THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON
As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, andwhose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon theiroriginals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories oftheir ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same,though I can look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you willsee presently.
If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call mother, I wasa little boy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had anursery-maid to attend me, who took me out on a fine summer's eveninginto the fields towards Islington, as she pretended, to give the childsome air; a little girl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old,that lived in the neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment orotherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I suppose; he carriesher into a public-house, to give her a pot and a cake; and while theywere toying in the house the girl plays about, with me in her hand, inthe garden and at the door, sometimes in sight, sometimes out of sight,thinking no harm.
At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems,made it their business to spirit away little children. This was ahellish trade in those days, and chiefly practised where they foundlittle children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell themto the plantations.
The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and playwith me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last shemakes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, andtell her where she was with the child; that a gentlewoman had takena fancy to the child, and was kissing of it, but she should not befrighted, or to that purpose; for they were but just there; and so,while the girl went, she carries me quite away.
From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman thatwanted a pretty little child to set out her case; and after that, toa gipsy, under whose government I continued till I was about six yearsold. And this woman, though I was continually dragged about with herfrom one part of the country to another, yet never let me want foranything; and I called her mother; though she told me at last she wasnot my mother, but that she bought me for twelve shillings of anotherwoman, who told her how she came by me, and told her that my name wasBob Singleton, not Robert, but plain Bob; for it seems they never knewby what name I was christened.
It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright the careless hussywas in that lost me; what treatment she received from my justly enragedfather and mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts oftheir child being thus carried away; for as I never knew anything of thematter, but just what I have related, nor who my father and mother were,so it would make but a needless digression to talk of it here.
My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions no doubt, happenedin process of time to be hanged; and as this fell out something too soonfor me to be perfected in the strolling trade, the parish where I wasleft, which for my life I can't remember, took some care of me, to besure; for the first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, thatI went to a parish school, and the minister of the parish used to talkto me to be a good boy; and that, though I was but a poor boy, if Iminded my book, and served God, I might make a good man.
I believe I was frequently removed from one town to another, perhaps asthe parishes disputed my supposed mother's last settlement. Whether Iwas so shifted by passes, or otherwise, I know not; but the town whereI last was kept, whatever its name was, must be not far off from theseaside; for a master of a ship who took a fancy to me, was the firstthat brought me to a place not far from Southampton, which I afterwardsknew to be Bussleton; and there I attended the carpenters, and suchpeople as were employed in building a ship for him; and when it wasdone, though I was not above twelve years old, he carried me to sea withhim on a voyage to Newfoundland.
I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well that he called me hisown boy; and I would have called him father, but he would not allow it,for he had children of his own. I went three or four voyages with him,and grew a great sturdy boy, when, coming home again from the banks ofNewfoundland, we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man-of-war; which,if my account stands right, was about the year 1695, for you may be sureI kept no journal.
I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw my master, afterhaving been wounded by a splinter in the head during the engagement,very barbarously used by the Turks; I say, I was not much concerned,till, upon some unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was aboutabusing my master, they took me and beat me most unmercifully with aflat stick on the soles of my feet, so that I could neither go or standfor several days together.
But my good fortune was my friend upon this occasion; for, as they weresailing away with our ship in tow as a prize, steering for the Straits,and in sight of the bay of Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked by twogreat Portuguese men-of-war, and taken and carried into Lisbon.
As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed understandingthe consequences of it, if it had continued, so I was not suitablysensible of my deliverance; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliveranceto me as it would otherwise have been, for my master, who was the onlyfriend I had in the world, died at Lisbon of his wounds; and I beingthen almost reduced to my primitive state, viz., of starving, had thisaddition to it, that it was in a foreign country too, where I knewnobody and could not speak a word of their language. However, I faredbetter here than I had reason to expect; for when all the rest of ourmen had their liberty to go where they would, I, that knew not whitherto go, stayed in the ship for several days, till at length one of thelieutenants seeing me, inquired what that young English dog did there,and why they did not turn him on shore.
I heard him, and partly understood what he meant, though not what hesaid, and began then to be in a terrible fright; for I knew not where toget a bit of bread; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman, seeing melook very dull, came to me, and speaking broken English to me, told meI must be gone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you will," said he,"home to your own country, if you will." "How must I go thither?" saidI. "Why, have you no friend?" said he. "No," said I, "not in the world,but that dog," pointing to the ship's dog (who, having stolen a pieceof meat just before, had brought it close by me, and I had taken itfrom him, and ate it), "for he has been a good friend, and brought me mydinner."
"Well, well," says he, "you must have your dinner. Will you go with me?""Yes," says I, "with all my heart." In short, the old pilot took me homewith him, and used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough; and Ilived with him about two years, during which time he was soliciting hisbusiness, and at length got to be master or pilot under Don Garcia dePimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a Portuguese galleon or carrack,which was bound to Goa, in the East Indies; and immediately havinggotten his commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, inwhich he had stored himself with abundance of liquors, succades, sugar,spices, and other things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laidin afterwards a considerable quantity of European goods, fine lace andlinen; and also baize, woollen cloth, stuffs, &c., under the pretence ofhis clothes.
I was too young in the trade to keep any journal of this voyage, thoughmy master, who was, for a Portuguese, a pretty good artist, prompted meto it; but my not understanding the language was one hindrance; at leastit served me for an excuse. However, after some time, I began to lookinto his charts and books; and, as I could write a tolerable hand,understood some Latin, and began to have a little smattering ofthe Portuguese tongue, so I began to get a superficial knowledge ofnavigation, but not such as was likely to be sufficient to carry methrough a life of adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I learnedseveral material things in this voyage among the Portuguese; I learnedparticularly to be an arrant thief and a bad sailor; and I think I maysay they are the best masters for teaching both these of any nation inthe world.
We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast of Brazil; not that itis in the course of sailing the way th
ither, but our captain, eitheron his own account, or by the direction of the merchants, went thitherfirst, where at All Saints' Bay, or, as they call it in Portugal, theRio de Todos los Santos, we delivered near a hundred tons of goods, andtook in a considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, andseventy or eighty great rolls of tobacco, every roll weighing at least ahundredweight.
Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order, I had the chargeof the captain's business, he having seen me very diligent for my ownmaster; and in requital for his mistaken confidence, I found means tosecure, that is to say, to steal, about twenty moidores out of thegold that was shipped on board by the merchants, and this was my firstadventure.
We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape de Bona Speranza; andI was reputed as a mighty diligent servant to my master, and veryfaithful. I was diligent indeed, but I was very