the wicked part of the crew I should have thought God’s

providence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands; for

depend upon it, every man that comes ashore is our own, and shall die

or live as they behave to us.” As I spoke this with a raised voice and

cheerful countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set

vigorously to our business.

We had, upon the first appearance of the boat’s coming from the ship,

considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured

them effectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured

than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three delivered men,

to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being

heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they

could have delivered themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave

them provisions; and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to

give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted

their escape they should be put to death without mercy. They promised

faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very

thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light

left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for

their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over

them at the entrance.

The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned,

indeed, because the captain was not able to trust them; but the other

two were taken into my service, upon the captain’s recommendation, and

upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them and

the three honest men we were seven men, well armed; and I made no doubt

we should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming,

considering that the captain had said there were three or four honest

men among them also. As soon as they got to the place where their other

boat lay, they ran their boat into the beach and came all on shore,

hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to see, for I was

afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance

from the shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we should

not be able to seize the boat. Being on shore, the first thing they

did, they ran all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they were

under a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was

in her, and a great hole in her bottom. After they had mused a while

upon this, they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all

their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but all

was to no purpose. Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a

volley of their small arms, which indeed we heard, and the echoes made

the woods ring. But it was all one; those in the cave, we were sure,

could not hear; and those in our keeping, though they heard it well

enough, yet durst give no answer to them. They were so astonished at

the surprise of this, that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved

to go all on board again to their ship, and let them know that the men

were all murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they

immediately launched their boat again, and got all of them on board.

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this,

believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail, giving

their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship,

which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as

much frightened the other way.

They had not been long put off with the boat, when we perceived them

all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct,

which it seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave three men in

the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to

look for their fellows. This was a great disappointment to us, for now

we were at a loss what to do, as our seizing those seven men on shore

would be no advantage to us if we let the boat escape; because they

would row away to the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure to

weigh and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost.

However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things

might present. The seven men came on shore, and the three who remained

in the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came to

an anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come at

them in the boat. Those that came on shore kept close together,

marching towards the top of the little hill under which my habitation

lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive us.

We should have been very glad if they would have come nearer us, so

that we might have fired at them, or that they would have gone farther

off, that we might come abroad. But when they were come to the brow of

the hill where they could see a great way into the valleys and woods,

which lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest,

they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it

seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they

sat down together under a tree to consider it. Had they thought fit to

have gone to sleep there, as the other part of them had done, they had

done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of danger

to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the danger

was they had to fear.

The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of

theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to

endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon

them just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and

they would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed.

I liked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough

to come up to them before they could load their pieces again. But this

event did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute

what course to take. At length I told them there would be nothing done,

in my opinion, till night; and then, if they did not return to the

boat, perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore,

and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on

shore. We waited a great while, though very impatient for their

removing; and were very uneasy when, after long consultation, we saw

them all start up and march down towards the sea; it seems they had

such dreadful apprehensions of the danger of the place that they

resolved to go on board the ship again, give their companions over for

lost, and so go on with their intended voyage with the ship.

As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to be

as it really was that they had given over their search, and were going

back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts, was

ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of a

stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a

tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over the little

creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on shore, when

Friday was rescued, and so soon as they came to a little rising round,

at about half a mile distant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they

could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as

ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again;

and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering when the

others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island and among the

woods as possible, and then wheel about again to me by such ways as I

directed them.

They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallooed;

and they presently heard them, and answering, ran along the shore

westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were stopped by the

creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and called

for the boat to come up and set them over; as, indeed, I expected. When

they had set themselves over, I observed that the boat being gone a

good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land,

they took one of the three men out of her, to go along with them, and

left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little

tree on the shore. This was what I wished for; and immediately leaving

Friday and the captain’s mate to their business, I took the rest with

me; and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two

men before they were aware—one of them lying on the shore, and the

other being in the boat. The fellow on shore was between sleeping and

waking, and going to start up; the captain, who was foremost, ran in

upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out to him in the boat

to yield, or he was a dead man. They needed very few arguments to

persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men upon him and his

comrade knocked down: besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who

were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore

was easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join very

sincerely with us. In the meantime, Friday and the captain’s mate so

well managed their business with the rest that they drew them, by

hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one wood to

another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them where

they were, very sure they could not reach back to the boat before it

was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves also, by the

time they came back to us.

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fall

upon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several hours

after Friday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and

we could hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up,

calling to those behind to come along; and could also hear them answer,

and complain how lame and tired they were, and not able to come any

faster: which was very welcome news to us. At length they came up to

the boat: but it is impossible to express their confusion when they

found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their

two men gone. We could hear them call one to another in a most

lamentable manner, telling one another they were got into an enchanted

island; that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all

be murdered, or else there were devils and spirits in it, and they

should be all carried away and devoured. They hallooed again, and

called their two comrades by their names a great many times; but no

answer. After some time we could see them, by the little light there

was, run about, wringing their hands like men in despair, and sometimes

they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves: then come

ashore again, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again.

My men would fain have had me give them leave to fall upon them at once

in the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so as to

spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was

unwilling to hazard the killing of any of our men, knowing the others

were very well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if they did not

separate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade

nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands

and feet, as close to the ground as they could, that they might not be

discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly before they

offered to fire.

They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was the

principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most

dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them,

with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager at having this

principal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have

patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him, for they only

heard his tongue before: but when they came nearer, the captain and

Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was

killed upon the spot: the next man was shot in the body, and fell just

by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after; and the third

ran for it. At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my

whole army, which was now eight men, viz. myself, generalissimo;

Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the

three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with arms. We came upon

them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and I

made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call

them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley, and so perhaps

might reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for

indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be

very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as loud as he could to one

of them, “Tom Smith! Tom Smith!” Tom Smith answered immediately, “Is

that Robinson?” for it seems he knew the voice. The other answered,

“Ay, ay; for God’s sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or

you are all dead men this moment.” “Who must we yield to? Where are

they?” says Smith again. “Here they are,” says he; “here’s our captain

and fifty men with him, have been hunting you these two hours; the

boatswain is killed; Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if

you do not yield you are all lost.” “Will they give us quarter, then?”

says Tom Smith, “and we will yield.” “I’ll go and ask, if you promise

to yield,” said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and the captain

himself then calls out, “You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down

your arms immediately and submit, you shall have your lives, all but

Will Atkins.”

Upon this Will Atkins cried out, “For God’s sake, captain, give me

quarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I:” which, by

the way, was not true; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man

that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, and used him

barbarously in tying his hands and giving him injurious language.

However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion,

and trust to the governor’s mercy: by which he meant me, for they all

called me governor. In a word, they all laid down their arms and begged

their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them, and two

more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty men, which,

with those three, were in all but eight, came up and seized upon them,

and upon their boat; only that I kept myself and one more out of sight

for reasons of state.

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship:

and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he

expostulated with them upon the villainy of their practices with him,

and upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainly it

must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the

gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their

lives. As for that, he told them they were not his prisoners, but the

commander’s of the island; that they thought they had set him on shore

in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct

them that it was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman;

that he might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given

them all quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be

dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was

commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he

would be hanged in the morning.

Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired

effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with

the governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for God’s

sake, that they might not be sent to England.

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come, and

that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be

hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark from

them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and

called the captain to me; when I called, at a good distance, one of the

men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, “Captain, the

commander calls for you;” and presently the captain replied, “Tell his

excellency I am just coming.” This more perfectly amazed them, and they

all believed that the commander was just by, with his fifty men. Upon

the captain coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the ship,

which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution

the next morning. But, in order to execute it with more art, and to be

secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he

should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send

them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This was committed to

Friday and the two men who came on shore with the captain. They

conveyed them to the cave as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a dismal

place, especially to men in their condition. The others I ordered to my

bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full description: and as

it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough,

considering they were upon their behaviour.

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a

parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he

thought they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise the

ship. He talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they

were brought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter

for their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to

England they would all be hanged in chains; but that if they would join

in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the

governor’s engagement for their pardon.

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men

in their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, and

promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to

him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and

would go with him all over the world; that they would own him as a

father to them as long as they lived. “Well,” says the captain, “I must

go and tell the governor what you say, and see what I can do to bring

him to consent to it.” So he brought me an account of the temper he

found them in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful.

However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should go back

again and choose out those five, and tell them, that they might see he

did not want men, that he would take out those five to be his

assistants, and that the governor would keep the other two, and the

three that were sent prisoners to the castle (my cave), as hostages for

the fidelity of those five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the

execution, the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the

shore. This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in

earnest; however, they had no way left them but to accept it; and it

was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to

persuade the other five to do their duty.

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the

captain, his mate, and passenger; second, the two prisoners of the

first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I had

given their liberty, and trusted them with arms; third, the other two

that I had kept till now in my bower, pinioned, but on the captain’s

motion had now released; fourth, these five released at last; so that

there were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave

for hostages.

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on

board the ship; but as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was

proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was

employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with

victuals. As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but

Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries;

and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where

Friday was to take them.

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who

told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look after them;

and that it was the governor’s pleasure they should not stir anywhere

but by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the

castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see

me as governor, I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the

governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.

The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two

boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger

captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and five

more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well,

for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came

within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they

had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time

before they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till

they came to the ship’s side; when the captain and the mate entering

first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and

carpenter with the butt-end of their muskets, being very faithfully

seconded by their men; they secured all the rest that were upon the

main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them

down that were below; when the other boat and their men, entering at

the forechains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle

which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there

prisoners. When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain

ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where

the new rebel captain lay, who, having taken the alarm, had got up, and

with two men and a boy had got firearms in their hands; and when the

mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his men

fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket ball, which

broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody. The

mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded

as he was, and, with his pistol, shot the new captain through the head,

the bullet entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of his

ears, so that he never spoke a word more: upon which the rest yielded,

and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost.

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to

be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of

his success, which, you may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having

sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o’clock in the

morning. Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it

having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I

was surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I

heard a man call me by the name of “Governor! Governor!” and presently

I knew the captain’s voice; when, climbing up to the top of the hill,

there he stood, and, pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms,

“My dear friend and deliverer,” says he, “there’s your ship; for she is

all yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes

to the ship, and there she rode, within little more than half a mile of

the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters

of her, and, the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just

against the mouth of the little creek; and the tide being up, the

captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I had first

landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door. I was at first ready to

sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly

put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to

carry me away whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was

not able to answer him one word; but as he had taken me in his arms I

held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground. He perceived

the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and

gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me.

After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought

me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to

him. All this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only

not under any surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender

things to me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the flood

of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion: at last

it broke out into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my

speech; I then took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we

rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent by Heaven

to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of

wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a

secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the

eye of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the

world, and send help to the miserable whenever He pleased. I forgot not

to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could

forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided

for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from

whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed.

When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some

little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches

that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this,

he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore

that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had

been one that was not to be carried away with them, but as if I had

been to dwell upon the island still. First, he had brought me a case of

bottles full of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira

wine (the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent good

tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork,

with a bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit; he also

brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and

two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things. But besides

these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me

six new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one

pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit

of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little: in a word,

he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable

present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances, but never

was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and

uneasy as it was to me to wear such clothes at first.

After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were

brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be

done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we

might venture to take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom

he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the

captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging

them, and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as

malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English

colony he could come to; and I found that the captain himself was very

anxious about it. Upon this, I told him that, if he desired it, I would

undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request

that he should leave them upon the island. “I should be very glad of

that,” says the captain, “with all my heart.” “Well,” says I, “I will

send for them up and talk with them for you.” So I caused Friday and

the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having

performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and

bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep

them there till I came. After some time, I came thither dressed in my

new habit; and now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the

captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told

them I had got a full account of their villainous behaviour to the

captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to

commit further robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them in

their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had

dug for others. I let them know that by my direction the ship had been

seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might see by-and-by that

their new captain had received the reward of his villainy, and that

they would see him hanging at the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted

to know what they had to say why I should not execute them as pirates

taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt but I had

authority so to do.

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to

say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their

lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not

what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the

island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go to

England; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England

other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running

away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know,

would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them,

unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they

desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some

inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift

on shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much

rather venture to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged.

So I left it on that issue.

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he

durst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with the

captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that

seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my

word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I would set

them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did not like it he might

take them again if he could catch them. Upon this they appeared very

thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire

into the woods, to the place whence they came, and I would leave them

some firearms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should

live very well if they thought fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board

the ship; but told the captain I would stay that night to prepare my

things, and desired him to go on board in the meantime, and keep all

right in the ship, and send the boat on shore next day for me; ordering

him, at all events, to cause the new captain, who was killed, to be

hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might see him.

When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,

and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances.

I told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain

had carried them away they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the

new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had

nothing less to expect.

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them

I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into

the way of making it easy to them. Accordingly, I gave them the whole

history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my

fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my

grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I

told them the story also of the seventeen Spaniards that were to be

expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them

in common with themselves. Here it may be noted that the captain, who

had ink on board, was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of

making ink of charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done

things much more difficult.

I left them my firearms—viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and

three swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for after

the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a

description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and

fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese. In a word, I gave them

every part of my own story; and told them I should prevail with the

captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some

garden-seeds, which I told them I would have been very glad of. Also, I

gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and

bade them be sure to sow and increase them.