The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slavesof by the Turks; and therefore he was not for going that way.

  Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. "Why," said I, "do wetalk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Arewe not able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in those seas;and, instead of their taking us, we to take them?" "Well done, pirate,"said the gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I shouldcome to the gallows), "I'll say that for him," says he, "he always looksthe same way. But I think, of my conscience, it is our only way now.""Don't tell me," says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates, oranything, to get fairly out of this cursed place."

  In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was tocruise for anything we could see. "Why then," said I to them, "our firstbusiness is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation,and what boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger thanours, let us take one of them." First, indeed, all our aim was to get,if possible, a boat with a deck and a sail; for then we might have savedour provisions, which otherwise we could not.

  We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, who had beenassistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how topreserve our beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectuallyby curing it in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there wasgreat plenty in the island; so that, before we found any method for ourescape, we had dried the flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks,and ten or twelve goats, and it relished so well, that we never gaveourselves the trouble to boil it when we ate it, but either broiled itor ate it dry. But our main difficulty about fresh water still remained;for we had no vessel to put any into, much less to keep any for ourgoing to sea.

  But our first voyage being only to coast the island, we resolved toventure, whatever the hazard or consequence of it might be, and in orderto preserve as much fresh water as we could, our carpenter made a wellathwart the middle of one of our canoes, which he separated from theother parts of the canoe, so as to make it tight to hold the water andcovered so as we might step upon it; and this was so large that it heldnear a hogshead of water very well. I cannot better describe this wellthan by the same kind which the small fishing-boats in England have topreserve their fish alive in; only that this, instead of having holes tolet the salt water in, was made sound every way to keep it out; and itwas the first invention, I believe, of its kind for such an use; butnecessity is a spur to ingenuity and the mother of invention.

  It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon our voyage. Thefirst design was only to coast it round the island, as well to see if wecould seize upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to takehold of any opportunity which might present for our passing over to themain; and therefore our resolution was to go on the inside or west shoreof the island, where, at least at one point, the land stretching a greatway to the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary great from theisland to the coast of Africa.

  Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I believe was never made,for it is certain we took the worst side of the island to look for anyshipping, especially for shipping of other nations, this being quite outof the way; however, we put to sea, after taking all our provisions andammunition, bag and baggage, on board; we had made both mast and sailfor our two large periaguas, and the other we paddled along as well aswe could; but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow.

  We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with nothing tointerrupt us. We saw several of the natives in small canoes catchingfish, and sometimes we endeavoured to come near enough to speak withthem, but they were always shy and afraid of us, making in for theshore as soon as we attempted it; till one of our company remembered thesignal of friendship which the natives made us from the south part ofthe island, viz., of setting up a long pole, and put us in mind thatperhaps it was the same thing to them as a flag of truce to us. So weresolved to try it; and accordingly the next time we saw any of theirfishing-boats at sea we put up a pole in our canoe that had no sail, androwed towards them. As soon as they saw the pole they stayed for us, andas we came nearer paddled towards us; when they came to us they showedthemselves very much pleased, and gave us some large fish, of which wedid not know the names, but they were very good. It was our misfortunestill that we had nothing to give them in return; but our artist, ofwhom I spoke before, gave them two little thin plates of silver, beaten,as I said before, out of a piece of eight; they were cut in a diamondsquare, longer one way than the other, and a hole punched at one of thelongest corners. This they were so fond of that they made us stay tillthey had cast their lines and nets again, and gave us as many fish as wecared to have.

  All this while we had our eyes upon their boats, viewed them verynarrowly, and examined whether any of them were fit for our turn, butthey were poor, sorry things; their sail was made of a large mat, onlyone that was of a piece of cotton stuff fit for little, and their ropeswere twisted flags of no strength; so we concluded we were better aswe were, and let them alone. We went forward to the north, keeping thecoast close on board for twelve days together, and having the wind ateast and E.S.E., we made very fresh way. We saw no towns on the shore,but often saw some huts by the water-side upon the rocks, and alwaysabundance of people about them, who we could perceive run together tostare at us.

  It was as odd a voyage as ever man went; we were a little fleet of threeships, and an army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows asever they had amongst them; and had they known what we were, they wouldhave compounded to give us everything we desired to be rid of us.

  On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature could well make us tobe, for we were upon a voyage and no voyage, we were bound somewhere andnowhere; for though we knew what we intended to do, we did really notknow what we were doing. We went forward and forward by a northerlycourse, and as we advanced the heat increased, which began to beintolerable to us, who were on the water, without any covering from heator wet; besides, we were now in the month of October, or thereabouts,in a southern latitude; and as we went every day nearer the sun, the suncame also every day nearer to us, till at last we found ourselves in thelatitude of 20 degrees; and having passed the tropic about five or sixdays before that, in a few days more the sun would be in the zenith,just over our heads.

  Upon these considerations we resolved to seek for a good place to go onshore again, and pitch our tents, till the heat of the weather abated.We had by this time measured half the length of the island, and werecome to that part where the shore tending away to the north-west,promised fair to make our passage over to the mainland of Africa muchshorter than we expected. But, notwithstanding that, we had good reasonto believe it was about 120 leagues.

  So, the heats considered, we resolved to take harbour; besides, ourprovisions were exhausted, and we had not many days' store left.Accordingly, putting in for the shore early in the morning, as weusually did once in three or four days for fresh water, we sat down andconsidered whether we would go on or take up our standing there; butupon several considerations, too long to repeat here, we did not likethe place, so we resolved to go on a few days longer.

  After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at S.E., about six days,we found, at a great distance, a large promontory or cape of land,pushing out a long way into the sea, and as we were exceeding fond ofseeing what was beyond the cape, we resolved to double it before we tookinto harbour, so we kept on our way, the gale continuing, and yet itwas four days more before we reached the cape. But it is not possibleto express the discouragement and melancholy that seized us all whenwe came thither; for when we made the headland of the cape, we weresurprised to see the shore fall away on the other side as much as it hadadvanced on this side, and a great deal more; and that, in short, if wewould venture over to the shore of Africa, it must be from hence, forthat if we went further, the breadth of the sea still increased, and towhat breadth it might increase we knew not.

  While we mused upon this disco
very, we were surprised with very badweather, and especially violent rains, with thunder and lightning,most unusually terrible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, andgetting under the lee of the cape, run our frigates into a little creek,where we saw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the hastepossible to get on shore, being exceeding wet, and fatigued with theheat, the thunder, lightning, and rain.

  Here we thought our case was very deplorable indeed, and therefore ourartist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up a great cross of wood onthe hill which was within a mile of the headland, with these words, butin the Portuguese language:--

  "Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy."

  We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and to get our clothesdried; and though I was young and had no skill in such things, yet Ishall never forget the little city we built, for it was no less, and wefortified it