Chapter 10
It was now the month of December, in my twenty-third year; when going out pretty early in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles towards the end of the island where I had observed some savages had been as before; but not on the other side, but, to my great affliction, it was on my side of the island.
In this extremity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all things without look as wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence. I loaded all my cannon, as I called them—that is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification—and all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp. And in this posture, I continued about two hours, but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out.
After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance any longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill, where there was a flat place, as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder up after me, I set it up again, and mounted to the top of the hill, and pulling out my perspective-glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, and began to look for the place.
I presently found there was no less than nine naked savages, sitting round a small fire they had made.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore; and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to me to wait for the return of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side the island, and so near me too; but when I observed their coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all the time of the tide of flood, if they were not on shore before. And having made this observation, I went abroad about my harvest-work with the more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the westward, I saw them all take boat and row, or paddle, as we call it, all away. I should have observed that for an hour and more before they went off they went to dancing, and I could easily discern their postures and gestures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not the least covering upon them; but whether they were men or women, that I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my great sword by my side, without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make, I went away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and as soon as I got hither, which was not less than two hours (for I could not go apace, being so laden with arms as I was), I perceived there had been three canoes more of savages on that place; and looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over for the main.
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been about had left behind it—namely, the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and sport.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one day or other fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now I found to my great comfort how happy it was that I provided for a tame flock or herd of goats; for I dared not upon any account fire my gun, especially near that side of the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true that they might have been there once or twice, but either they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them; but in the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four-and-twentieth year, I was surprised with a noise of a gun, as I thought, fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different nature from any I had met with before. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and in a trice clapped my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and pulled it after me, and mounting it the second time, got to the top of the hill, the very moment that a flash of fire bade me listen for a second gun, which accordingly in about half a minute I heard, and by the sound knew that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat.
I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade or some other ship in company, and fired these guns for signals of distress and to obtain help. I had this presence of mind at that minute as to think that though I could not help them, it may be they might help me; so I brought together all the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry and blazed freely, and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out, that I was certain if there was any such thing as a ship they must needs to see it; and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire all night long till day broke; and when it was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish, the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in hand, and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away with the current; and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat.
Until the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whether any was saved out of that ship or no; and had only the affliction some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore, at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. Had no clothes on but a seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe. The last was to me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to this wreck; not doubting that I might find something on board that might be useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart that I could not be quiet, night nor day, but I must venture out in my boat on board this wreck.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle, prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum—for I had still a great deal of that left—a basket full of raisins. And thus loading myself with everything necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out of her, and got her afloat.
I resolved the next morning to set out with the first tide. I made first a little out to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate, and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side current had done before, and so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate, directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it.
It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were brought by the board—that is to say, broken short off. When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who seeing me coming, yelped and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to me, and I took him into the boat, bat found him almost dead for hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he ate it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which if I would have let him, he would have burst himself.
After this I went on board; but the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another.
I concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm; the sea broke so high and so continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor any goods that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There were some casks of liquor whether wine or brandy, I knew not—which lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I believed belonged to some of the seamen, and I got two of them into the boat, without examining what was in them.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed and the fore part broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for, by what I found in these two chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos Aires or Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond Brazil, to Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so, perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use at that time to anybody; and what became of the rest of her people I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin and a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of powder in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion for them—so I left them; but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo and the dog I came away, the tide beginning to make home again. And the same evening about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary and fatigued to the last degree.
I reposed that night in the boat, and in the morning I resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave, not to carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at Brazil—and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came to open the chests, I found several things of great use to me. For example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine, and very good; the bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped with silver; I found two pots of very good succades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on top that the salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the same which the water had spoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me, and about a dozen and a half of linen white handkerchiefs, and coloured neckcloths—the former were also very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day; besides this, when I came to the till in the chests, I found there three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some small bars of wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a pound.
Having now brought all my things on shore and secured them, I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her old harbour, where I laid her up and made the best of my way to my old habitation, where I found everything safe and quiet: I began to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and for a while I lived easy enough; only that I was more vigilant than I used to be, looked out often, and did not go abroad so much; and if at any time I did stir with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came, and where I could go without so many precautions, and such a load of arms and ammunition, as I always carried with me if I went the other way.
I lived in this condition near two years more. But my unlucky head, that was always to let me know it was born to make my body miserable, was all the two years filled with projects and designs how, if it were possible, I might get away from this island; for sometimes I was for making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me there was nothing left worth the hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another; and I believe verily, if I had had the boat that I went from sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither.
About a year and a half after I had entertained these notions, and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing for want of an occasion to put them n execution, I was surprised one morning early with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the island and the people who belonged to them all landed and out of my sight! The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes more, in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into all the same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action if anything had presented. Having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in number, that they had a fire kindled, that they had had meat dressed. how they had cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I knew not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own way round the fire.
While I was thus looking at them, I perceived by my perspective two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where it seemed they were laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of them immediately fell, being knocked down, I supposed, with a club or wooden sword.
In that very moment, the other poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty, nature inspired him with the hope of life, and he started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands directly towards me; I meant towards that part of the coast where my habitation was.
