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CHAPTER XVIII THE SHIP RECOVERED
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main strength, heaved the
boat upon the beach, so high that the tide would not float her off at high-water mark,
and besides, had broke a hole in her bottom
too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what we should do, we heard the
ship fire a gun, and make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on
board-but no boat stirred; and they fired
several times, making other signals for the boat.
At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat
did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out and row
towards the shore; and we found, as they
approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had firearms
with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of them as they
came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because the tide having set them a
little to the east of the other boat, they
rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed, and where
the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew
the persons and characters of all the men
in the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very honest fellows, who, he was
sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being over-powered and frightened;
but that as for the boatswain, who it seems
was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of
the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperate in their new enterprise; and
terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too powerful for us.
I smiled at him, and told him that men in our circumstances were past the operation
of fear; that seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that which we
were supposed to be in, we ought to expect
that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance.
I asked him what he thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a
deliverance were not worth venturing for?
"And where, sir," said I, "is your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to
save your life, which elevated you a little while ago?
For my part," said I, "there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the prospect of
it." "What is that?" say he.
"Why," said I, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows
among them which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part of the crew I
should have thought God's providence had
singled them out to deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that
comes ashore is our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." As I spoke
this with a raised voice and cheerful
countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship, considered of
separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them effectually.
Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday,
and one of the three delivered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough, and
out of danger of being heard or discovered,
or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have delivered themselves.
Here they left them bound, but gave them provisions; and promised them, if they
continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they
attempted their escape they should be put to death without mercy.
They promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very
thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them; for
Friday gave them candles (such as we made
ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over
them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned, indeed, because
the captain was not able to trust them; but the other two were taken into my service,
upon the captain's recommendation, and upon
their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them and the three honest
men we were seven men, well armed; and I made no doubt we should be able to deal
well enough with the ten that were coming,
considering that the captain had said there were three or four honest men among them
also.
As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat
into the beach and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I was
glad to see, for I was afraid they would
rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the shore, with some hands in
her to guard her, and so we should not be able to seize the boat.
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to their other boat; and it
was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of
all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom.
After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or three great shouts,
hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but
all was to no purpose.
Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which
indeed we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring.
But it was all one; those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear; and those in our
keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.
They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us afterwards,
they resolved to go all on board again to their ship, and let them know that the men
were all murdered, and the long-boat
staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their boat again, and got all of
them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this, believing they would
go on board the ship again and set sail, giving their comrades over for lost, and so
he should still lose the ship, which he was
in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frightened the other
way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, when we perceived them all coming on
shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which it seems they
consulted together upon, viz. to leave
three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to
look for their fellows.
This was a great disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do, as our
seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat
escape; because they would row away to the
ship, and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so our
recovering the ship would be lost. However we had no remedy but to wait and
see what the issue of things might present.
The seven men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a
good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that it was
impossible for us to come at them in the boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top of the
little hill under which my habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they
could not perceive us.
We should have been very glad if they would have come nearer us, so that we might have
fired at them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we might come abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill where they could see a great way into
the valleys and woods, which lay towards the north-east part, and where the island
lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till
they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from
one another, they sat down together under a tree to consider it.
Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other part of them had done,
they had done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of danger to
venture to go to sleep, though they could
not tell what the danger was they had to fear.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of theirs, viz. that
perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to make their fellows hear,
and that we should all sally upon them just
at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and they would certainly yield,
and we should have them without bloodshed.
I liked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough to come up to
them before they could load their pieces again.
But this event did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute what
course to take.
At length I told them there would be nothing done, in my opinion, till night;
and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to get
between them and the shore, and so might
use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore.
We waited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and were very
uneasy when, after long consultation, we saw them all start up and march down
towards the sea; it seems they had such
dreadful apprehensions of the danger of the place that they resolved to go on board the
ship again, give their companions over for lost, and so go on with their intended
voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to be as it really was
that they had given over their search, and were going back again; and the captain, as
soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready
to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem to fetch
them back again, and which answered my end to a tittle.
I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over the little creek westward, towards
the place where the savages came on shore, when Friday was rescued, and so soon as
they came to a little rising round, at
about half a mile distant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they could, and wait
till they found the *** heard them; that as soon as ever they heard the ***
answer them, they should return it again;
and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering when the others
hallooed, to draw them as far into the island and among the woods as possible, and
then wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallooed; and they
presently heard them, and answering, ran along the shore westward, towards the voice
they heard, when they were stopped by the
creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to
come up and set them over; as, indeed, I expected.
When they had set themselves over, I observed that the boat being gone a good
way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land, they took one of
the three men out of her, to go along with
them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree
on the shore.
This was what I wished for; and immediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to
their business, I took the rest with me; and, crossing the creek out of their sight,
we surprised the two men before they were
aware-one of them lying on the shore, and the other being in the boat.
The fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up; the
captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out
to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
They needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men
upon him and his comrade knocked down: besides, this was, it seems, one of the
three who were not so hearty in the mutiny
as the rest of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but
afterwards to join very sincerely with us.
In the meantime, Friday and the captain's mate so well managed their business with
the rest that they drew them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another,
and from one wood to another, till they not
only heartily tired them, but left them where they were, very sure they could not
reach back to the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired
themselves also, by the time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fall upon them, so
as to make sure work with them.
It was several hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their boat;
and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling to
those behind to come along; and could also
hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and not able to come any
faster: which was very welcome news to us.
At length they came up to the boat: but it is impossible to express their confusion
when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their
two men gone.
We could hear them call one to another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another
they were got into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it,
and they should all be murdered, or else
there were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and
devoured.
They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a great many times;
but no answer.
After some time we could see them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing
their hands like men in despair, and sometimes they would go and sit down in the
boat to rest themselves: then come ashore
again, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again.
My men would fain have had me give them leave to fall upon them at once in the
dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so as to spare them, and
kill as few of them as I could; and
especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of our men, knowing the
others were very well armed.
I resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure of
them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep
upon their hands and feet, as close to the
ground as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as near them as they
could possibly before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was the principal
ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most dejected and dispirited of
all the rest, came walking towards them,
with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager at having this principal rogue so
much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to
be sure of him, for they only heard his
tongue before: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on
their feet, let fly at them.
The boatswain was killed upon the spot: the next man was shot in the body, and fell
just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after; and the third ran for
it.
At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now
eight men, viz. myself, generalissimo; Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain
and his two men, and the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with arms.
We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and I
made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to
try if I could bring them to a parley, and
so perhaps might reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for
indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be very
willing to capitulate.
So he calls out as loud as he could to one of them, "Tom Smith!
Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered immediately, "Is that Robinson?" for it
seems he knew the voice.
The other answered, "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and
yield, or you are all dead men this moment." "Who must we yield to?
Where are they?" says Smith again.
"Here they are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him, have been
hunting you these two hours; the boatswain is killed; Will Fry is wounded, and I am a
prisoner; and if you do not yield you are
all lost." "Will they give us quarter, then?" says Tom Smith, "and we will yield."
"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and
the captain himself then calls out, "You,
Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms immediately and submit, you shall
have your lives, all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me quarter; what have I
done?
They have all been as bad as I:" which, by the way, was not true; for it seems this
Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain when they first
mutinied, and used him barbarously in tying
his hands and giving him injurious language.
However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to
the governor's mercy: by which he meant me, for they all called me governor.
In a word, they all laid down their arms and begged their lives; and I sent the man
that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army
of fifty men, which, with those three, were
in all but eight, came up and seized upon them, and upon their boat; only that I kept
myself and one more out of sight for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship: and as for the
captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the
villainy of their practices with him, and
upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainly it must bring
them to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows.
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives.
As for that, he told them they were not his prisoners, but the commander's of the
island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren, uninhabited island;
but it had pleased God so to direct them
that it was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman; that he might
hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he supposed
he would send them to England, to be dealt
with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the
governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired effect; Atkins
fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with the governor for his life;
and all the rest begged of him, for God's
sake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come, and that it would be
a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the
ship; so I retired in the dark from them,
that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the captain
to me; when I called, at a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again,
and say to the captain, "Captain, the
commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tell his excellency I am
just coming." This more perfectly amazed them, and they all believed that the
commander was just by, with his fifty men.
Upon the captain coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the ship, which he
liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning.
But, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, I told him we
must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take Atkins, and two more of
the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay.
This was committed to Friday and the two men who came on shore with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a dismal place,
especially to men in their condition.
The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full
description: and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough,
considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a parley with them;
in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or not to
go on board and surprise the ship.
He talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were brought to, and
that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives as to the present
action, yet that if they were sent to
England they would all be hanged in chains; but that if they would join in so just an
attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the governor's engagement for their
pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in their
condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, and promised, with the deepest
imprecations, that they would be faithful
to him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and would go
with him all over the world; that they would own him as a father to them as long
as they lived.
"Well," says the captain, "I must go and tell the governor what you say, and see
what I can do to bring him to consent to it." So he brought me an account of the
temper he found them in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful.
However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should go back again and choose
out those five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men, that he
would take out those five to be his
assistants, and that the governor would keep the other two, and the three that were
sent prisoners to the castle (my cave), as hostages for the fidelity of those five;
and that if they proved unfaithful in the
execution, the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest; however, they
had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the business of the prisoners,
as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the captain, his mate,
and passenger; second, the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their
character from the captain, I had given
their liberty, and trusted them with arms; third, the other two that I had kept till
now in my bower, pinioned, but on the captain's motion had now released; fourth,
these five released at last; so that there
were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on board the ship;
but as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was proper for us to stir, having
seven men left behind; and it was
employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with victuals.
As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but Friday went in twice a
day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and I made the other two carry
provisions to a certain distance, where Friday was to take them.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who told them I
was the person the governor had ordered to look after them; and that it was the
governor's pleasure they should not stir
anywhere but by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the castle,
and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor, I now
appeared as another person, and spoke of
the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two boats, stop the
breach of one, and man them.
He made his passenger captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and
five more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for
they came up to the ship about midnight.
As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell
them they had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before
they had found them, and the like, holding
them in a chat till they came to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate
entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter
with the butt-end of their muskets, being
very faithfully seconded by their men; they secured all the rest that were upon the
main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were
below; when the other boat and their men,
entering at the forechains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle
which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three
men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, who, having
taken the alarm, had got up, and with two
men and a boy had got firearms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow,
split open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and
wounded the mate with a musket ball, which
broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody.
The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as
he was, and, with his pistol, shot the new captain through the head, the bullet
entering at his mouth, and came out again
behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word more: upon which the rest
yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to be fired,
which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of his success, which, you
may be sure, I was very glad to hear,
having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been a day of
great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was surprised with the noise of a
gun; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of "Governor!
Governor!" and presently I knew the captain's voice; when, climbing up to the
top of the hill, there he stood, and, pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his
arms, "My dear friend and deliverer," says
he, "there's your ship; for she is all yours, and so are we, and all that belong
to her." I cast my eyes to the ship, and there she rode, within little more than
half a mile of the shore; for they had
weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her, and, the weather being
fair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little creek; and
the tide being up, the captain had brought
the pinnace in near the place where I had first landed my rafts, and so landed just
at my door.
I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, indeed,
visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me
away whither I pleased to go.
At first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one word; but as he had taken me
in his arms I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground.
He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and gave
me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me.
After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought me to myself,
yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him.
All this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under any
surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things to me, to compose
and bring me to myself; but such was the
flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion: at last it broke
out into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my speech; I then took my turn,
and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together.
I told him I looked upon him as a man sent by Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole
transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the
testimonies we had of a secret hand of
Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the eye of an infinite Power
could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable
whenever He pleased.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart
could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for me
in such a wilderness, and in such a
desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to
proceed.
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some little
refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches that had been so long
his masters had not plundered him of.
Upon this, he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore that
were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had been one that was not
to be carried away with them, but as if I
had been to dwell upon the island still.
First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial waters, six large
bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent
good tobacco, twelve good pieces of the
ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of
biscuit; he also brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and
two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things.
But besides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six
new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a
hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very
good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little: in a word, he
clothed me from head to foot.
It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in my
circumstances, but never was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant,
awkward, and uneasy as it was to me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were brought into my
little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had;
for it was worth considering whether we
might venture to take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew to be
incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said he knew they
were such rogues that there was no obliging
them, and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be
delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come to; and I
found that the captain himself was very anxious about it.
Upon this, I told him that, if he desired it, I would undertake to bring the two men
he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the island.
"I should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with all my heart." "Well," says
I, "I will send for them up and talk with them for you." So I caused Friday and the
two hostages, for they were now discharged,
their comrades having performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the
cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them
there till I came.
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and now I was called governor
again.
Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and
I told them I had got a full account of their villainous behaviour to the captain,
and how they had run away with the ship,
and were preparing to commit further robberies, but that Providence had ensnared
them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had dug for
others.
I let them know that by my direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in
the road; and they might see by-and-by that their new captain had received the reward
of his villainy, and that they would see
him hanging at the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say
why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission they
could not doubt but I had authority so to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but
this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly
implored my mercy.
But I told them I knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had
resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain
to go to England; and as for the captain,
he could not carry them to England other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for
mutiny and running away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know,
would be the gallows; so that I could not
tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the
island.
If they desired that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination to
give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore.
They seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay
there than be carried to England to be hanged.
So I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he durst not leave
them there.
Upon this I seemed a little angry with the captain, and told him that they were my
prisoners, not his; and that seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as
good as my word; and that if he did not
think fit to consent to it I would set them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did
not like it he might take them again if he could catch them.
Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade
them retire into the woods, to the place whence they came, and I would leave them
some firearms, some ammunition, and some
directions how they should live very well if they thought fit.
Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain I would stay
that night to prepare my things, and desired him to go on board in the meantime,
and keep all right in the ship, and send
the boat on shore next day for me; ordering him, at all events, to cause the new
captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might see him.
When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my apartment, and entered
seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances.
I told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain had carried
them away they would certainly be hanged.
I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them
they had nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them I
would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into the way of making
it easy to them.
Accordingly, I gave them the whole history of the place, and of my coming to it;
showed them my fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy.
I told them the story also of 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.