The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

  I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about

  it: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to

  turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the

  follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by

  those of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years'

  miseries and disappointments--not satisfied with prosperity beyond

  expectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond

  example.

  CHAPTER IX-- DREADFUL OCCURRENCES IN MADAGASCAR

  I had no more business to go to the East Indies than a man at full

  liberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lock

  him up among the prisoners there, and starve him. Had I taken a

  small vessel from England and gone directly to the island; had I

  loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for

  the plantation and for my people; taken a patent from the

  government here to have secured my property, in subjection only to

  that of England; had I carried over cannon and ammunition, servants

  and people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortified

  and strengthened it in the name of England, and increased it with

  people, as I might easily have done; had I then settled myself

  there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might also

  have done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to have

  fitted her out again for our supply--had I done this, and stayed

  there myself, I had at least acted like a man of common sense. But

  I was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages:

  I pleased myself with being the patron of the people I placed

  there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like

  an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been

  father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation. But I

  never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government

  or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people

  subjects to any one nation more than another; nay, I never so much

  as gave the place a name, but left it as I found it, belonging to

  nobody, and the people under no discipline or government but my

  own, who, though I had influence over them as a father and

  benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or

  other, further than voluntary consent moved them to comply. Yet

  even this, had I stayed there, would have done well enough; but as

  I rambled from them, and came there no more, the last letters I had

  from any of them were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent

  another sloop to the place, and who sent me word, though I had not

  the letter till I got to London, several years after it was

  written, that they went on but poorly; were discontented with their

  long stay there; that Will Atkins was dead; that five of the

  Spaniards were come away; and though they had not been much

  molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with

  them; and that they begged of him to write to me to think of the

  promise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their

  country again before they died.

  But I was gone a wildgoose chase indeed, and they that will have

  any more of me must be content to follow me into a new variety of

  follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein the justice of

  Providence may be duly observed; and we may see how easily Heaven

  can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes

  be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those very

  things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be

  allowed to possess. Whether I had business or no business, away I

  went: it is no time now to enlarge upon the reason or absurdity of

  my own conduct, but to come to the history--I was embarked for the

  voyage, and the voyage I went.

  I shall only add a word or two concerning my honest Popish

  clergyman, for let their opinion of us, and all other heretics in

  general, as they call us, be as uncharitable as it may, I verily

  believe this man was very sincere, and wished the good of all men:

  yet I believe he used reserve in many of his expressions, to

  prevent giving me offence; for I scarce heard him once call on the

  Blessed Virgin, or mention St. Jago, or his guardian angel, though

  so common with the rest of them. However, I say I had not the

  least doubt of his sincerity and pious intentions; and I am firmly

  of opinion, if the rest of the Popish missionaries were like him,

  they would strive to visit even the poor Tartars and Laplanders,

  where they have nothing to give them, as well as covet to flock to

  India, Persia, China, &c., the most wealthy of the heathen

  countries; for if they expected to bring no gains to their Church

  by it, it may well be admired how they came to admit the Chinese

  Confucius into the calendar of the Christian saints.

  A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest asked me

  leave to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to

  finish any voyage he began. How happy it had been for me if I had

  gone with him. But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints

  for the best: had I gone with him I had never had so many things

  to be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the second

  part of the travels and adventures of Robinson Crusoe: so I must

  here leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. From

  the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to the Cape of

  Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generally

  south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but my

  disasters at sea were at an end--my future rubs and cross events

  were to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as

  well prepared to be our scourge as the sea.

  Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board,

  who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape,

  only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by

  charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to. This was

  none of my business, neither did I meddle with it; my nephew, the

  captain, and the supercargo adjusting all those things between them

  as they thought fit. We stayed at the Cape no longer than was

  needful to take in-fresh water, but made the best of our way for

  the coast of Coromandel. We were, indeed, informed that a French

  man-of-war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were gone

  for the Indies; and as I knew we were at war with France, I had

  some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we

  heard no more of them.

  I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places,

  journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes,

  trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which

  we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one

  to another. We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where,

  though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed

  with lances and bows, which
they use with inconceivable dexterity,

  yet we fared very well with them a while. They treated us very

  civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives,

  scissors, &c., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, of a

  middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for

  our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use.

  We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished

  ourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious to

  look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as

  often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we

  went on shore one evening: and the people, who, by the way, are

  very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a

  distance. As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly

  used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the

  people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a

  distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country not

  only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other

  side set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that they

  accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the

  truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards

  them, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you;

  so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all

  the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market

  for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When you go there you

  must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that

  space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first

  poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them,

  and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles, and lay

  hold of their weapons, and the truce is at an end.

  It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater

  number of their people came down than usual, but all very friendly

  and civil; and they brought several kinds of provisions, for which

  we satisfied them with such toys as we had; the women also brought

  us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and

  all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs

  or trees, and lay on shore all night. I know not what was the

  occasion, but I was not so well satisfied to lie on shore as the

  rest; and the boat riding at an anchor at about a stone's cast from

  the land, with two men in her to take care of her, I made one of

  them come on shore; and getting some boughs of trees to cover us

  also in the boat, I spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and

  lay under the cover of the branches of the trees all night in the

  boat.

  About two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men making a

  terrible noise on the shore, calling out, for God's sake, to bring

  the boat in and come and help them, for they were all like to be

  murdered; and at the same time I heard the fire of five muskets,

  which was the number of guns they had, and that three times over;

  for it seems the natives here were not so easily frightened with

  guns as the savages were in America, where I had to do with them.

  All this while, I knew not what was the matter, but rousing

  immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be

  thrust in, and resolved with three fusees we had on board to land

  and assist our men. We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men

  were in too much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged

  into the water, to get to the boat with all the expedition they

  could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men. Our

  men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees with

  them; the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were of

  small use to them.

  We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too, three

  of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse was,

  that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as

  much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows

  in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricade the side of the

  boat up with the benches, and two or three loose boards which, to

  our great satisfaction, we had by mere accident in the boat. And

  yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen,

  that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they

  would have been sure of us. We had, by the light of the moon, a

  little sight of them, as they stood pelting us from the shore with

  darts and arrows; and having got ready our firearms, we gave them a

  volley that we could hear, by the cries of some of them, had

  wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on the

  shore till break of day, which we supposed was that they might see

  the better to take their aim at us.

  In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our

  anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the

  boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a

  tree with small shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, and

  though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing

  our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and

  that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and

  weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he

  durst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in

  her, to assist us. We called to them not to come too near, telling

  them what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us,

  and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and

  keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not

  perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the

  boat: upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our

  anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the

  while lying close behind the barricade we had made. As soon as we

  were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her

  side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a

  broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small

  bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a

  terrible havoc among them.

  When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine

  into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had

  been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure

  the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a

  truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. At

  length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some

  milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her,

  who also brought us some roots or herbs; and while the old woman

  (whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not

  tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness

  to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great

  nois
e: however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried

  her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being almost

  dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose,

  made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice,

  raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was

  great odds but we had all been destroyed.

  One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the

  beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had

  made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the

  occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his

  brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great

  while. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind

  presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail up

  shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were

  obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the

  loss had been less. I could not satisfy myself, however, without

  venturing on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of

  him or them; it was the third night after the action that I had a

  great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had

  done, and how the game stood on the Indians' side. I was careful

  to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again: but I

  ought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had been

  under my command, before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and

  mischievous as I was brought into by it, without design.

  We took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides

  the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight,

  at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up in the evening

  before. I landed here, because my design, as I have said, was

  chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left

  any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and I

  thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might

  get our man again, by way of exchange.

  We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies,

  whereof the boatswain commanded one and I the other. We neither

  saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed: and we marched up, one

  body at a distance from another, to the place. At first we could

  see nothing, it being very dark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who

  led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made

  them halt a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were

  at the place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming

  up there. We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which

  we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern

  the havoc we had made among them. We told thirty-two bodies upon

  the ground, whereof two were not quite dead; some had an arm and

  some a leg shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded, we

  supposed, they had carried away. When we had made, as I thought, a

  full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved

  on going on board; but the boatswain and his party sent me word

  that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where

  these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along

  with them; and if they could find them, as they still fancied they

  should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it might be

  they might find Tom Jeffry there: that was the man's name we had

  lost.

  Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer

  to have given them; for I should have commanded them instantly on

  board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a

  ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyage to make which

  depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me

  word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to

  go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose up, for I was

  sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat. One or two of

  the men began to importune me to go; and when I refused, began to

  grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go.