little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore. "Well,
go," said I: so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other
hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again,
which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and
shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he
comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?" said I. "Me cut off his head," said
he. However, Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a
monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one way or other, be of some value to us;
and I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the
better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took us both up the whole day, but at last we
got off the hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two days' time,
and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
CHAPTER III . WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
AFTER this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on
our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were obliged to
for fresh water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the
Cape de Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what
course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the negroes. I knew that all the ships
from Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this cape, or
those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet
with some ship or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was
inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we
could also perceive they were quite black and naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but
Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, "No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I
might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons
in their hand, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they could
throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I
could; and particularly made signs for something to eat: they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would
fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay by, and two of them ran up into the
country, and in less than half.an. hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dried flesh and some
corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one or the other was; however, we
were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore to
them, and they were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore
and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us
again.
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Robinson Crusoe
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that
very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures,
one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the
male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could
tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous
creatures seldom appear but in the night; and, in the second place, we found the people terribly frighted,
especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as
the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged
themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if they had come for their diversion; at last one of them began to
come nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all
possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired,
and shot him directly in the head; immediately he sank down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged
up and down, as if he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was; he immediately made to the shore; but
between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached
the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at the noise and fire of my gun: some of
them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw the
creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and
came, and began to search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water; and by the help of a
rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it
was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the negroes held up their hands
with admiration, to think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. I found quickly the
negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as a favour from me;
which, when I made signs to them that they might take him, they were very thankful for. Immediately they
fell to work with him; and though they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his
skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some of the
flesh, which I declined, pointing out that I would give it them; but made signs for the skin, which they gave
me very freely, and brought me a great deal more of their provisions, which, though I did not understand, yet
I accepted. I then made signs to them for some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom
upward, to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to some of
their friends, and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I supposed,
in the sun, this they set down to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all
three. The women were as naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and leaving my friendly negroes, I made
forward for about eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run out a great
length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept
a large offing to make this point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the land, I saw
plainly land on the other side, to seaward; then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the
Cape de Verde, and those the islands called, from thence, Cape de Verde Islands. However, they were at a
great distance, and I could not well tell what I had best to do; for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind, I
might neither reach one or other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and sat down, Xury having the helm; when,
on a sudden, the boy cried out, "Master, master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was frighted out of
his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far
enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but that it was a
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Robinson Crusoe
Portuguese ship; and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for negroes. But, when I observed the
course she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any
nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with them if
possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone
by before I could make any signal to them: but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they,
it seems, saw by the help of their glasses that it was some European boat, which they supposed must belong
to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had
my patron's ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which
they saw; for they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Upon these signals they
very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and in about three hours; time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them; but
at last a Scotch sailor, who was on board, called to me: and I answered him, and told him I was an
Englishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, at Sallee; they then bade me come on
board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from
such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had to the captain
of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told me he would take nothing from me, but that
all I had should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils. "For," says he, "I have saved your life on
no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken
up in the same condition. Besides," said he, "when I carry you to the Brazils, so great a way from your own
country, if I should take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that
life I have given. No, no," says he: "Seignior Inglese" (Mr. Englishman), "I will carry you thither in charity,
and those things will help to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen
that none should touch anything that I had: then he took everything into his own possession, and gave me
back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for his ship's use;
and asked me what I would have for it? I told him he had been so generous to me in everything that I could
not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him: upon which he told me he would give me a
note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if any one offered to
give more, he would make it up. He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was
loth to take; not that I was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very loth to sell the poor boy's
liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let him know my reason, he
owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in
ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this, and Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have
him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in
about twenty.two days after. And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable of all conditions
of life; and what to do next with myself I was to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough remember: he would take nothing of me for
my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which I had in my
boat, and caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me; and what I was willing to sell
he bought of me, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax . for I had
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Robinson Crusoe
made candles of the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and
with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils.
I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a good honest man like himself, who had
an INGENIO, as they call it (that is, a plantation and a sugar.house). I lived with him some time, and
acquainted myself by that means with the manner of planting and making of sugar; and seeing how well the
planters lived, and how they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there, I would turn
planter among them: resolving in the meantime to find out some way to get my money, which I had left in
London, remitted to me. To this purpose, getting a kind of letter of naturalisation, I purchased as much land
that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement; such a one
as might be suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much
such circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went
