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.
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HAVING done all this I left them the next day, and went on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail,
but did not weigh that night. The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side,
and making the most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake,
for they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on board, though he hanged them
immediately. Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me; but after some difficulty, and
after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were, some time after, soundly
whipped and pickled; after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being up, with the things promised to the men; to
which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they took, and were
very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take
them in, I would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics, the great goat.skin cap I had made, my
umbrella, and one of my parrots; also, I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by
me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver till it had been a little
rubbed and handled, as also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. And thus I left the island, the
19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it
eight.and.twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity the same
day of the month that I first made my escape in the long.boat from among the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel,
after a long voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty.five years
absent.
When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there. My
benefactor and faithful steward, whom I had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had had great
misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second time, and very low in the world. I made her very
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easy as to what she owed me, assuring her I would give her no trouble; but, on the contrary, in gratitude for
her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would afford; which at that time
would, indeed, allow me to do but little for her; but I assured her I would never forget her former kindness to
me; nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its proper place. I went
down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except
that I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers; and as I had been long ago given over
for dead, there had been no provision made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me;
and that the little money I had would not do much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and this was, that the master of the ship,
whom I had so happily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of the men and the ship, they
invited me to meet them and some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome
compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost 200 pounds sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life, and how little way this would go
towards settling me in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at some information
of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to
suppose, had some years past given me over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I
arrived in April following, my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and
proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my
particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off the shore of
Africa. He was now grown old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young
man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not know me, and indeed I hardly
knew him. But I soon brought him to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance,
when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, I inquired, you may he sure, after my
plantation and my partner. The old man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that
he could assure me that when he came away my partner was living, but the trustees whom I had joined with
him to take cognisance of my part were both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a very good
account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my being cast away and
drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the
procurator.fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one.third to the king, and
two.thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the
conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith: but that, if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the
inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to
charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that the steward of the king's revenue from lands,
and the providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent, that is to
say my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they had duly received my
moiety. I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation, and whether he
thought it might be worth looking after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any obstruction
to my possessing my just right in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the
plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his
part of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of my part, which was, it
seems, granted away to some other monastery or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a
year: that as to my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made of that, my
partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the register of the country; also he
told me that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed
I would not only have their assistance for putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum
of money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm while their fathers held the trust, and
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before it was given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired of the old captain how it came to
pass that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and had made
him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir,
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor until
some certain account should come of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing
so remote: that it was true he had registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given any
account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of the ingenio
(so they call the sugar.house), and have given his son, who was now at the Brazils, orders to do it. "But,"
says the old man, "I have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the
rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did
offer to account with me, in your name, for the first six or eight years' profits, which I received. There being
at that time great disbursements for increasing the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not
amount to near so much as afterwards it produced; however," says the old man, "I shall give you a true
account of what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of it."
After a few days' further conference with this ancient friend, he brought me an account of the first six years'
income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the merchant.trustees, being always delivered in goods,
viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, which is the consequence of a sugar.work;
and I found by this account, that every year the income considerably increased; but, as above, the
disbursements being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to
me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen double rolls of
tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years
after my having the place. The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been
obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship. "However, my old
friend," says he, "you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns you shall be
fully satisfied." Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores
in gold; and giving the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he
was quarter.part owner, and his son another, he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to be able to bear this; and
remembering what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me
on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly refrain weeping at
what he had said to me; therefore I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at
that time, and if it would not straiten him? He told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but,
however, it was my money, and I might want it more than he.
Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in
short, I took one hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them: then I
returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of the plantation I would return the other to him
also (as, indeed, I afterwards did); and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's ship, I would not take it
by any means; but that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but
came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny more from him.
When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a method to make my claim to my
plantation. I told him I thought to go over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased, but that if I did not,
there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use: and as there
were ships in the river of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in a public
register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I was alive, and that I was the same person who took up
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the land for the planting the said plantation at first. This being regularly attested by a notary, and a
procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at
the place; and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return.
Never was anything more honourable than the proceedings upon this procuration; for in less than seven
months I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I went
to sea, in which were the following, particular letters and papers enclosed:.
First, there was the account.current of the produce of my farm or plantation, from the year when their fathers
had balanced with my old Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be one thousand one
hundred and seventy.four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept the effects in their hands, before the
government claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they called
civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four
